Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“I told you I don’t have anything.”
He turns before I can read his features and grabs his phone. “Well, you figured out how to break into my house. Pretty sure you can figure out how to break into my closet.”
Laughter falls from my lips as he disappears into the kitchen again. The sliding glass door that leads to the back of the house opens and then closes. That was easy.
This could’ve gone so differently. Luke could’ve been an asshole, and it would’ve been justified. Maybe our breakup wasn’t contentious, but I am his ex-girlfriend. Even though I haven’t seen a serious girlfriend or a wife on his social media, that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Without a woman in his life, he still could’ve been pissed that I waltzed into his house without so much as a hello. Luke could’ve walked straight out the door after telling me to get out and I couldn’t have blamed him.
I grin. But he didn’t.
He was Luke, the easygoing, good-natured, gold-hearted man who would give you the shirt off his back. Or out of his closet. It’s no wonder I once loved this man.
The stillness descends upon me again almost immediately. This time, it doesn’t feel like it will swallow me whole. Instead, it’s almost a gift. It’s space for me to get my head together and figure out what to do.
I glance down at the fabric pooling all around me.
“First things first,” I say, setting my glass on the table. “Let’s get out of this thing.”
I head upstairs to Luke’s room.
Chapter Four
Luke
“I don’t know. Maybe I could stay here?”
My steps fall faster, putting more distance between me and … her.
What is she doing here?
Laina Kelley and her bright blue eyes and dirty-blond hair is the last person I expected to see at all, let alone inside my damn house.
Sweat drips down my back. It has nothing to do with the sun. I swing open the barn doors with more gusto than necessary and step inside.
Rarely do I feel unable to manage a situation. Sure, I sometimes present things to my family with a little extra drama just to keep them on their toes. It’s a good time. But it’s not very often that I find myself in a situation that actually scares the shit out of me.
Laina chose to come here. What the hell?
“What do I do now?” I ask the empty horse stalls.
My body buzzes with a rush of excitement and a flood of adrenaline. I played it cool—I think I did, anyway. I didn’t let her see how much she caught me off guard. But my ability to be controlled and sufficiently detached whittled away at record speed as she looked up at me with unguarded vulnerability.
She may not be mine anymore, but I’d still kill for this girl. That’s a complicated and dangerous place to be.
“I just need to process that she’s here,” I say, pacing the walkway. “Let’s set aside the fact that she broke in without talking to me for years. I’ll deal with her lack of boundaries later and how she stormed into my personal space like we were twenty years old again and made herself at home.”
A grin tickles my lips. I fight it. I try my hardest to stave it off. But the knowledge that Laina knew she could still come to me when she needed help is the best damn thing I’ve heard in a long time.
“Deal with that later,” I tell myself. “Right now, I gotta get my shit straight and get a plan together before I make a fool out of myself.”
I pull a folding chair from against the wall and pop it open. Sitting down, I find my phone and look for Gavin’s name.
“Hey, Luke. What’s going on?” he asks after two rings.
“I kinda have a situation over here.”
“Again?” He sighs. “Dammit, Luke.”
“No. Stop. It’s not like that.”
“It never is.”
I sigh heavily and look at the ceiling. “I mean it.”
“You always do.”
Asshole. “Look, I’m calling you because—”
“Because Mallet won’t answer,” he says.
I start to protest, but that’s true. Mallet won’t answer. He blocked me after I sent him too many texts late at night because apparently training for a big professional fight is more important than humoring your little brother.
“And Chase might answer,” Gavin says, “but he’ll make you regret it.”
Can’t argue that one either.
“You could call Kate,” he says. But no one calls Kate with a situation unless you want it blown out of proportion and given the most expensive, over-the-top, time-consuming solution known to man. “Even you aren’t that desperate.”
I suck a breath between my teeth. “I don’t know. I might be.”
“Good. Call her, then.”
“Gavin, stop being a fuckhead. I need your help.”
He groans to ensure I don’t get comfortable calling him for help. Gavin is unequivocally my best friend, but the guy has weaknesses like everybody. He’s a great problem solver and is totally a people person. He just doesn’t like to be my problem solver or involve himself with my people issues.