Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Fuck, my chest hurts.
I press my lips to her forehead and hold them there for longer than necessary before I pull back to look at her once more.
“Are you ready to go back to the hotel?” I ask quietly.
At her nod, I let her go, then wrap my arm around her and walk her up the beach. When we reach her room, I take the key from her and unlock the door, then look down at her when I see her tip her head back my way.
“Will…” She rubs her lips together, then whispers, “Will you stay for a little while?”
“Yeah.” I follow her into her room and close the door behind me. She kicks off her shoes and crawls onto the bed, lying with her head on the pillow. I hesitate before toeing off my sneakers and walking around the bed to the opposite side, lying down next to her.
When she curls into me, pressing her body down the length of mine, I don’t recoil like I always have when someone wants to cuddle. I wrap my arm around her and pull her over me until her head rests on my chest. Physical touch without it leading to something more is a foreign concept to me, but giving her the comfort she needs feels like second nature. A paradox, given she’s a woman who is still very much a stranger but oddly significant for reasons I haven’t been able to figure out.
“Tell me about your brother,” she whispers, and I swallow.
“He was an asshole.” Her head lifts, but I don’t look at her. “He could cut you down to the quick without even trying, but if he loved you…” I close my eyes, and she rests her head back on my chest, curving her arm over my waist. “If he loved you, you knew it, not because he’d tell you, but because you felt it.”
I can’t stop the smile from forming on my lips. “As a little kid, he was always getting into trouble, then charming whoever he needed to, to get out of it. Our grandmother always said that if there was ever someone who could sell water to a whale, it was him.” I open my eyes and look at the ceiling. “Everyone loved him, but there weren’t a lot of people who he liked; he didn’t just let anyone in. So, if you were a part of his circle, you had earned your place in his life and were important,” I say. “I wish I could go back and let him know I appreciated being one of the people he chose.”
“I’m sure he knew.”
“Maybe, but I should have told him that he was important to me too.”
“I can’t say I know you well, Roman, but I’m sure he felt it, even if you never said it,” she whispers, not a hint of doubt in her voice.
“I hope so,” I whisper back but don’t say more.
When her breathing evens out, and her body sinks deeper into mine, I dip my chin and find her lashes resting against her cheeks and her lips slightly parted in sleep. Dragging my eyes off her, I look up at the ceiling. I should get up and head to my own room, but I don’t. Instead, I let my eyes fall closed when they get too heavy to keep open and sleep—really sleep—for the first time in months.
9
ELORA
45°52′55″N 123°57′34″W
Standing in the open doorway to my room, I scan over the space I’ve called home for the past five months. Everything is exactly as it was when I moved in, and it looks like I was never here at all.
Shutting the door, I walk to Roman’s room and knock twice. A useless endeavor since I already know he won’t answer. This morning, I woke with the sun, and not surprisingly, he left sometime in the dark, leaving only the smell of his cologne on my pillow and the blanket he covered me with. I told myself he went back to his room, but in my gut, I knew he left without telling me goodbye, and that was confirmed when I went to the parking lot to put the last of my stuff in my van this morning and found his car gone.
After a minute, when he doesn’t answer, I head down the stairs. Hurt and maybe even a little angry, I go to the office, and as soon as I push through the door, Casey smiles at me from behind the desk.
“Are you taking off?”
“Yeah, is Ernest in?” I glance down the hall toward his office door.
“No, he has an appointment this morning. He won’t be in until this evening.”
“Oh,” I say quietly, my heart heavier than it had been already. I pass her over my keys. “I cleaned my room and changed the sheets, so you don’t need to add it to Beth’s list this morning.”