Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
We laughed, and it felt good to be able to do that with her when it came to the situation with Ryder.
“What’s going on with you? Anything new?” she asked.
I met someone. Well, I haven’t met him in person yet, but it feels like we’ve known each other our whole lives, and I like him, Maddy. Those words were there, in my head and on my tongue, but somehow I couldn’t get them out.
“Nothing really,” I finally said.
“It didn’t look like nothing. You were thinking about something and smiling.”
Damn it. That hadn’t been on purpose.
“What is it, Hutch?”
“Nothing,” I said again.
“Don’t you nothing me. Tell me, or I’ll never stop until you do. You know how annoying I can be when I want to. I’ll call and text and harass you until I get my way. That’s what little sisters do.”
I chuckled. “And you’re the best at it.” With a sigh, I rubbed a hand over my face, unable to believe I was going to tell her, but then, I’d never been able to deny her anything, had I?
“It’s not a big deal. I just…met someone. It’s not serious, but—”
“Holy shit.”
“I just said it’s not serious.”
“Yeah, but you’ve gone out with hundreds of men and women, yet this is the first time you’ve told me you met someone.”
Because I haven’t really met him. I don’t even know his name. Just acknowledging that in my head made me feel ridiculous. What was I thinking? How had I let myself get wrapped up in this man when I didn’t even know what color his eyes were or the sound of his laugh? I felt like a teenager, thinking it was more than it was. “He’s just a guy, Maddy. I shouldn’t have even said anything. I’m sure it won’t go anywhere. Like I said, it’s not serious. I just like talking to him, is all.”
“Which is different in itself. That’s who we all belong with—someone we like talking to and listening to and being around.”
But I hadn’t even been around him. I wasn’t telling her any of that. Honestly, I was embarrassed by it.
“Promise me something,” she said, and I nodded. “That you’ll give it a chance. That you won’t run, and you’ll see where it can go. I’m not going to ask you for details. I know you’re private, and I understand that, but I hope one day you’ll share him with me. I really want you to trust yourself and let yourself open up to someone…because you don’t, Hutch. Not really.”
No, I didn’t.
“Just give this guy a chance, okay? Maybe it’ll be nothing, and maybe it’ll be everything. And you deserve that—to have everything. I’m not sure you know that.”
Her words hit too close to home, so I ignored them and just said, “I promise. Now can I eat my cold food? You’ve been blabbing my ear off this whole time.”
She laughed, and we dug in. I tried not to think of my mechanic or wonder if she was right and I really did deserve him.
We finished up our dinner, then went our separate ways. It was after five, so I took a car service straight back to my condo. I was surprised when I got to the north elevator to see it was down. It was a brand-new building. Things shouldn’t be breaking already.
I could have taken the stairs, but instead I made my way to the south-side elevator. I told myself it wasn’t because I was teasing destiny. I wasn’t flirting with the chance that I’d run into my mechanic, but I knew that was a lie.
Because I wanted to see him. I wanted to know the sound of his laugh, the way I’d thought earlier, which was so incredibly fucking crazy, I tried to shove the thought from my mind.
I reached the elevator and pressed the button. It took a moment for it to arrive, and then it did, the doors sliding open. It was empty, so I stepped inside. I watched as they began to close, and then a hand stuck between them, and they opened again.
“Hey, sorry, I—” The man’s words cut off as familiar hazel eyes stared back at me. Ryder was there, wearing a shirt that said Lynwood Mechanics right above his heart.
Mechanics. Ryder was a mechanic. Ryder was…
“No…” he said, and that one word made my world spin, made me hold on to the railing in the elevator, fearing I would collapse if I didn’t. “You live…here? You’re a doctor…fuck.”
The man I’d been talking to, the one I’d talked through an orgasm with just nights ago, whom I’d just told my sister I liked and she’d made me promise I’d give a chance to, was…was her ex-husband. The man who broke her heart. The man my father despised and because of whom he’d ruined an over twenty-year friendship.