Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“Wy?” Sawyer’s looking at me. “Your turn.”
I need to stop spacing, or I’m gonna lose for the first time in…well, for as long as I can remember.
Glancing at the table, I see that Sawyer’s folded. No surprise there—he’s a conservative player. Has been since Ella was born.
“Let’s see just how good that hand of yours is, Colt.” I shove my remaining chips into the center of the table, the stacks toppling into a pile with a series of quiet clicks. “I’m all in.”
Colt grins, and unease slices through my center as I watch him push his chips into the pot. There’s gotta be north of four grand on the table right now.
And somehow, before Colt even lays down his cards, it hits me that I really have lost. Not just the hand. But Sally too. Her asking me to be her fake date was the perfect opportunity for me to ask her if she’d be my real girlfriend.
Her telling me she hasn’t been touched in a while—has she ever been touched the way I’d touch her?—was the perfect opportunity for me to show her how it was done.
She wants the shit that I’m good at giving, and yet I didn’t say a fucking word. I just agreed to her plan and have been an angsty, distracted mess ever since.
But I can’t be honest because I can’t fuck with her head. Sally needs to go back to New York and become the world’s best veterinary surgeon. I know she’s capable of great things. She’s second-guessing her decision to return to Ithaca University now, but I know she’ll regret not taking a chance on herself.
Being honest with her about how I feel wouldn’t do either of us any favors. Especially now that I know she’s having doubts about the job she’s worked toward for basically her entire life.
Fuck me for falling in love with a girl who was never, ever going to be mine.
Colt wears a shit-eating grin as he lays down a straight flush. The table erupts in hollers and whistles, and then I feel all eyes turn to me.
Usually, I’d relish the attention. I’d add to the drama by pausing or pretending to be taken off guard.
But tonight, I’m too tired to give a shit. I’m the opposite of relaxed and fun and easy, and I don’t care who knows it.
My mask slips. I throw my cards across the table and shove up to my feet. Everyone stares at me in stunned silence.
“Wyatt?” Sawyer’s brows are pulled together. “You okay?”
“I’m…not feeling great.” I nod at Colt. “Enjoy the steak.”
Then I turn and dart up the stairs.
The night is cold and clear, the sky lit up with so many stars that it makes me dizzy to look at them. My breath is visible in a small white cloud as I open the passenger door of my truck and rummage around inside the glove compartment.
I’m taking a long, deep inhale of my cigarette when Sawyer emerges from the bar, hands in his pockets.
I wait for him to rib me for smoking. Instead, he does what brothers do and goes right for the jugular.
“You’re not sick. You’re in love with Sally.”
I take another pull on the cigarette, the nicotine making my chest tighten and my head buzz. I don’t say a word.
“And y’all had fun today on your little ride down by the river, and you’re realizing that the more you’re around her, the more you want her, and that ain’t ever gonna stop. But you think you can’t have her because you’d be holding her back.”
I drop the hand holding my cigarette against my leg and look up at the sky.
“For the record, I think you’re wrong. You couldn’t hold Sally back if you tried. No one can.”
“What does that mean?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Sally’s a grown woman. She’s the one who gets to decide what’s good for her and what’s not.”
I think about the joke I cracked with her earlier about assuming making you an ass. Am I being an ass, too, assuming I need to stay out of Sally’s way?
Sally is a great fucking friend. I want to be great to her too. I don’t know when doing that became so complicated.
“She’s going to New York. And my life is here, Sawyer. It’s where I belong. I’m gonna stay in Hartsville forever, if only so I can be a pain in your ass for the rest of our lives.”
My brother cocks a brow. “We’ll be just fine without you, thank you very much. Why’re you so scared to leave?”
“I don’t know.” My turn to lift a shoulder as I hold my cigarette between my thumb and forefinger and take a drag. “I feel like Rivers stay put. Leaving…” I swallow the sudden tightness in my throat. “It feels like the coward’s way out. And I love it here. I love what I do. I love y’all, even though I hate you sometimes.”