Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Oh, did he not tell you he’s gotten another woman pregnant?”
“He left out a lot,” I whisper.
“I bet he did.” She nods, focusing on Benjamin once again.
“Go on. Tell me how Hanna—” She looks at me. “It is Hanna, isn’t it?”
I nod stupidly. “Right.” She turns back to him. “Tell me about how Hanna is just a coworker and how I’m just confused about you cheating on me with multiple women and having a baby with one of them.”
I glance around the room, half-expecting someone to jump out and tell me this is some kind of messed-up practical joke. It has to be; this kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life. Of course, there is no camera crew or show host hidden in the room, but I do become very aware of just how much attention is on the three of us.
With my cheeks hot and my throat burning, I turn back to Ben, who has always seemed so sure of himself but now looks ready to pass out. The color has drained from his handsome face, and there’s sweat dotting his forehead.
“I think I should go,” I say quietly, scooting my chair back.
“Don’t leave on my account. After this conversation, he’s all yours.” Terry shoots me a smile that doesn’t meet her eyes.
“I don’t want him,” I assure her softly, grabbing my coat and my bag without sparing either of them another look. I carefully maneuver my way through the restaurant, avoiding all the eyes I feel on me as I make my way across the room.
Skin flush with embarrassment, and tears filling my eyes, I step out the door into the cool evening air and relish the deep breath I’m able to take as I stop at the edge of the sidewalk.
“He was a piece of shit, Hanna. No man worth anything would play games like that.” Walker’s deep voice breaks through the memory, and I swallow hard.
“I agree, but that situation shined a light on how naïve and ignorant I am when it comes to men.”
“You trusted him.”
“I did. I also actively avoided every single red flag waving right in front of my face, and not just with him, but with every guy I’ve been with.”
“So, because of that, you aren’t open to exploring things with me?” he asks, and the question hangs over us like a storm cloud, because I honestly don’t know how to answer it.
I don’t want to get hurt, and after the last two days, I know the pain he has the potential to cause me is something I might not recover from.
CHAPTER 7
walker
Looking down at the top of Hanna’s head, as she sleeps soundly with her cheek on my chest, her arm across my abs, and her knee cocked over my hip, I try to talk myself into getting up, so I can be gone before the sun starts to rise. But every fucking time I think about making a move to get out of bed, a tightness hits my chest, paralyzing me. I know in my gut there’s no way this will be the last time I’ll have her like this, but she’s got it in her head that we have an end date, and that day is today.
Drawing in a breath, I slowly untangle myself from her, then freeze when she stirs. She doesn’t wake but curls around the pillow I was lying on, so I grab my shorts off the floor and put them on, then quietly gather my shit, shoving it all in my bag. I give her one last, long look before I walk around the bed to where her cell is plugged in, and take it off the charger.
She might have her plan for how things between us are going to go, but I have my own.
CHAPTER 8
hanna
Waking to the hotel phone ringing loudly, I roll over and answer it with a groggy “Hello?”
“Ms. Mayson, this is your seven o'clock wake-up call,” a woman greets, and I blink totally confused since I didn’t ask for a wake-up call. Grabbing my cell phone from the nightstand, I find it dead. Looking past it to the alarm clock, my heart drops into my stomach when I see it is, in fact, seven in the morning, which means I have exactly one hour to get to the airport that is at least thirty minutes away.
“Oh my God.” I drop the phone into its cradle without even saying “thank you” and toss back the blanket before spinning to where Walker is.
Or was.
I stare at his empty spot on my bed for a long moment, trying to dissect the emotion suddenly weighing heavy in my stomach. I know I shouldn’t be upset that he left without waking me to say goodbye, but telling myself that does nothing to ease the disappointment wrapping around my insides like a vise.