Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“You need to let it go,” I tell her as I step in and close the door behind me.
Gracen blinks in surprise that I’m calling her on the carpet, and her cheeks turn a cute shade of pink.
“I know you,” I remind her as I come to sit on the edge of the bed. “I know how that brain of yours is working. But it’s over and done. All is well. So let it go.”
Her eyes flit back and forth between mine, perhaps trying to discern if there’s some lie in what I just said. I just hold her gaze until she finally lets out a huge breath of frustration.
She falls back onto the pillows propped up against the headboard with misery coating her face. “I feel so stupid. So very fucking stupid. If I’d just talked to my parents rather than trying to handle it all on my own.”
I chuckle and shrug. “Hindsight’s twenty-twenty. But your heart was in the right place, Gracen. That’s all that matters.”
She stretches out and crosses one bare leg over another. I try to ignore it, but her shorts are, well, really short. I remember too well how those legs felt wrapped around me last night.
Lacing her fingers together and resting them on her belly, she says, “You’re right. And thanks for saying that. I just talked to my parents again not long ago and they laid it on a little thick, giving me hell and all.”
I smile and nod. While I know Sheryl and Tim were appalled over the lengths to which Gracen felt she had to go, I know they’d try to bring some humor into the situation. Tim especially. I bet he ribbed her mercilessly.
There’s one other serious thing I want to talk about, and after we have that discussion, I’m going to kiss her and see what happens. My hand slides into my pocket and I finger the condom I slipped in a bit ago.
“Listen,” I say as I turn slightly to face her on the bed. I place a palm on the mattress and lean toward her. “Last night…”
She tilts her head slightly, curiously waiting for whatever I want to say.
“We didn’t use protection.” My voice is gentle but blunt. We should have talked about this before, and that’s my fault. I was too eager to have her. “I just wanted you to know…I don’t go around having unprotected sex. You’re safe. But I have to know, Gracie…with Owen. I mean, he was a whore in high school…”
“He still is,” she says calmly with a disgusted shake of her head. My stomach drops not only for what that might mean for me, but for what it meant for her feelings. Did she feel betrayed? Did he break her heart?
“But you don’t have to worry about it,” she goes on to say. “Owen and I never had sex.”
Relief and shock overwhelm me for a moment as I try to process what she just said. “Come again?”
“We never went there,” she says with her chin raised a bit. “I kept putting him off. Telling him we’d wait for our wedding night, and well…he didn’t care. He had his piece on the side.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, although I’m not. I’m fucking overjoyed she didn’t have sex with him. I’m not a fool to think she was celibate the years we were apart, but fuck if I want the image of her and Owen together in my mind.
“Don’t be,” she says with a shrug. “And you’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about with me. I’ve always been safe.”
Fuck, I want to kiss her.
My fingertip slides over the smooth foil wrapper. If she tells me she’s on the pill, I’m tossing this fucker into the garbage. “Um…what about pregnancy? We already know my swimmers like your eggs.”
I expect her to laugh at my attempt to lighten the mood, but the normal shine in her eyes goes flat as she frowns. Her gaze drops to her hands, which I notice tighten to the point her knuckles are white.
My stomach clenches.
“Gracen?” I ask, feeling completely uneasy over what she might tell me, and I’m thinking a potential pregnancy isn’t the worst of it.
She sucks in a breath, and when she looks back to me, she has a forced smile. Her voice is overly bright. “You don’t have to worry about that either.”
That’s an answer, but I can tell it’s not the full answer based on her demeanor.
“You’re on the pill?” I press her.
Her expression looks like a deer in the headlights. Her lips part, but she doesn’t say a word.
I’m filled with dread and my voice is way too tight. “Why don’t we have to worry about pregnancy?”
My stomach cramps viciously when Gracen’s face goes hard and flat. She lifts her chin, but can’t hide the tremble in her voice. “Because I can’t have any more children.”