Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I had no clue how to process any of this. None at all. It all spun around in my head, making me dizzy, and I leaned back on Tyler.
He held me up.
“What do you mean there are things you want to say about how we grew up? Things I don’t know about?”
He shuddered. “No. Just that it was hard for me too. I missed Mom. Daniel turned into an asshole. And you were suddenly—it was just weird. Just things like that. I’m sorry.” He studied Tyler. “You seem happy.”
“We are.” I could hear Tyler’s smugness.
“Not talking to you, dipshit.”
“We are. I am.” I rested my head against Tyler’s chest. I felt his arm curve tighter around me. “I love him.”
Dane’s eyes cooled at my words.
Tyler leaned forward, and I could hear his smirk. “You got something to say about that?”
“I’ll always think you’re a dipshit, but as long as you treat her right, maybe you’re less of one than I thought.”
My mind went back to exploding. Dane saying stuff like that? Somewhere I had stepped into an alternate world.
“Anyway, like I said, I wanted to come apologize. I owe you that. And if you want to meet Lindy or your nieces, they’d love that.”
Fear spasmed in my chest.
“Just our family,” he added. “And if you want to talk about growing up, we can do that too. It’s… I’ve been to therapy. Dad fucked us all up. He’s only in my life because of the girls. Trust me, I wish I had walked like you had.”
“You always looked right through me,” I rasped out. “As if I wasn’t there.”
He flinched, pain blazing bright over his face for a moment. “I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“Why, though? Why was I invisible to you?”
He shook his head, starting to turn away.
I broke free from Tyler’s arms and grabbed Dane. “Tell me.”
“Because I wanted to be you,” he snarled.
I gasped, my hand flying away from him.
“He ignored you. I was jealous as fuck, but…” New agony surged over his face. “I could see it was hurting you. And I was an asshole kid back then. I don’t have anything to say to make any of it better except that I’m sorry I didn’t come after you. I’m really sorry I didn’t join you.” His voice was thick with emotion, and he shook his head before whispering, “I’m just sorry, Dylan. And I needed to say that to you.” He pressed something into my hand. “Here’s my number if you want to talk again, but I gotta go.” He brushed past us.
“Dane.”
He stopped, but he didn’t fully turn back. He glanced over his shoulder at me.
“I’m sorry too.”
His head lowered, and the doors slid open and closed behind him.
76
RAIN
It was after we were leaving the rink on Saturday when Tyler got into his truck, but he didn’t start it. He was staring straight ahead, pondering something.
After he didn’t say anything for a beat, I asked, “What is it?”
His hands wrapped tight around the wheel before he loosened his grip and looked my way. He stated, “I want to take you out.”
My eyebrows lifted. “You want to what?”
“Take you out. Like a date.” He continued staring at me. Hard. “Everyone knows about us. There’s no reason not to go out and I’ve done nothing to court you.”
My eyebrows went all the way to my hairline. “Court me?”
“Yeah. I did ask you to marry me.” His grin turned rueful.
I scoffed. “That’s the conversation we’re not talking about."
“That’s the conversation? Of all of our conversations, it’s that one that you want to avoid?” But he was grinning, and I relaxed.
I flicked my eyes up. “You’re messing with me.”
“I’m not.” His tone was serious. So was his face. His stare was piercing. “I meant the marriage thing, but I can tell you’re freaked out so I’ll settle for bugging you about what kind of apartment you want to get.”
I groaned. This had been a whole conversation when we were coming back from the bar last night. “Not this again. You know I don’t care.”
“We’ll keep talking about it.” He reached forward, starting the engine and I fell silent. When he pulled onto the interstate, he said, “Are you a romantic person?”
“No.” My answer was automatic.
He cringed. “Ouch. Okay. Uh… Why not?”
I shrugged. “No one’s done anything romantic like that for me. It’d probably just make me uncomfortable now.”
He began chewing on his bottom lip as he drove to my hotel. He’d brought over a good amount of his clothes so we didn’t have to go to his hotel as much. There’d be a conversation at one point if he should cancel his hotel, unofficially move into mine. That would depend on how long it took to look for a new place.
“Okay. I think I know what we can do. Some of it will be something we both like, outside of sex, and then the rest I’ll see if you can start liking romantic gestures.” He nodded to himself, his mind made up. “You go up to the room and dress—shit. I need to make sure I can do what I want to do. Uh… Dress comfortable, but cute. Outside clothes.”