Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Are you sure you want to do this, Caleb? You can stay here if that is what you want.” By ‘that,’ I mean Jess. “I won’t hold it against you.”
I don’t appreciate his rush to judgment, but I’d be a liar if I said his delay didn’t stab my chest with pain. “We need to do this. It will be good for everyone.”
“It will be. We will make it good.” The gloominess of our conversation doesn’t seem anywhere near as heart-clenching when I mutter, “And I’m still open to kidnapping Jess. We only cross a dozen or so state borders so what’s the worst that could happen?”
Caleb laughs. It isn’t his full laugh, but it shows that he appreciates my effort to defuse the tension in the air when Jess arrives to collect the last of our things. She’s putting on a brave front, but she appears seconds from bursting into tears, and I’m right there with her.
I don’t have a choice. I have to leave Jack behind, but the same doesn’t have to happen for Jess and Caleb. They could be together if they want. It’s just Caleb’s stubborn ass ruining everything. He is as stubborn as a mule, and instead of my falling out with Jack reminding him about how precious love is, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
He’s more distant from Jess now than he has ever been.
Just the way he dips his chin at her before he makes a beeline for the truck proves this, not to mention the low hang of Jess’s shoulders when he darts past her.
“Men are stupid,” I say, hopeful she still considers my advice solid. “But they eventually pull their head out of their asses, right?”
My hopes are dashed when Jess mutters, “Maybe.” She sounds as unconvinced as me.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us, Jess? What we’re endeavoring to get off the ground is risky, but no matter what happens, we will always have a roof over our heads.” I don’t mention that roof is being funded by the money our grandfather left Caleb and me because I’m reasonably sure she already knows.
After banding her arm around my waist, she hugs me tight before deflating my dreams. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t.” She walks me to the door before spinning me around to face my now-empty apartment. “Any final words?”
I take in the scuffed floorboards and bent roller blinds before shaking my head. This place was never my home. It was just a place I resided while striving to work out where I belong.
I don’t know my place in the world yet. But I will. One day.
It just won’t be with Jack.
Unfortunately.
CHAPTER 29
JACK
THREE MONTHS LATER…
“Mr. Carson, there is a gentleman here wishing to speak with you.” Emmelyn’s nasally voice shrieks through the PA system on my desk phone a second before my office doors are pushed open, and a ghost from my past walks through them.
It isn’t Octavia, the lady I’ve strived to forget but haven’t come close to forgetting.
It is her cousin, Caleb.
He looks more well put together than the last time I saw him. I can’t say the same for me. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the man I once was. You can’t gamble with fate and lose then come out the end the same man. People thought I was grouchy before. They have no idea now. I’ve been through seven assistants in the past four months. Emmelyn is only holding on by a thread because she flirts with Marissa more than she does me.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” Caleb announces as his eyes shoot to my sister and two investors interested in a story that’s set to grip the country. “But I figured if she told you my name, you’d refuse my request to speak with you.”
“It’s fine. Come in. We were about to finish up anyway.”
The dismissal of Caleb’s rudeness isn’t granted by me. It came from Marissa, who has a soft spot for him that has nothing to do with his glossy magazine good looks.
After offering to take our investors for a drink at a bar around the corner from our new home base, Marissa shifts on her feet to face me. “Play nice,” she mouths, doubling the balling of my hands instead of loosening them. “He wouldn’t have come if it weren’t important.”
What she is saying isn’t neither a lie nor gospel. Four months ago, I told Octavia I didn’t want to see her again. To date, she has adhered to my request. The same can’t be said for Caleb. He’s reached out a handful of times, but today is the first time he’s shown up at my office unannounced.
I didn’t tell Octavia to stay away because I blamed her for the actions of her grandfather. It is the fact she knows what he did to me that I struggle with the most. Half our connection was because of the way she looked at me, wasn’t it? So wouldn’t that have changed the instant she knew of the sick, horrible things I let happen to me?