Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Even though it feels like my heart is shattering all over again, I know she’s not ready for this, and I don’t know if she ever will be. I try to tamp down my heartache and go off topic. “Do you know Walker?”
She jerks, and I know it’s because I’m changing the subject. I want to beg her to give me another chance, but I know we need to go at a slow pace. I’m willing to go as slowly as she needs me to if she is in my life. When she doesn’t answer me, I ask her again. “Walker? I know you’ve been gone a while, but do you remember him?”
She sits up a little taller and rolls her eyes. “Yeah. I may have been gone, but everyone in Whiskey Run knows who Walker is. What about him?”
“I was talking to him this morning, and he needs someone to redo his website. I made an appointment for us to go talk to him tomorrow.” I hold my hands up. “I know I don’t have any right to make an appointment for you, but it all happened so quickly, and I thought it would be a good thing for you to get connected with him.”
She just stares at me, speechless.
I put my hands on my hips. “Tell me if you don’t want to meet with him. I can cancel.”
She jumps up from her seat. “No!”
I laugh then, and she shifts her weight back and forth. “How? I mean, did you guilt him into meeting with me? Did you tell him about… everything?”
The bruise still shows on her face, and every time I look at it, I want to punch the wall. “I told him that I knew someone that made amazing websites—”
She puts her hand on her hip. “You don’t know if I do amazing websites—”
“I know you’re amazing at anything you do, so yeah, I know you make amazing websites. Anyway, the appointment is at nine in the morning, so I thought I’d pick you up at eight-thirty—”
“You don’t have to drive me.” She gestures toward the bay. “I mean, I know you have work to do.”
“Actually, I need to go sign something, so you’d be doing me a favor.”
She tilts her head to the side, and I continue, “You know, to keep me company.”
She wraps her hands around each other. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good.” She’s practically bouncing on her toes. “I’m so nervous. I need to research what his website looks like now, do some analyzing, make a list of ideas and—”
I laugh. “Well, I’ll let you get to work.”
She sits back down in her seat, and I walk over to the office door. Before I get through the door, she calls my name. “Dom.”
I hear the hesitancy in her voice. “Yeah, honey?”
She’s searching my eyes, and a part of me hopes she’s going to talk to me about my confession, but I know she won’t because it’s obvious she’s not ready. “Thank you.”
I wave her off. “Of course.”
She doesn’t let it go, though. “I’m serious. I know our past was…” Her voice trails off, and I wait for her to continue. “Well, just, I appreciate you doing all this for me. The car, the office space, the meeting tomorrow.” She looks down at her hands as she continues to talk. “It’s been hard coming back here, and well, I can honestly say that you have made it easier. I appreciate you, I really do.”
I put my hand on the doorway. “I know you may not believe this, honey, but I’d do anything for you. Anything at all.”
Before she can respond, I walk out of the office and try to focus on my job at hand, but the whole time, all I can think about is the fact that the love of my life is right in the next room, and she may never be mine. Somehow—some way—I need to fix this… I just don’t know how.
11
LUCIANA
I drop my bottle of makeup into the sink basin and cringe at the loud sound of it hitting the porcelain. I hold my hands up, waiting for shards of glass to go everywhere, but instead, the makeup spills out, making a mess. I grip the edge of the sink, close my eyes, and it takes everything in me not to scream. This morning is not a good one. After tossing and turning most of the night, I finally gave up on sleep and spent more time researching Walker’s rehabilitation center online. I’m as prepared as I can be. I’ve looked at everything, and I have some great suggestions for him.
Now if only I could feel as confident about my personal life.
Besides studying Walker’s current websites, I spent a lot of time thinking about everything Dom said to me yesterday. Can I believe what he said? How can I? I mean, has he really gone seventeen years without having sex? That doesn’t seem possible to me unless he’s telling the truth. He just wasn’t physically able to perform.