Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“I couldn’t do it without Sean,” I confess. “More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. And nobody else would put up with us besides Trent. Sean and I can be yelling and cussing each other out—like we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks—and Trent will sit there and drink a venti matcha tea, waiting for us to be done so we can get back to work. As long as we don’t fuck with his family, he’s chill.”
She’s hanging on every word, and I realize I like involving her in this side of me. I want her to be a part of it all. If she wants to be.
“I’m sorry you two have been fighting,” she says. “I feel like that’s my fault for knee-jerk reacting too fast and too harshly. I’m sorry for that.”
Her apology is simple but heartfelt. “It’s okay,” I tell her. “There’s a lot of water that existed prior to us meeting that still needs to go under the proverbial bridge. And in your case, I’m sure all of this was a shock.”
I forgive her easily, but she’s not done. “It’s not okay. I know we joked about me being a train wreck, but I really have been. I’ve been working on it, though. Dealing with all the things I could’ve and should’ve done with Roy but was too chickenshit to follow through on because I had this image in my head. And then I turned around and did the same thing with you,” she admits, shaking her head. “We had this dreamy adventure happening, and at the first sign of trouble, I bolted. I want you to know that despite recent, recurrent events, that’s not how I usually handle things. And not how I will in the future. I’ll talk to you, tell you what I’m afraid of, and listen to what you’re feeling, too, so we can be better for each other and to each other. I want that with you . . . if you still do?”
I’m so proud of her. She’s telling me, blunt and bold, exactly what she wants. Seeing her standing strong in her power after she allowed herself to be weak is a potent thing. It’s stunning to witness her transformation. I can understand why Sean thought she was like my mother, especially given her recent breakup and the state of her spirit when they met. But the truth is . . . she’s nothing like Mom. Hope is a mix of steady and wild, a blend of beauty and filth, and I want to spend the rest of my days showing her how to live while she shows me how to love. Because I’ve never done that before. Not like this.
So she’s asking me if I want her. Is she fucking serious? Of course I do.
“I want forever with you, Hope. You can be my adventure, and I can be yours.”
She smiles a soft, happy smile that I want to put on her face every day for the rest of our lives. “I’m kind of a roller coaster,” she admits. “Just with fewer loops. And no safety harness.”
“I fucking love roller coasters. And train wrecks. And hot messes with glitter that attack me at every opportunity.”
Hope grins and bites her lip. “And I love demon-possessed monsters who are a little shy, hate people other than me, and let their chaos live right out in the open instead of shoving it down till it explodes like fireworks.”
“Why wait for fireworks? Just go ahead and get ’em out there,” I tease. But I lean forward, pressing my lips to hers. “I love you, Hope Barlowe.”
I think she says it back, but I’m too lost in our kiss to be sure. But I feel it either way.
Epilogue
HOPE
“Sleeping Beauty, rise and grind,” Ben rumbles in my ear. He’s lying on top of me, literally circling his hips over mine, so you’d think he’s talking about a morning quickie.
You’d be wrong.
First, because it’s two in the afternoon, not morning. And second, because the RV we use as an incognito tour bus leaves in an hour, and I still need to shower. At least I don’t have to pack my bag, considering I only unpack it to do laundry these days.
“Five more minutes,” I answer, keeping my eyes squeezed tightly shut. But I also scrape my nails down his back, grab his butt, and pull his erection against my pubic bone, eliciting a groan from us both. “They’ll wait, right? It’s not like they can leave without you.”
“Sean would definitely go by cruise ship rules and leave us here to find our own way to the next tour stop.”
He’s right. Sean would find an inordinate amount of evil pleasure in leaving us at the hotel we bunked at last night. I curl my lip. “I hate that guy.”