Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rio
I had been doing everything I could to not think about Bryn. I hadn’t laid eyes on her in fifteen days. Shouldn’t that be enough time to get the fuck over it? Instead, she was all I could think about anymore. She was the main show in my fantasies. I’d woken up after dreaming about her yet again with need of a shower to give myself some relief.
I had tried going out with Drake and picking up someone to get my mind off Bryn. I couldn’t even find someone who interested me. Drake was so damn confused when I left a smoking-hot redhead at the bar with the excuse of a headache. I had been disgusted with myself.
What was wrong with me? Was it the unknown?
Bryn had a damaged past, a shit-ton of baggage, but I had to accept that I didn’t care. Not anymore. I’d seen too much. I knew she was still the same deep down. All the shit I had been so sure had changed her hadn’t.
I had been so damn relieved when I pulled into the parking lot at her apartment that I hadn’t even noticed her car wasn’t there. Giving in and coming to see her felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. I wanted to see her. Fuck all the reasons it might be a bad idea.
I looked down at my phone again. I’d been sitting on the stairs, waiting on her, for over thirty minutes now. It was eight in the morning. Where the hell could she be? What if there was an emergency with Cullen? Why the fuck hadn’t I saved her number in my phone?
Just before I started to call Henley to get Bryn’s number from her, I heard Cullen’s voice. When I looked up from my phone, Cullen was standing at the bottom of the stairs, smiling up at me.
“It’s Rio!” he called out over his shoulder, and then Bryn appeared.
She looked like she had just woken up, and I realized Cullen was still in pajamas.
“Hey,” she said, placing a hand on Cullen’s shoulder.
“I, uh—is everything okay?” I asked, wondering why they would have woken up and left the house so quickly.
“Yes,” she replied. “I was going to ask you the same question.”
I hadn’t thought through what I was going to say or do once I got here. I’d just had to see her. “You look like you just got out of bed,” I pointed out.
She glanced down at the T-shirt and shorts she was wearing, then laughed. “Oh yeah. Well, we did.”
“Aunt Bryn is going to cook breakfast. Did you come to eat with us?” Cullen asked.
There was still no explanation for why they were in pajamas.
I looked from Cullen back to Bryn. “If I’m invited, I would love to,” I said, watching her face closely for her reaction to my staying.
“Of course,” she said quickly, then frowned.
Cullen started up the stairs to meet me and took my hand to pull me toward their door.
“We stay the night at Marley’s, but we leave early and don’t eat there,” Cullen said. “I’m always real hungry when we get home.”
Who was Marley?
“I bet,” I replied while watching Bryn unlock the door.
She opened it up and stepped back to let Cullen run inside.
“Go use the bathroom and wash your hands,” she called out to him, then looked back at me. “What is wrong? Did someone get out of jail? Are we in danger?” she asked in a low whisper.
I shook my head. “No. Has someone been bothering you? Who is Marley?”
She sighed in relief, and her shoulders relaxed. “No one has bothered us. I just saw you and thought there had to be a serious reason to bring you here and agree to stay for breakfast.”
She still hadn’t answered my question.
“Who is Marley?” I repeated.
She closed the door, locked it, and turned back to me. “My boss. She has a baby, and Cullen stays at her house with the sitter. He goes to bed there, and I come there after work. We sleep there and then come home in the mornings.”
So, she was back at work.
“I see,” I replied. “How long have you been back to work?”
“Two weeks,” she said, walking toward the kitchen. “Do you want some coffee?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“What brings you here if not to tell me bad news?” she asked.
She was back to working topless in front of dozens of men every night. I had come here to be around her. See if we might … hell, I wasn’t even sure. But was her job going to drive me crazy? If we spent time together, wouldn’t I have to deal with that too? I didn’t know, but I did know I couldn’t get her out of my head.
“I wanted to see you,” I admitted. Might as well be truthful.