Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Tanner parks and cuts the engine, but neither of us makes a move to get out of the car. Instead, we sit in the darkness, watching the stars in the clear sky in silence.
Until he reaches over and simply takes my hand in his, pulls it up to his lips, and kisses my knuckles so tenderly, it almost brings tears to my eyes.
“I thought of you often.” His voice is soft, breaking through the stillness. “Do you know how difficult it is to live in this town, where all of our memories live, without you here? Even if we weren’t together anymore, it would have been so much easier with you here, because I know that even then, we would have remained friends, and I could talk to you about stuff.”
“I’d like to think that would be the case.” I press my lips together. “I’m sorry, Tanner. For all of it.”
“Let’s be honest, Sarah, it was my fault. I was the idiot who broke things off and went back to college, thinking that I was free as a bird and could do what—and who—I wanted.”
“How did that work out for you?” I can’t help but glance his way, watching the cringe on his handsome face.
“Let’s just say that I discovered what it means when they say, if you water your own grass, it’ll be as green as the grass on the other side of the fence. I should have fed the relationship I had with you. It was great, and I didn’t even know what I had until it was gone.”
“You were nineteen.” I squeeze his hand, then turn in the seat so I’m facing him. “You were a kid, Tanner. A boy, and it makes sense that hormones were raging, and it wasn’t easy to be faithful when you were hundreds of miles away. At least you had the decency to break it off with me before you started something with someone else.”
He frowns, still staring through the windshield. “It didn’t occur to me to do anything else.”
“And that’s why you’re a good man. You did the right thing, Tanner.”
He turns to me now, scowling. “How can you say that? I broke up with you, and you married the next guy to freaking smile at you.”
“Wow.” I suck in a breath and let it out slowly. “First of all, I’m not stupid. Yes, I was young and flattered that an older, wealthy man wanted me, but if I hadn’t wanted to be with him, I would have said no. I didn’t do anything that I didn’t want to do, and it had absolutely nothing to do with you.”
“I didn’t mean for it to sound that condescending,” he admits, shaking his head. “I just meant that the rebound guy is the one you ended up marrying, and he was a complete asshole to you.”
“How do you know that?”
His mouth opens and closes for a moment, and then he sighs. “It’s a gut feeling. You came home without much of anything to your name after being married for more than a decade. You were sad, Sarah. You seemed so injured, more than from simply deciding to end a marriage.”
“I think ending a marriage all on its own would be pretty damn sad,” I whisper, but then I shrug a shoulder. “But you’re right. It wasn’t a good marriage, from pretty much the minute we left Huckleberry Bay.”
“Then why did you stay so long?”
“If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked that question…” I shake my head and watch as an owl flies overhead and lands on the roof of my little house. “I’d forgotten about the wildlife around here. It’s so cool. Anyway, in the beginning, I felt stuck. I don’t have parents that give a rat’s ass about me, and he was excellent at isolating me from my friends and everything I loved here. He had the money and the power.”
“Aside from being a controlling asshat, did he hurt you?”
“He liked to hurt my feelings.” The words come slowly as I think it over. “I think he got great pleasure out of making me feel small. But physically, he was careful never to lay a hand on me in anger. Until that last day when he told me to leave, and I told him I’d contest the prenup. He didn’t like it when I stood up for myself.”
“What did he do?”
My gaze turns to his at the hardness in his voice. “He smacked me around, told me I would do as I was told, and to get the fuck out. He’d found a replacement. You know, if he’d never kicked me out, and we’d just continued the way we had for all those years—with him cheating on me, and me pretending I didn’t know—I don’t think I ever would have left voluntarily. Mostly because staying was easy. But he did me such a huge favor that day. Kicking me out was the best thing he ever did for me.”