Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Elsie understood the daily anguish that tormented me. She had experienced what I feared the most. Losing my mom. She was a survivor. And she was alone in it. Sure, I had friends and family around me, but every damn day, when I opened my eyes, I felt isolated. Grieving alone.
Oz had Winslet, Kash had Cressida, and they found happiness, being with them. They had them to lean on, share their pain with.
When the nightmares came—ones where I was told my mom was gone or the fucking reoccurring one, where I stood over her and she was no longer breathing—I woke up to face it with no one to comfort me.
I didn’t want romance or fucking love, but I envied them because they had some joy to turn to in their life. A light in their darkness. Me? I had nothing. Just like Elsie.
Her crying last night hadn’t been normal. They were gut-wrenching sobs, and I had felt every goddamn one. Understood it. Wished like hell I could do the same. Maybe then I’d find some relief.
Reading Calvin’s letter to her had caused me to step back. Not get too close to her. She wasn’t my crutch to lean on. If Calvin wasn’t fucking her, I was pretty damn sure he wanted to. And that she may feel the same about him. His little comment in the message about how their friends had messed things up with a relationship, it was as if he’d been trying to tell her something. Point out the chance they’d be taking if they ever moved past the friendship they had. I might be reading it all wrong, but I didn’t think so.
Sitting up in bed, I stretched, then reached for my phone to check the time. I’d been lying here, thinking about shit, for almost an hour.
Mom and Dad were heading back to Texas today. The doctors wanted to see how the treatments had worked, and if they’d been beneficial, she would begin another round. I’d hugged her yesterday when I left and held on a little longer than usual. Her body was too frail to go through more of those fucking treatments. My chest was tight. The caged feeling was back. The urge to break shit, scream at the top of my lungs, and rage was hard to tamp down.
The sound of a door opening caught my attention, and I was up, moving to mine in long, fast strides. I didn’t think about what I was doing or why, but I needed to see her. Make sure she was okay. Jerking my door open, I stepped out into the hallway just as she was passing by my room.
She stopped and looked at me and sucked in a breath. Her startled expression confused me until I remembered I was naked. Shit. Whatever. She’d seen a naked man before.
“Morning,” I drawled as if I wasn’t standing in front of her with nothing on.
Her eyes darted down, then back up and somehow got even rounder. Then she snapped them closed and turned her head away.
A laugh rumbled out of me as I watched her. Damn, she was cute.
“Y-you’re naked!” she pointed out as if we both weren’t aware of that.
“Yeah,” I replied, leaning my shoulder against the doorframe. “I reckon I am. I just got up.”
A shocked gasp or giggle—I wasn’t sure which—escaped her lips. “Wh-why … you’re just …” She paused and took a deep breath. “Is your, uh, you know … is there a piercing on it?”
I smirked. “If you’re referring to my cock, no. There’s not a piercing. There are two.”
Her cheeks instantly darkened in color. I was enjoying this.
She cleared her throat while keeping her eyes tightly closed. “Oh.”
“It’s called a double. Not everyone can get this kind of piercing. Gotta have the right head for it to work.” It was more information than she wanted, but, damn, it was entertaining to see her react to it.
The door across from me opened, and Ransom paused, looking at me, then at Elsie.
“Jesus Christ, Forge. Get some fucking clothes on,” he snapped. “Don’t come out here,” he called over his shoulder to Noa, who must still be in the room. “Forge isn’t clothed, and he’s showing his goods off. I don’t want to have to kill him.”
Elsie took this as her moment to bolt.
“Open your eyes,” I told her. “You’ll fall down the stairs.”
I watched her until she turned the corner, then swung my gaze back to Ransom, who had closed his door behind him.
“What the fuck was that about?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “Nothing. I opened the door to see who was out here and forgot I was naked. I just got up.”
He narrowed his eyes. “So, you continued to stand there with your morning wood on display.”
I nodded. “Yep. About sums it up.”