Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Home.
That’s what she was for me.
And I knew, right then, before either of us said a word, that I couldn’t walk away from her a second time.
I didn’t care what it took or who we hurt in the process. For once, I wanted to be selfish. I wanted her to be selfish with me.
All I knew in that moment was that I belonged to Grace — and no one, and nothing, would keep me from making her mine.
“Fuck, Nova,” I said, inhaling her deep. “I’ve missed you so much.”
She pulled back, her eyes glossed even as she forced a smile past the emotion. “I’ve been fucking miserable without you.”
She said it on a laugh, and I laughed with her, but not at what she’d said. I laughed at the stupidity of it all, of the absolute ridiculousness that we both thought what we had was something so trivial as a flash in the pan summer romance. But I also heaved the biggest sigh of relief to hear her say that she’d been feeling the same way, to know she hadn’t already forgotten me the way I thought she had.
I needed her like I needed ice under my skates, and trying to move on from her had proven nothing except the truth I’d always known — which was that I couldn’t.
Not then. Not now. Not ever.
“You?” I said, sweeping her hair from her face. “I’ve been a pathetic fucking mess.”
She laughed again, the sound so sweet it made my chest hurt. Her eyes searched mine, and she shook her head, trailing her fingertips along the stubble on my jaw.
“I tried to stay away from you,” she whispered. “I tried to just move on and live my life without you. But I—”
“Can’t,” I finished for her, and then I couldn’t take it any longer. I tilted her chin and claimed her mouth with my own, kissing her with all the words that had been left unsaid between us. “I know,” I said against her lips. “I can’t either.”
She almost cried at that, wrapping herself around me more and kissing me like I’d disappear if she didn’t hold the connection.
“I’ve cried more in the last two months than in my entire life. Everything I do, I wish you were doing with me. Everywhere I go, I feel empty without you being there, too.”
I swore my body was breaking down with how fast my heart raced, how hard each breath came. Her words soothed me and revved me up at the same time, and my body couldn’t keep up with the emotions flooding through me.
“I know, I know,” I assured her, smoothing a hand through her hair and kissing her again. “Nothing feels right without you. Not this house, not my cars or my books, not even hockey. I feel like I’ve been carrying a hundred-pound weight and walking on the ocean floor. Everything is muted and slow.” I shook my head. “I… I am a fucking simp for you, Grace.”
She barked out a laugh. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I didn’t know if you’d feel the same, but now that I know you do… God, Jax.” She bit her lip. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
“Right now?” I was already walking us up the drive toward the house. “Many, many filthy things.”
“And after?”
My heart stuttered. “I don’t know,” I confessed. “But… we’ll figure it out. Together.”
She nodded, sliding her hands into my hair. “Together. Oh God, is this real? Please tell me this is real.”
“It’s real, baby,” I promised, kissing her as I unlocked the front door and we tumbled inside. I blindly felt for my security keypad to disarm the system, and then I was pressing Grace into the nearest wall. “I have no fucking idea how we’re going to do this without causing a shit storm,” I admitted. “But I don’t care. I love you, you little weirdo.”
She tilted her head back on the most beautiful laugh at that.
“I do,” I said, kissing her throat. “And I’m so sorry, Grace. I’m so sorry I left you, that I couldn’t see that any consequences are worth it if I get to have you in the end.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t just you. It was me, too. I didn’t see a way past it. Our lives don’t match up. We don’t make sense.”
“And yet…”
She pressed her forehead against mine. “And yet.”
My eyes closed on a long, relieved exhale. All the nervous energy drained out of me at once, and I basked in the longing and the pure fucking ecstasy it left behind.
“Grace.”
“Yes?”
“Why were you in a fucking taxi?” I shook my head. “You should have told me, I would have sent a car.”
“Well, about that… I planned on taking an Uber, but I might have lost my phone.”