Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Stones struck her breast, one by one, but she didn’t allow the impact to show on her face. He’d never spoken to her so coldly. Not ever. This isn’t him. “I’m sorry this happened. I’m sorry.” She reached for his hand, slipping their fingers together. For the briefest of seconds, his grip tightened, eyes closing, nostrils flaring, but then he abruptly let go.
“I told you this would happen, Tallulah. Once I got medicine and doctors and trainers involved, instead of toughing it out on my own, like I always have, that there would be a domino effect. That those things would ruin me.” His tone was harsh, so harsh, and it cut into her like a scalpel. “But you knew better, didn’t you?”
Stay strong. “You’re hurting and taking it out on me, but that’s fine. Go ahead.”
“Yeah, you’re real tough now.” He looked at the wall, not her, his right hand fisting in the sheet, like speaking was costing him an effort. Or maybe it was the words themselves. “Wasn’t it just a few days ago you walked away because a twelve-year-old was mad at you?”
How long had she been inside this hospital room? Two minutes and she already felt punched full of holes. What kind of pain would ten more minutes bring? “I did what I thought was best. I still think I made the right decision.”
“Good for you, gorgeous. The right decision is to stay away.” He flicked a look at the door. “Go. Please. Go.”
“Why?”
“Because I fucking hate you seeing me like this,” he growled. “Get out.”
“No.”
The hurt was only going to escalate until she gave up and left. Maybe . . . she should go and come back later? Once he’d had a chance to digest the present and future? Maybe she’d come at too raw of a time? Maybe all that could be accomplished tonight was saying words he couldn’t take back and she should leave before that happened—
“Did you think you would fly here and say something inspirational to make all the difference? That’s not happening.” His throat worked with a swallow. “I’m done with hockey and we both know it, Tallulah. It has never been more pathetically obvious that you’re too young for me. If you think I’m going to have my college student girlfriend help me walk again after this surgery, you’re dead wrong. I would have rather died out on the ice.”
“Do you think my impression of you . . . or my belief in you has changed, because you’re hurt? That’s ridiculous. People get hurt.”
“I don’t. I’m not supposed to,” he shouted. “I can’t even look at you when I’m like this. I’m fucking begging you to leave.”
“No.”
His upper lip curled, cogs turning behind his bloodshot eyes and she could see it, the death blow was coming. Her feet stuck to the ground like cement, an almost morbid curiosity toward what he could cook up to make her go keeping her in place.
“I don’t want you here.”
“I need to be here,” she whispered, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice.
He looked away sharply at that, jaw flexing furiously.
Burgess was not unaffected. He didn’t mean the terrible things coming out of his mouth. She was close to getting through to him, and that belief caused courage to well in her chest. She had no idea of the source, only that she was grateful for it. Clinging to it with both hands. “I came here to tell you I love you.” Her heart got stuck in her throat halfway through that sentence, making her words run together, high-pitched and breathy. Speaking that truth was freeing. The greatest adventure of all. And at the moment, the scariest. “Don’t shut me out. We’ll get through this.”
He started at her confession, his blue gaze deepening in color, that large chest starting to pulse up and down. He opened his mouth to speak, then snapped it shut.
Another handful of seconds passed.
“You think you’re strong enough to get me through this? You’re not a coward who walks away, right?” His voice turned almost unnatural, like he was rushing to get the words out or he’d lose his nerve. “But there’s a ziplock full of postcards in your purse that say different.”
Those words rang so loudly in her ears that she didn’t even hear the nurses entering the room, didn’t see them until they were surrounding Burgess, checking his blood pressure and asking him questions. He didn’t answer them, continuing to stare at Tallulah as she backed toward the door, hardly able to feel her feet on the linoleum.
Cold shock swallowed her in one bite. This wasn’t the Burgess she’d fallen in love with. He was unrecognizable. A different man altogether. He’d fooled her. Tricked her into thinking he was different. Lulled her into a sense of complacency, before ripping off the mask. Perhaps not as bad as the man who’d locked her in a closet with the intention of killing her, but emotional cruelty brought its own brand of injuries. And as she continued to back toward the exit, those open wounds started to hemorrhage.