Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 70092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
"I'm happy to eat your dinner," I say, trying to lighten the talk and get off the track of where I think this is going.
"I want to take you out," he shares and the back of my neck starts to burn.
"I'll be sporting a baby bump soon." I smile at him. "There is no need to take me out and stake your claim."
He looks over at me for a second before turning his face back forward, moving the pot on the stove top. "I want to be by your side the whole way. All day, every day."
"You know that I'm never getting married, right?" The words come out even before I can stop them. "I mean, it's no surprise to anyone. This isn't new."
"Oh, trust me; everyone and their mother knows that you are never getting married." He laughs and I can tell that this conversation is getting him tense. I can tell by the way his hand is clenched onto the handle of the pot. "But why?"
"You're kidding, right?" I try to make a joke of this whole conversation.
"I'm not kidding," he says, walking over to grab another pot. "I've heard you say you are never getting married." I watch him walk over to the sink and fill the pot with water. "But you've never told me why." He puts the pot that is full of water on the stove and turns on the burner.
"Well, where do I start," I say and he walks over to the island where he grabs the shrimp. "Let's start with my brother."
"You mean your brother who is married to the love of his life." He turns his back to throw the shrimp in the pan. "And has two children."
I glare at him now. "Did you forget about him breaking Harlow's heart and then getting engaged to someone else?" I ask him, my eyebrows going up. "Let's not forget that detail."
"No one is forgetting that detail, but at the end of the day he's married and happy," he reminds me, and I have never hated him being a lawyer more in my life than right now.
"Okay, then move on to the shit show that happened to my sisters." I counter his objection or whatever it was. My mouth is getting dry and my neck is starting to burn.
"You mean your sisters who are happily married?" he asks me and all I can do is glare at him, that and to tell him to fuck off.
But instead, I try to keep calm. "They are happily married now." My voice goes up a touch. "But they didn't start out happily married."
He shrugs his shoulders. "They just weren't with the right one."
"Exactly my point." I throw my hands up. "They thought they were and then what?" I look at him. "Oh, no counter, Mr. Lawyer." He chuckles. "I tell you what, then they got kicked in the vagina and then up the ass getting their heart broken." I shake my head. "Nope, not going to happen. Not interested." Just the thought makes me start to hyperventilate.
"But if they didn't get their asses kicked, then they wouldn't have found out," he says and I hold up my hand.
"I know what you are going to say. They were not with the right person. Blah blah blah." He irritates me even more by laughing just a bit; okay, fine, it irritates me a lot and I ignore the fact that it's bothering me because in a way he's right. "But they still got their hearts broken. Shit, they were going to walk down the aisle and promise forever with someone." I slap the island in front of me. "And then what."
"But they didn't," he says calmly.
"No, they didn't, they just got their hearts broken," I tell him. "I'm not going to ever put myself through that." I shake my head. "I've seen enough weddings to last me a lifetime and you know which ones I remember the most?" He just stares at me. "The ones where they get their heart stomped on. The ones where one is left sobbing and the other is just gone. I'm just not interested in it."
"Who says you are going to get your heart broken?" he asks me and now turns to look straight at me. "You can be different from your sisters and from all those other stories. You keep looking at the one that failed, even though your sisters’ marriages are intact and still strong." He points at me. "I mean, Luke and Clarabella still have naked Sunday. You should look at all the ones that actually took place and they are happy. Have you ever done the percentage?"
"No, because I don't need to." I have never been more adamant about something in my whole life. I just can't do it. Hell, even watching my mother mourn my father was so hard for me to watch. I have never told anyone about what that did to me. I will never tell anyone. Listening to her cry at night for him. Watching her try to pretend she was okay, all the while she would walk around the house and talk to him. "I won't even think of putting myself in that position," I tell him, my heart speeding up and the sense of my chest being crushed. "To be that dependent on someone. Ever. So it's not even a discussion."