Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
His smile gets even wider. “Really? That soon?”
“Of course. He wants to be here for you.”
“He’s got so much work.”
I gently place my hand on Paul’s. “He wants to be here. You’re more important to him. You don’t have to feel guilty about pulling him away from work.”
Paul doesn’t have to say anything else for me to know that’s what he wanted to hear. After a minute or two, he closes his eyes. I sit with him until he falls asleep again.
After showering and changing into the clothes Gwen brought me, I’m alone in the hospital. Gwen has to work. I should be at college, but there’s no way I can focus on my studies right now. Paul wasn’t just there for me growing up. When I said I wanted to study filmmaking at college, he paid my way. Money hasn’t been an issue for him ever since he sold his half of Free Everywhere to Kaleb almost twelve years ago. That was back when Kaleb worked on the West Coast.
I remember the last time I saw him in person. He’d come to the West Coast on a business trip and stopped by to see his best friend. He was standing at the end of the driveway, talking with Paul. He’d said goodbye to me with a family-friend wink and a gift of a video camera. During the lead-up to his leaving, I talked nonstop to Gwen about it. “This is it. He’s finally going to notice me. I just know it.”
It was sick and wrong and impossible. If Kaleb had noticed me, he would’ve ended up in jail, deservedly so. Try telling that to my sixteen-year-old crushing self. When the time finally came, and he gave me a wink and a camera, I was devastated. I tore off the dress I’d specifically worn and cried for an hour.
Looking back now, it’s difficult to believe that was only three years ago. I was so immature back then, but I watched from the front window before the crying fit. Kaleb and Paul hugged, Kaleb clapping him on the back. He looked so tall and handsome in his stylish gray suit, his hair cut short on the sides and long at the top, standing three or four inches taller than Paul, and Paul isn’t short. He’s six feet.
I remember telling myself to run out there, declare my love, and tell him all those moments that were probably tiny and inconsequential to him meant everything to me.
Now, I sit in the waiting room, trying to read my college text book. It’s the least I can do if I’m not attending class, but I can’t focus. If it’s not Paul and the sourness in his voice from earlier dominating my thoughts, it’s that I’m going to be face-to-face with my crush any minute now. No, with Kaleb. Not my crush. He’s my brother’s friend. To make this work, I’ll have to be distant with him, maybe even downright cold.
“Sophie.”
At first, I think his voice is in my mind. That’s how twisted up this whole thing has got me. Then he walks around to the front of me, looking down with those penetrating blue eyes—the eyes I used to dream would watch me obsessively if I bought a new outfit. He looks the same as before, his suit gray, maybe more salt in his hair than last time.
My instinct is to leap up and throw myself into his arms, push my face against his firm chest, and cry like crazy. His firm-looking chest, anyway, since I don’t actually know how he feels. I know he carried me from time to time when I was younger, and Paul had his hands full, but it’s not like I was thinking about that back then.
He looks slightly awkward, like he doesn’t know what to do. I stand up, careful not to step forward. I need to keep some distance between us, emotional and physical.
“Thanks for coming,” I say in the coldest tone I can manage.
It’s difficult, especially considering being close to him makes me feel immediately hot under the collar.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kaleb
What the hell happened? It’s like I’m standing opposite a different person entirely. The last time I saw her, I gave her a camera because Paul said it’d be a good gift idea. She had braces in her mouth, always seemed shy, a little withdrawn. She was a child.
She’s only nineteen now. It was only three years ago, but she’s beautiful. Her hair is wild and slightly wet around her shoulders. Her face is round and full and gorgeous. She’s got wide, curious eyes. Her youth makes her cheeks flush red. Her curves trigger something in me, even in a simple pair of jeans and a hoodie. I can’t let myself think about it. Yet suddenly, the world doesn’t seem so gray.