Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 86398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
When Aunt Sophia said it, she said it out of love because I couldn’t eat anything for the first few months.
I had trouble existing, let alone eating.
My lower lip trembled as I looked out my own window. “I got sick in Italy. I’m fine now, thanks for asking. It’s not because I’m choosing not to eat.” Jackass.
“How sick?” He asked, again his voice so gruff that I wanted to shake him. Would it kill him to soften up a bit?
With a sigh, I answered, “Sick enough that I had a rough first few months.”
“Did you see a doctor?
“Do you even care?” I snapped.
His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “I’d be an animal not to care.”
I just stared at him, letting the silence do the talking.
He glanced over at me, then back at the road, then at me again. “You’re shitting me. You hate me that much?”
“Pretty sure the hate’s mutual, Ash, which suites me just fine.”
“What the hell did I ever do to you?” he roared.
I was already exhausted. “The fact that you even have to ask yourself that question tells me all I need to know.” I grabbed my cell. “Can you take me over to Sergio’s first?”
“You don’t live at Sergio’s,” he pointed out. “You live with me—us.”
“I know where I’m currently staying, thanks.” My voice cracked. God, it was like he would never let me forget it. “I just want to hang out with Tank for a little bit before dinner—”
“No,” he barked.
“No?” I argued. “Who died and made you my dad?”
“You said you were sick. If you were sick, that means you need to rest, and you need food, no hanging out, no shopping, no guys. Just… no guys.”
I gaped at him like he’d just grown a second and third head. “Are you even hearing yourself right now?”
“Honestly, wish I wasn’t hearing myself.” He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “Fucking hell!”
I jumped a foot.
“Sorry.” The fact that he actually apologized was more confusing than the outburst. “I’m… never mind. Long day.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered.
The rest of the ride was quiet as we pulled up to the house. I missed it. It was like something out of a magazine, the perfect house to do a photoshoot in front of with its huge fountain in the middle, perfect brick, expensive cars parked out front.
My life now.
Weird.
Ash grabbed my bag without me asking and then opened the front door for me just as Izzy popped into my line of vision. “You made it!”
I was engulfed in a hug before I could say hi.
She held me tight, then whispered. “You have no idea how much we need to talk about.”
My smile felt strained. I really was tired.
“Shit, Iz, let her at least change before you start terrorizing her.” Ash came to my defense.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He narrowed his right back.
What was this?
I leaned in.
“What are you doing?” He smirked.
I waved in front of his face. “Are you still taking—”
Ash’s eyes went wide as saucers as he slammed a hand over my mouth and started dragging me down the hall. “Adult conversation, be right back. Iz, take her stuff up to her room? Thanks, you’re the best; I’ll do the dishes, okay bye!”
He dragged me all the way back outside, around the pool, into the pool house, and all the way up the stairs into his room.
It was impossible to fight him, and I really just wanted to be anywhere but there.
“Get off!” I shoved him when he finally shut the door to his bedroom. “What the hell is your problem?”
His eyebrows shot up. “You dare talk to me like that?”
“You dare kidnap me in your parents’ house?”
“Hardly kidnapping.” He scowled. “I didn’t even use duct tape.”
“What’s sad is you’re probably not joking.”
“I never joke about a good kidnapping.”
I sighed; I was on borrowed time with the tears as it was. “What did you need this much privacy for, Ash?”
His eyes roamed over me before his jaw ticked, and he looked away. “They don’t know.”
“They don’t know what?”
He cleared his throat and looked down at his feet. “About the pills.”
“You idiot!” I stomped over to him and smacked him in the chest. “You’re still taking pills? Are you insane! You’re going to kill yourself! I guess you really do want to die, don’t you? Do you even know how bad that is for your liver? Or all the things that could happen to the people you love? It’s like a gateway to heroin, and I’m not going to sit back and watch someone I—” I stopped myself “—I won’t do it, Ash! I’d tell the whole damn world before keeping your secret!”
By the time I was done, my chest was heaving.
And Ash was smiling down at me.
“Stop smiling!” I gave him a shove. “I hate you! I hate you!”