Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“He should have told you. There’s no question. But maybe you’re using this to put up walls. You’ve done it for years. Intimacy scares you, and the fact it’s with Ashton…”
She doesn’t need to finish that train wreck of a thought. There’s too much risk with Ash—not just his record with women, but the idea of ruining what we have. I’ve known it from the start. But that didn’t stop me from taking the leap toward concrete over him. He could have knocked up a hundred girls, and I wouldn’t love him any less.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Give it some time. You guys have been dancing around each other for years. I don’t think my brother is going anywhere.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Ashton
“You’ve been in a shitty mood all day,” Bryce says as he pops off the top of his second beer.
I’ve barely put a dent in my first. I gaze down at the bottle in my hands, not really wanting it but sipping it anyway. If I’ve been in a shitty mood, it’s because it’s been a shitty week. Corinne has turned into the clingiest woman I’ve ever met, and if she weren’t pregnant with my kid, I would have put a stop to it before it started.
“What can I say? It’s been a shit day.”
Not even Corinne’s incessant demands managed to get my mind off Sadie, and the longer she shuts me out, the more I want to barge into her apartment and make her fucking talk to me. But she asked for space, and I’m determined to give it to her, especially since my sister chewed me out the day after Sadie left me at the hotel. Mandy’s pissed I hurt her best friend, and she claims Sadie just needs some time.
But staying away has never been so hard.
And facing fatherhood has never been so terrifying.
“You having issues with the ladies?” Bryce asks.
I can’t help but laugh, but it comes out more of a snort.
“That bad, huh?” He takes another long draw from his beer.
“Corinne’s pregnant.”
His eyes go wide. “Holy shit. For real?”
“Yep.” I take a sip of my own beer, but it tastes like piss. Or maybe I’m just not in the mood to muddy shit up with the haze of alcohol. I set the bottle aside.
“At the risk of sounding like an insensitive ass, are you sure it’s yours?”
“She says it is.”
“Man, that’s a tough blow. Is she keeping it?”
“Yeah. It might sound insane, but I wouldn’t want her to get an abortion anyway.”
“Wow, so you guys are doing this.”
“Having a child together? Yeah, but that’s it. Corinne and I aren’t…” I trail off, unable to say the words. The truth is just…harsh. If I were really manning up about this, I’d try to make it work. It’s not as if I don’t care about Corinne.
“Still scared shitless of commitment, huh?” He shakes his head before taking another drink. “You’re going to be a bachelor until the day you die.”
“I’m not scared of commitment. She’s not the one, Bryce.”
He arches a surprised brow. “I didn’t know you believed in that stuff.”
“Me either.”
Not really. Not on a level beyond the subconscious. Until recently.
I’m about to spill about the mess I’ve gotten myself into with Sadie when a knock on the door derails my intentions. My heart leaps at the hope it’s Sadie, even as it nosedives at the thought that she feels the need to knock. I cross the living room and fling open the door, and the scowling face of Joseph Sawyer stares back.
“We need to talk,” he says, then without preamble, he turns around and walks toward the black SUV waiting at the curb.
“What the hell was that about?” Bryce asks from behind me.
“That would be about Sadie.”
“Sadie Sawyer?”
“Yep. That’s her father.”
“What’s he doing here? He looked ready to disembowel you, man.”
“I’m sure he is.” As I grab my coat by the door and pull it on, I eye Bryce. “Because Sadie is the one.”
Bryce lets out a low whistle as I step onto the porch. “Good look out there.”
The thing about Joseph Sawyer? One doesn’t need luck to deal with him. One just has to have a strong ass backbone. He’s never intimidated me, and that’s probably why he hates my guts.
He’s waiting by the vehicle, one hand on the open door to the backseat. A mist-like rain falls, but he seems impervious to it. “After you,” he says, gesturing to the back of the running SUV, and I toy around with the idea that he’s planning to kill me and dump my body somewhere.
I slide in, and Joe takes the seat next to me before shutting the door and closing us off from the chill of nightfall. The driver remains facing straight ahead as if we aren’t in the backseat.
“What’s this about?” I ask.
“Sadie was foolish enough to quit her job. But I’m sure you already know that.”