Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
* * *
Early the next morning, Taylor woke up. Groggy and clearly in a lot of pain. A nurse bustled in. He checked her vitals and pain levels, gave her some more painkillers, and then headed back the way he’d come.
“Anna?” Taylor said, blinking a few times. “How long was I out?”
“Most of the night.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” I chewed on my fingernail. A habit I’d given up in college. “I got all your messages and voice mails. Just a little too late.”
“I’m sorry,” she immediately blurted out. “I should have come to you as soon as I found out how much money Bea owed that guy. It just all…” She shuddered.
“Hey, it’s okay. Whatever happened, happened. You’re going to be okay. Your leg will take a while to heal, but the doctor said that you should make a full recovery.”
“And Bea?” Taylor asked, her voice thick with emotion.
I swallowed. “I don’t know much. They won’t say anything until her parents arrive. I know she was in and out of surgery last night. They’re still working on her.”
“Jesus,” Taylor said. She slammed her eyes shut. “I can’t fucking believe this.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Taylor frowned and then shook her head.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell the police. They called me last night. That’s how I knew where you’d been taken. I think they’re going to want to file a report.”
“Okay… but not right now.”
“Okay. Dad and Ashley are flying out this afternoon. It was the soonest they could get a flight.”
“You told Dad?” she gasped and then winced.
“You’d been shot! You were in surgery. What did you expect?”
Taylor nodded, chastened. “Yeah. Of course. You’re right.”
A soft knock came from the door. I frowned and then yawned as the realization that I hadn’t slept all night hit me. I stiffly dragged myself out of the chair and went to the door. When I opened it, Court waited on the other side.
“Hi,” he said softly.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping out of the room and closing it behind me.
“I brought you breakfast.” He held up a bag stamped with the logo from my favorite bagel place. “I wasn’t sure that you’d eaten anything.”
“I haven’t,” I said. “I haven’t really left the room.”
But I didn’t move forward to take the bag.
“Has Taylor woken up?”
I nodded. “She just did. She’s in a lot of pain and worried about Bea and about my dad flying in.”
“Did she tell you what happened?”
“No. Not anything more than what I’d gathered from her texts and voice mails. I’m not pushing her. She needs time.” My eyes told him I needed time too.
“Look, I know that you’re mad,” he said. “I don’t want to push you either.”
“I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.”
He winced at the words.
“I’m disappointed because you could have come to me, you could have trusted me, you could have thought about the future. But you didn’t. All you thought about was yourself. And I’m just tired of dealing with men who only think about themselves.”
He opened his mouth like he was going to argue and then closed it. He had to know I was right.
“And this,” I said, gesturing to the bag, “is too little, too late, Court. I needed to trust you for the hardest things. For all the times we weren’t together. While I appreciate you coming to the hospital last night, it doesn’t excuse or change what happened.” I took a step back, my hand on the doorknob. “So, I’m going to go back to be with my sister. You should… go figure out how to salvage your mother’s campaign.”
“Is this the end?” he asked hoarsely. “Because I don’t want to give up on us. I won’t.”
“I don’t know. I can’t think about it right now. I need to be with Taylor.”
He swallowed hard. As if the very thought made him sick. Then, he passed me the bagel. “At least take the food.”
I sighed and took it out of his hand. I stayed where I was and watched him walk back down the hallway. It wasn’t until he was out of sight that I leaned my head against the door and squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears at bay.
34
Court
Walking away from English was… fucking horrible.
It’d been bad enough that Lark sent me away the night before. It had been the last fucking thing I wanted to do.
But I’d thought it would be better in the morning. Nope. It’d been worse.
Worse because she had a point.
I’d been an idiot.
I’d thought that I had to see Jane. I just… had to.
With the way that I was feeling for English, I needed to talk to Jane. I needed to know if it had all been real. Why she had picked me. Why?
In the end, it hadn’t even mattered. Jane had been… Jane. She was exactly the same as she had always been. Even six months in jail, in an ugly orange jumpsuit. She acted as if she had a hundred and fifty million dollars in the bank, but it just wasn’t liquid enough for her. That she’d be out in a pinch. That was why she’d pled not guilty. Why she had pushed for a quicker trial. She honestly had deluded herself into believing that she hadn’t done anything wrong.