Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
My lip curls in disgust and she laughs, pushing on my chest playfully. “You’re such a hypocrite, Trey Marshall Blackburn. You want me to give you a second chance but you begrudge your sister that.”
“I’m well aware of the double standard,” I mutter.
“You should be happy for your sister. And you should forgive his past transgressions.”
“Aha,” I exclaim, pointing a finger at her. “You’re the hypocrite now.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve forgiven you,” she points out. “I just don’t trust you.”
“You think Kat trusted Gabe at first? She had to build back up to it, but she at least kept an open mind. Maybe you should try to do the same.”
Holland blinks at me, teeth digging into her bottom lip. I take the hesitation to press her. “I’m not the same man you knew eleven years ago, Holland. I’d do things differently. I’d make the right choice.”
“Trey,” she murmurs, her hand squeezing mine. “I hear you. But I’m a different person now too.”
“One I’m trying my damnedest to get to know again.”
She chuckles. “How about we agree not to try too hard at anything? Let’s just spend time together with no expectations. And what will be, will be.”
“That’s fair,” I say, gladly accepting where we are right now. She’s not actively pushing me away on an emotional level. “But as long as you agree that this isn’t just sex. It’s not a way to get your rocks off and then leave me without a backward glance so I know how you felt.”
Holland swallows hard but she nods. “I can agree to that.”
“And we’ll have fun while you’re here?”
She nods again.
“And you’ll let me help you figure out what to do with the shop and your mom?”
I pause, because this is where Holland should pull away. “Your advice has always been stellar in the past. Sooner I can figure this out, the sooner I can go back.”
I shift up in the bed and pull Holland back down onto me. “Do you really love your job and Zurich so much?”
She doesn’t respond and I have to prod her. “Holland?”
“It’s a good job. A beautiful city.”
“That sounds like a rehearsed line. Is that what you would tell your mom every time she’d call and ask you to come home?”
“It really is a beautiful city,” she grumbles.
I chuckle and tip her face up to look at me. “I believe you. But is that job your passion? Are you eager to get back to it? Is it what you want to do the rest of your life?”
Holland stares at me a long moment before saying, “It’s a job. That’s all it is.”
“You don’t love it?”
She shakes her head. “Not sure it would be my forever career. It was my chance to move far away.”
The guilt over that admission stings, because I’m the one who made her leave. “What do you want to do then?”
Holland shrugs. “I have no clue.”
“Maybe it’s time for you to really consider what would make you happy. Not just existing in a job you like, but following a passion.”
“And you’d just love it if you were the passion I decided to follow,” she says.
“I know I still love you,” I say simply. And they’re the truest words I’ve ever said.
Holland jerks. “Don’t say things like that.”
“It’s the truth. I never stopped, Holland. I know I killed whatever you felt for me, but my feelings never changed. I was just stuck with an empty hole while you moved on.”
“I didn’t move on,” she whispers, her eyes forlorn. “But I did harden.”
I brush back a lock of her hair, my eyes roaming her face. “Maybe not so much. You look pretty soft now.”
Holland looks away, as if embarrassed for me to see something she doesn’t want to reveal. When her gaze comes back to me, she admits, “I’ve been hard a long time, Trey. But I don’t necessarily like being this way.”
“Then don’t.”
Her eyes lock onto me, probing for understanding. She leans over, moving her hand to the opposite side of my body, and I grip onto her waist. I expect her mouth to descend but instead she reaches all the way across me, her warm body stretching over mine and brushing in all the right places. She nabs the room service menu from the nightstand and flops back over, opening it. “I’m starved,” she says dismissively. “Let’s figure out what we’re going to eat.”
CHAPTER 12
Holland
The forested part of the Blackburn property is a magical place. The sun long ago set and through the gaps in the tree canopy, I can see stars peeking through along with slivers of moonlight. We set up our tents in a clearing, surrounded by towering pines and have a simmering campfire going. I don’t know how many times over the span of my youth I came out here to camp with the Blackburn siblings and the nostalgia of it all warms my belly.