Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Abbie’s spine stiffens. “Yes—but—”
I stroke her hair. “Abbie, baby—”
“I’m good, honey,” her mother assures her. “Let me talk to Reese.”
“You’re sure?” Abbie asks. “Because I know this is overwhelming and—”
“Abigail, give me some credit. I save dying animals a few days a week. I can handle a little pressure. I’m more worried about you than me. Let me talk to Reese.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” Reese promises.
Abbie inhales and nods at the room in general. “Yes. Okay.”
I don’t give her time to change her mind. I lace my fingers with Abbie’s and lead her out of the kitchen to the hallway just off the foyer. It’s the perfect time for us to have a serious talk. For that reason, my intended destination is Reese’s home office on the other side of the apartment, but Abbie spies the bathroom, she darts away from me and inside. Running. She’s always running and it’s time to end that and a few other things while we’re at it. I’m on her heels and before she can shut the bathroom door, I’m inside the tiny visitor-sized space with her, shutting the door and locking it.
“Oh my God, Gabe,” Abbie whispers urgently. “What are you doing?”
I turn to face her, pulling her to me and then rotating her, placing her against the door. “Do not do what you did out there ever again.”
“Even if I knew what you meant, you don’t get to order me around in your sister’s bathroom, Gabe.”
“On this I do, baby. Don’t throw yourself under the train for me. I can hold back the train, but once you’re underneath, I can’t pull you back up. Do you understand?”
Her eyes spark with anger, a stubborn set to her jaw. “No. No, I don’t understand. And to be clear, the reverse of what you just said is true. Once you’re under the train—”
“That won’t happen.” I cup her backside and pull her to me. “I won’t go under unless you force me under, and the way you do that is by forcing me to save you by throwing myself there.”
“I’m trying to save you, not throw you under, Gabe. I heard the fear in your sister’s voice. I saw the fear in her eyes. She believes your father will take you down. She believes he can.”
“My sister doesn’t like to see how capable her brothers are of fighting a man like our father. You heard what Reid said to me in the hallway. There’s a part of me you don’t know and I don’t want you to know, Abbie. That part of me will win, which means you win and you’re free.”
“What part of you, Gabe? What does that even mean?”
“Why? Ready to run? I thought you weren’t going to run, Abbie.”
“What part of me asking a question says that I’m running? Did I say I was running?”
“You ran into this bathroom.”
“I have to pee, which I can’t do with your hand on my ass and your big body on top of mine. Or with you watching. And you know what?” She pokes my chest. “After I overheard Reid talking to you, I said I wasn’t going to run because you didn’t deny what your brother said. You didn’t deny a past that he knows and worries about. You didn’t tell me I didn’t understand what I heard when we both know I did. That felt honest. I need honesty in my life. Be honest with me and if you aren’t, I won’t run away, but I will walk away. Be you, because I can’t deal with another man who seems like one thing but turns out to be another.”
Be me.
Be honest.
She wouldn’t like the truth I have to hide, not my truth, but I don’t say this. She won’t accept it. Instead, I choose to be honest about what I can be, what I’m willing to disclose. “You want honest? When I said any man could fall in love with you, I meant me. I could fall in love with you, Abbie, if you give me the chance, but I won’t get that chance if you take a fall for me that I don’t need you to take.”
And then I dare to ask for what I don’t deserve to hear the answer to, considering how quickly I’ve just avoided the real truth of who and what I am. “I need you to trust me. Really trust me. I need us to be a team. You and me, baby. We fight this together. Remember? That’s our word: together.”
Chapter sixty-one
Gabe
Seconds tick by and Abbie just stares up at me. She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t snap back as she has been the past ten minutes. The small guest bathroom of my sister’s apartment shrinks, my near declaration of love hanging in the air between us, obviously not well received. I give a choked laugh. “You wanted honest? You got love, baby. That’s as damn honest as it gets.”