Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
I hesitated.
“May, give me your fuckin’ phone,” he demanded.
I glared at him. “You’re being really bossy. What if I don’t want you to call him?”
He crossed his arms again. “Then I won’t call him. Though, when he gets here and I drill his teeth down his throat with my fist, you’ll be needing to dip into your inheritance to bail me out.”
Most of the time, I was super happy about his level of testosterone.
Right now, not so much.
He’s lost his shit at the idea you’re with someone else.
Me…
With someone else.
And Bryce was pissed.
Good God.
“You know”—I threw up my hands—“fuck it. Let him come. I don’t want you to punch him, but, seriously, Hutch. What the fuck? I mean, why do I have to put up with this guy who imploded a woman’s life? A woman he vowed to love and cherish for the rest of his days. A woman he made babies with. And that’s just her. He did the same to me with his bullshit. Dating me. Falling in love with me. Making me fall in love with him. Talking about moving in together. Giving me a stupid ring. On bended knee, Hutch. Bended…freaking…knee.”
I stalked to the kitchen to put away the groceries, still ranting.
“And then his double life gets discovered, two women a mess and sobbing in a fancy restaurant, and he thinks, ‘Oh, I’ll just pick one. And I want the shiny new model who didn’t pop out my babies…yet.’ Like I’m going to take him? Like he thinks I’m so dumb I won’t know he’ll do it again?”
I was slamming stuff around on the island so bad, Moxie raced up the spiral steps.
“Well, if he comes here and you get pissed at him and punch him in the face, then fine. Actually,”—I slammed down a package of meat—“good. Just do it if he shows up here at the cabin and not in a public place. I don’t know if Washington has stand-your-ground laws. But I have plenty of evidence he’s been harassing me. I’ll post your bail. But eventually, it’ll be all good.”
My hand stopped right before I smushed a bag of whole grain rolls on the island because Hutch had wrapped his fingers around my wrist.
I looked up at him.
“You still have feelings for him?” he asked softly.
“Are you insane?” I asked loudly, and Tonks yodeled her support. “First, all this went down over a year and a half ago, so seriously, the dude needs to move on. Second, you can’t have feelings for a mirage, Hutch. He never existed. I can’t mourn something that never was.”
“You can, baby,” he said gently.
“Well, I don’t,” I assured. “Trust me. Was I stunned when it happened? Yes. Was I shaken? Yes. Was I hurt and heartbroken? Yes, and yes. Did I question everything about everything that happened between us to try to figure out how I didn’t figure it out? Yes again.”
I drew in a big breath and kept at it.
“Did I eventually realize he wasn’t worth my emotion, my energy? Another yes. I didn’t leave Orlando to escape my feelings for him. I didn’t even leave Orlando to escape him. I left Orlando because I was done with Orlando. And he was just the finger that pulled the trigger for me to make big decisions I’d been avoiding because I was unhappy, and I didn’t know how to make myself happy. And you can read from that, somewhere deep down, I knew Bryce wasn’t going to make me happy, and maybe I was foolishly leaning on him, using my feelings for him hoping he would, because that’s how I read it.”
Another big breath and I kept going.
“The cult next door notwithstanding, in Misted Pines, I’m happy. As crazy as this sounds, since I know everything that’s happened here over the last few years, I feel like, all my life, this was where I was supposed to be.”
I looked around to make my point and finished it.
“Well, finally, I’m here. And Bryce has been enough of a headache in my life. He can spend the time and money to come here and make a fool of himself. That’s no skin off my nose.”
He let my wrist go and pointed out, “The way you looked when I walked in, this big rant, May…”
He said no more.
But I heard him.
“I’m just annoyed because the store is going good. We have fun plans tomorrow. I’m getting it on the regular, and that it is freaking fantastic.”
His lips hitched up at one side.
“Don’t be smirky,” I ordered. “You know you’re hot in bed. You don’t need me to tell you or to get smirky about it.”
He didn’t stop being smirky.
Whatever.
“What I’m getting at is, I’m pissed because, if you don’t count the cult next door, I’m finally happy. And I’m just so over his shit and I don’t want to deal with him,” I concluded.