Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Stopping at City Hall, I dig up a map of Lake Road and make a call to Isobel to tell her I’ll be away a little while longer. What I can’t handle remotely, she or one of my partners will.
I walk out to my car at the curb and start to open the door, but I look up and spot Madoc’s SUV pulling into the side lot. He exits the vehicle, carrying his briefcase to the walkway as his car beeps locked behind him.
But he sees me and slows. Recognition dawns, a slight smile crossing his face, and to my surprise, he doesn’t explode with questions and excitement.
As if he had an idea he’d see me again soon.
“Workout tonight?” I call to him.
I’ll need to be ready for Green Street, because once they know I’m still here, they’ll act.
He tips his chin at me. “Eight o’clock.”
I nod in agreement. Maybe I’ll give Lance a call too. See if he wants to come out.
Or not.
I didn’t mind seeing him when I thought I wasn’t staying in town long, but I need to be severing fucking ties here, not encouraging them.
Getting back into my car, I drive to Frosted and get in line, seeing Quinn shuffle one of her workers out of the shop with a tower of boxes to deliver. I slip my hands into the pockets of my black track pants, my fist curling around her compass as my eyes drift down her body. Skin that was flush with my mattress twelve hours ago. Now, it’s covered neck-to-toe in clothes. Good girl by day. She can shift like a chameleon, and some guy is going to be very lucky someday.
I step up to the counter and order, “Small, black coffee.”
She lifts her head at the sound of my voice, her chest caving.
She doesn’t blink, and all I can think about are the thoughts she was thinking out loud about me last night. Everything she wants to do with me.
My mouth goes dry, and I fight to slow my heart.
In a moment, she turns and pours me a cup, affixing the lid without a word.
She sets it down in front of me. “One-fifty.”
I dig out money, her round eyes staring straight at me, her jaw tense.
I slide over a five-dollar-bill, her compass sitting on top.
“Madoc still sees me as family,” I tell her.
She tries to take the money and compass, but I don’t let go.
She looks at me.
“They all do,” I point out.
Whether she does or not.
I’m not going anywhere until I’m ready.
I take the coffee and leave, feeling her eyes on my back as I go.
Sliding into the Boss, I set my cup in the holder and start the engine.
And I smile, suddenly realizing an excellent place for me to stay while I remain in town.
Quinn
Why the hell is he staying?
And for how long?
I wouldn’t lower myself to ask when he showed up earlier at my counter. I’d been keeping as busy as possible, my commitment to letting him go from the Falls—and my head—stronger than ever.
I won’t dwell on how my stomach dropped, or how I could barely hide the tremble racking through my body at the sight of him. I was shaken. And so happy to see him, and I hate myself for feeling that in that moment. Why can’t he just let me move on with my life?
I couldn’t sleep last night but not because I was upset. I was more numb than anything, but all I kept thinking about was years down the road when he inevitably showed up again for a wedding or a…a funeral. Maybe I’d be married. With kids. Maybe I’d have a home and a whole life with a family of my own, but deep down, I’d know that everything I lived up until then would be in anticipation of what he would think about it when he finally saw it. Would he like my husband? Would they get along? Would that tension still stretch between us every time he looked at me?
Or did I just fantasize everything? The jealousy I sensed from him when I worked out with Noah and Farrow at the gym? The protectiveness he doesn’t exhibit with any of the others, only me? The way he kept seeking me out?
The way my body would come alive whenever he touched me?
And even when he’s not.
Last night and my little escapade to his old house drifts through my mind, and I feel fire rising on my face. God, he was still in town while I was…doing what I was doing to myself on his bed. I almost shudder, thinking about how easily I could’ve been caught.
There was nowhere else I could be, though. To smell him there and feel his clothes on me and imagine we were sneaking around, but I didn’t care, because he wanted me. It was such a turn on. I thought if I got it out of my system, it would be closure.