Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“I rented a car. So no more bus for a few days.”
I was starting to ruminate a bit.
He examined my face. “What are you thinking right now?”
“I feel like I have so many thoughts and feelings at the tip of my tongue, but nothing is coming out, and I am just gonna burst.”
“If you can’t find the words, you can use that tongue any other way you want. And I can definitely relate to the feeling of needing to burst. It’s why I flew all this way. In all seriousness, Rana, whatever you’re worried about right now, just get it the fuck out of your mind, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“I didn’t come here to force you into talking about any heavy stuff or anything. A man doesn’t randomly shut down his business in the middle of the lunch hour and run home to book a plane ticket to fly across country because he wants to make trouble. I came for two things.”
My heart was ready to explode. “Yeah?”
“The first is obvious. But the second and most important is to tell you in person that I am totally in love with you, Rana Saloomi. Because that just doesn’t seem like something you say over the phone. I fucking love you.”
He cradled my face in his hands and planted a long kiss on my lips. I broke away prematurely because I needed to reciprocate his sentiments.
“I love you, too. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.” The words couldn’t come out of my mouth fast enough. All I’d been waiting for was for him to say it first, but I’d felt it for a very long time.
“Well, I’ll take that and run with it.” He held me tight. “You know, I really liked you when we were kids. You entertained me, and I thought you were probably the coolest girl I had ever met. But I’m not gonna lie and say I’ve always loved you. I haven’t loved you until recently. I fell in love hard with the flawed girl who drunk dialed me and makes me laugh. I think I realized it the night I confessed my past to you in L.A. Because I’d never been more scared of losing someone in my life.”
I wiped a tear from my eye. “Thank you for liking me then but especially for loving me now—even with all of my crazy.”
“I couldn’t imagine you without your crazy. It’s my crazy now.” He snapped his finger. “I forgot I brought you a present.”
I gawked at his naked, muscular ass as he walked over to his jacket and took something out.
He returned to the bed. “I bought this for you out in California. I wanted to get you something. And this totally reminded me of you.”
It was a white box that said Pandora in gold lettering on it, so I knew that brand was pretty pricey. Inside was a silver bangle bracelet with two blue-colored, round beads.
“It’s beautiful, Landon!”
He opened the clasp and placed it around my wrist. “I figured we could build upon it over time, kind of like our relationship as a whole. But I started with these two beads because they reminded me a lot of us thus far. Any guesses why I chose them?”
Then it hit me.
Two blue balls.
NO MORE SECRETS
“I’m doing it! I’m really doing it!” I shouted as we made our way around the circular path for the umpteenth time.
Landon had decided that his first order of business in Michigan was to teach me how to drive. He was totally amused that I was having so much fun. Granted, with no other cars around, there really wasn’t anything to be scared of.
“Slow down a bit, baby. The turns don’t need to be that sharp.”
Landon had taken me to the nearly empty parking lot of the mall we used to frequent growing up. The shopping center had closed down years ago, and they never rebuilt. The area was like a ghost town, and some of the old store signs were still intact even though the building was boarded up. But he was intent on running my driving lesson at this exact place.
I turned another corner. “Woohoo!”
“Go a little easier on the gas.”
“I think I might be ready to try the street.”
Landon seemed skeptical. “Let’s stick with step one today. Once you really get the hang of it and ease up on the lead foot, we’ll take you out on the road. We might not get to do that before I leave, but I promise to finish what I started.”
Screeching to a halt, I put the car in park before turning off the ignition. “How long are you here? You never said.”
“A few days. I couldn’t leave the truck for much longer than that on such short notice. My coming out here was really impulsive, and I didn’t take care of everything I needed to before I left.”