Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Maybe stupidly he thought he could soften the blow to Gracen—bring it up last minute like an afterthought because he didn’t want her to overthink it. She did that a lot.
Overthinking everything.
It had become painfully clear to him, especially after the way she reached for him under the covers to tuck herself as close as possible to him the same way she did every time the two of them found themselves in bed together, that a part of her found comfort in him, too.
Malachi had stumbled into lust more than once over his lifetime, but he never stuck around long enough to love the woman he’d been focused on staying inside. As crude as that was, at least he could admit it. However, he’d never once found himself craving another person every waking moment of each of his days until Gracen Briggs walked herself into his life. It couldn’t be random how the two of them fit so seamlessly next to one another or the way the world seemed less harsh with her there to soften it.
Everything looked less lonely.
Imagine that.
He also couldn’t ignore how they were practically passing strangers on the outside looking in. Two people who had spent a couple of weeks together cumulatively if it were all added up in a neat little row. Sure, every late-night phone call took them into the wee hours of the morning as their conversations could be endless, so it wasn’t like they hadn’t shared their lives.
He knew her favorite color was blue. That she couldn’t get in a vehicle for a year after her parents’ fatal accident. More than anything in the world, she wanted a kitten and maybe a puppy, too, but her current landlord wouldn’t allow animals.
The woman was a self-starter. A survivor. She got shit done. She loved her job—and complained about it as much as she praised it, but she’d also admitted to him once that it felt like the safe choice at the end of the day. If given another opportunity, what might she choose to do?
Maybe they didn’t have the physical time together, but what mattered was there. So yeah, these moments they had together felt sacred. He hated to make it end.
Malachi wasn’t blind. He could see the dichotomy in his circling inner thoughts while he snuggled Gracen in her bed, but it was a double-edged sword.
Fucked either way.
He’d never done this before.
The distance.
Would it kill it?
This thing between them that felt familiar and new meant something to him. He’d sought closeness in other people in different ways, but there hadn’t been someone like Gracen who pulled down his carefully built walls as if they were paper and slipped against his skin like a warm blanket every time they touched. Wasn’t that the universe trying to show him something? He could tell her every secret, if she’d just listen.
If they had the time ...
If she wanted to know.
“Hey,” Malachi mumbled against Gracen’s forehead.
He’d wandered off aimlessly in his thoughts for long enough that his silent breathing had started to match hers. But while his was caused by internal distraction relaxing his body, hers came from sleep. Well, almost.
His voice was all she needed to hear to peel her eyes open.
Gracen tipped her head back and blinked up at Malachi. Cute, and sleepy. “Hey,” she whispered back.
Under the blankets their arms and legs found their way around and over one another. He was a boxers-in-bed kinda guy, so the fact that she slept in cotton panties and sports bras kept them tangled close together in their warmth. In the darkness of the room, with the bed’s duvet pulled high around them and only a lamp on the bedside table for a bit of light, all he could see was the shadows of her face.
The side of her curved lips.
How her lashes framed her cheeks.
Tell her, his heart demanded.
How much longer could he wait?
“Chip called,” Malachi lied.
It was for the best.
He forced himself to think that way.
To believe it.
The news perked Gracen up in bed even more, blinking fast. “Oh?”
He found sadness when she pulled the blanket back a bit more, and the shadows between them went away. Malachi untangled from her and rolled to his back. There, he stared at the ceiling because it was easier than lying to her face.
“Yeah, when I stepped outside earlier,” he said.
Her next breath washed against the side of his arm. She didn’t say anything but stroked her fingertips down his arm and wrist, trailing the thick veins she’d proclaimed to like best about his arms.
The silence urged him to speak.
Lie again, really.
“He’s got a small project starting up tomorrow and could use another guy. I didn’t feel right saying no.”
If there was trouble brewing inside the church on the hill, he’d keep her far away from it. Starting now.