Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
And she actually did it. She brought her all the way to the Hamptons.
My heart labors to beat in my ears, cold sweat breaking out on my skin. Where is Walt? Does he know what’s going on? I don’t think so. Wouldn’t he have warned me?
I lock eyes with Wanda and attempt an apologetic smile. A wave. She’s my best friend and I yearn to share with her that I’m in love, but I can’t. I can’t, because I’m in love with her grandfather. Eventually, Wanda taps Mrs. Linden on the shoulder and indicates the restaurant located just off the lobby. Mrs. Linden smiles blithely and glides toward the hostess station, her no-nonsense heels tapping on the marble floor.
Wanda saunters toward me slowly, arms crossed.
“Well, well, well. Back so soon from screwing my grandfather?”
My stomach sinks. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my best friend this upset. Her color is high, eyes bright with betrayal. “Wanda, please…just let me explain.”
“The way you explained you were seeing my grandfather behind my back?” She flashes her teeth at me. “Because I found out in front of my whole family when he tossed you over his shoulder and slapped your ass.”
An involuntary tremble runs through me at the memory, but I manage to hide the sudden blast of arousal and focus on my hurt best friend. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like it. I…can’t explain the reaction I had to Walt. It’s like I’d been waiting for him all my life. I would never hurt you on purpose. I just…I just couldn’t be logical when he makes me feel so illogical and…and…”
For a moment, she seems almost stunned over what I’m telling her. Dreamy almost. Like she wants to be happy for me. But in seconds, she snaps herself out of it. “Gross,” she sniffs. “Anyway, I set him up on a dinner date with Mrs. Linden and even if they don’t hit it off, he’ll realize he shouldn’t be dating someone young enough to be his granddaughter. He needs an intervention and Mrs. Linden was more than happy to drive to the Hamptons to go on a date with a four-star general.”
Her words turn garbled in my ears. I feel ill.
A dinner date?
She set them up on a date when he referred to me as his future wife earlier?
Of course, Wanda couldn’t know that. She doesn’t know that Walt wouldn’t hurt me like that. By going on a date with another woman. I start to tell her, but then I watch with my heart twisting as Walt strides across the lobby and enters the restaurant behind Mrs. Linden.
He walks past about fifty yards away without looking at me, leaving me in physical pain.
Agony.
Just like my parents. Just like my father.
Abandoning me.
Leaving me behind for something better. A happier future.
No. No, that can’t be what’s happening. He made promises to me.
But so did my father. He promised to love and protect me—and he didn’t.
“He…” I sound dazed. “He agreed to the date?”
“Of course, he did.” Wanda shrugs. “He’s already got what he wanted from you.”
The hurt elicited by that statement is jarring.
Logic is screaming at me to enter the restaurant and confirm what my heart is denying, but I can’t. If it’s true—that Walt agreed to a date with Mrs. Linden—then I don’t want to see it in the flesh. It would break me like a concrete slab dropped from a fifth-story window.
Tears rush to my eyes and glob down my cheeks. I can’t wipe them away fast enough. In seconds, I’m a mess. Drenched in tears. Holding my stomach to keep from throwing up. Wanda watched the transformation and turns pale, her smirk slowly vanishing. “Holy shit…you love him.” She opens her mouth, closes it again. “I didn’t realize, Coco. I didn’t realize it was so serious.”
“Of course, it is. It…was?” I use the edge of my dress to wipe my face, flashing my underwear to everyone in the lobby and not caring whatsoever. My world is crumbling. “I wouldn’t go behind your back unless there was something there. I just had no experience with men and then I was swept up. It all happened so f-fast.” I stumble backward, desperate to put some distance between me and the love of my life on a date with someone else. “I’ll, um…I h-have to go—”
“Coco, wait. Wait.” Wanda grasps my arm to stop me from leaving, but I pull away and start to run, knowing Wanda won’t follow me. I’ve only seen her run once and it was after the ice cream truck. “Wait, please!” she shouts after me.
But I’m hearing nothing except the rush of wind in my ears, the sound of my heart cracking down the center. Pain. That’s all I’m feeling.
And I feel it even worse when I reach the beach, jogging over a dune, tumbling end over end down the other side, a searing pain reverberating in my skull…