Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
And I won’t lie.
I was a little disappointed, and that confused the hell out of me.
I’d spent the last five years running from the ghosts in my head, and now, I had gone completely against the grain and was sitting in a diner, hoping to cross paths with a woman I’d spent all of two seconds with.
It was insanity.
The second I laid eyes on her, the noise in my head stopped. Not all of it, but enough that I forgot to brace myself. Enough that when she looked at me, I didn’t want to disappear.
I’d spent years avoiding anything that felt warm or steady, but one chance meeting at a diner, and suddenly I was doing things I didn’t understand.
Maybe it was too much sun.
Maybe being out on the road so long had finally gotten to me, and I’d cracked.
Or maybe it was her.
Whatever it was, it was the first time in a long damn while that I didn’t feel the urge to bolt. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table as I stared out the window, looking for answers to a question I was afraid to ask. The waitress set my plate down in front of me, and I nodded my thanks, picked up my fork, and forced myself to focus on the meal.
Bite after bite, I reminded myself who I was, what I was doing here, and what I was and wasn’t allowed to want. I was actually starting to get it through my thick skull when the bell to the front door rang. My heart stopped beating the second I looked up and found her walking towards me.
Fuck.
This was worse than I thought.
8
RAELYN
My heart was pounding so fast I feared it might jump right out of my chest. I knew I would be nervous. Of course, I would be. I didn’t do crazy, impulsive things like this. I was level-headed. I always thought things through, always played it safe, but this was far from playing it safe.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about when CeeCee said that if I had a life of my own, I wouldn’t be so concerned about hers. She was right. I hadn’t really been living. I’d just been going through the motions. I thought this might be a way of changing that.
I had it all planned out.
I would go to the diner, peek inside, and see if he was there. The chances were slim, but there was the possibility he might show up there again. And if he happened to be there, I would go over to him and introduce myself. Then, I would thank him for what he’d said to the boys. And maybe, just maybe, a conversation would follow.
It seemed possible.
Easy even.
I walked through the door and spotted him in the back booth, and I couldn’t help but notice that he looked different today. He seemed more put together, but still just as ridiculously handsome as I remembered. And trust me, I remembered.
I don’t know why this stranger had control of my mind the way he did, but I’d spent all night thinking about those gorgeous eyes, those full lips, and the way his shirt hugged his thick biceps. I’d thought about his voice and the flicker of curiosity in his eyes when they met mine. But now, I wasn’t just thinking about him. I was seeing him in the flesh, and I was suddenly overcome with doubt.
A plan that seemed simple and easy suddenly felt like the most asinine thing I could do. No woman drives across town to “accidentally” run into the hot guy she’d seen for two seconds, not unless she was completely off her rocker.
The doubts were rolling in hard, and every instinct I had told me to abort the mission. And when he looked up, and his eyes met mine, a jolt of nerves shot right through me.
I had to make a decision.
I could either race out of there and spend months and months wondering what if, or I could let myself be a little bold and adventurous and just talk to the man. I was tired of playing it safe. It was time for me to go after something I wanted, no matter how hard or humiliating.
So, I continued over to his table, and I didn’t stop until I was standing right in front of him. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just stood there, staring at him. He didn’t say a word. He just stared back at me. Eventually, I forced myself to say, “I was hoping I would find you here.”
He didn’t respond. He just looked at me like he was a little stunned. Fearing he might not remember me, I added, “I don’t know if you remember me, but I was here yesterday with my sons… You stopped at our table.”