Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Why do you think I’m back here? Knowing John, he’ll probably fall and break a hip, only to tell his hip to harden the fuck up and keep working through the pain.”
Ox laughs, a smirk playing on his lips. He knows I’m right. “Fuck. He’s a stubborn bastard.” Ox shifts nervously from one foot to another, and my brows furrow, pausing as I hover over the next box. It’s not unusual for him to spot my truck around town and stop to say hello, but it sure as fuck is unusual for him to hover nervously. He’s not the kind to mince his words. If something’s on his mind, he says it. He doesn’t give a shit about someone else’s opinion. But this right here, this isn’t him.
Something’s going on.
“Spit it out,” I grunt, scooping up the next box and shoving it onto the shelf, doing what I can to keep everything in order, but let’s be honest, John will be back here the second I leave to reorganize every single shelf.
Ox cringes, and his hesitation only pisses me off. I’m not the kind to give a shit about other people’s lives. Their drama and bullshit doesn’t interest me. Hell, people in general don’t interest me, but for some reason unknown to me, Oxley does. He’s been a pain in my ass my whole life, and after my mom passed a few months ago, he’s made it his personal mission to check in on me every fucking day.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the asshole, but not that much. Oxley Stone is an acquired taste.
“You have two fucking seconds to say what you’ve gotta say,” I murmur, knowing damn well he’ll take my warning seriously. After all, we grew up together, and he knows I don’t fuck around. If you want to piss me off, you’ll find your head shoved through the drywall. Oxley has always joked that I’m the definition of fuck around and find out. Though, I’ve certainly mellowed from those reckless teen years. There was one person, one reason that pushed me to be better. I wanted to be her everything. I wanted to be the reason for the smile on her face every fucking day, and then she was gone, and I was left with a gaping hole right through the center of my chest. It’s a wound that’s never been able to heal. No matter how hard I try, nothing has been able to mend the hollowness inside of me. So instead, I live my life just like John, two kindred spirits barely making it through the day.
Oxley inches toward me, fixing his cap back onto his head. He lets out a subtle sigh, his only indication that he’s trying his hardest to be gentle with whatever bomb is about to fly out of his mouth. “She’s back, man.”
My back stiffens, my heart thundering wildly in my chest.
He doesn’t need to tell me who she is. I already know. The whole fucking town knows about the girl who tore my heart to shreds because I’ve never been the same. We were the town’s it couple. Hell, even at sixteen, only a few short months after officially becoming an item, we had Bessy from Blushing’s grocery market and Julie who runs the town’s dance school planning our eventual wedding.
Blair fucking Wilder—the ghost who will forever haunt me.
She can’t be back.
Keeping my gaze locked on the box, I shove it onto the shelf, holding my back toward Oxley, not wanting him to see how the blood has drained from my face or the way my fingers have dug into the side of the cardboard. “So?”
“So?” he scoffs, and I can imagine the way his eyes bulge out of his head. “She’s back. Blair is in Blushing, just down the fucking road in that old cottage of her nana’s, and after the past six years of pining for her, that’s your response?”
I shrug, trying to hide the agony ripping through my chest. “What did you hope I’d say? That I’d run over there and beg on my knees for her to take me back?” I bend down and grab another box, shoving it onto the shelf with far too much enthusiasm that I hear the contents inside rattling around. “She left six years ago without a single fucking thought for the people she left behind and hasn’t been back since. She’s not interested in having me walk back into her life, and in case you haven’t figured it out, I’m not interested in having her chew me up and spit me out again.”
Oxley scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest before leaning back against the drywall. “You’re not even going to pretend to care?”
“Don’t see why I should.”
He shakes his head, and I feel the judgment wafting off him in waves. “You know why she’s here, right?” he questions.