Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Before I can ask her what that means, she goes on. “People are saying you're crazy for walking away from the game right now. Some even say you are having a mental break.” She looks up at me worriedly. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”
I tilt my head to the side. She acts like she doesn’t want anything to do with me, but she’s worried about me. Just a little bit of hope flares in my chest. “I don't care what people think about me,” I huff in a breath. “Do you believe any of it? Do you think I’m about to go into rehab or that I’m going crazy?”
She instantly shakes her head. “No, I know you have some reason you’re doing this, but—”
I nod. “I do have a reason. I’m doing it because I love you.”
She blurts out a laugh, but I continue. “I know what I'm doing. I know what I want. And nothing is going to stop me from having you, Izz.”
The wind starts to pick up, and she pulls at her coat. I put a hand on her shoulder, and we both freeze. There are layers between us, but just touching her like this makes me want her more. For the longest time, I’ve dreamed of being this close to her. I want to pull her into my arms and hold her, but the ways she’s looking right now, she will bolt. I turn her in the direction of her office. “Come on, I’ll walk you back.”
We walk in silence for a few minutes, and she stops outside her office. “This is me.”
I nod, leaving out the part that I know exactly where she works. Hell, I know where she lives, where she shops, who her friends are. I know it all. I’m obsessed. She hooks a thumb over her shoulder. “I really should go.”
“When can I see you again?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t do this right now, Ryker.”
Without another word, she turns to walk away. I stand here on the sidewalk, hands in my coat pockets as I watch her. She opens the door to go inside, but at the last second, she turns around and looks at me. Even from here, I can see the curiosity on her face. I lift a hand and wave at her.
She doesn’t wave back, but she does smile at me, and that’s enough to give me just a little bit of hope that everything is going to work out.
CHAPTER 6
IZZY
“Okay. What's up with you?” Caroline asks me later in the afternoon. I was able to dodge her when I got back from my lunch break, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all day. She’s my best friend, and of course I want to talk to her about this, but I also don’t know what to make of all of it. I might as well tell her, though, because by tomorrow, everyone in town will know that I walked around the center of town with Ryker Kirby.
“I saw him today.”
I don't even have to say his name because she knows who “he" is.
“Oh my God. When? How? What happened?”
“On my walk at lunch. He came up and sat down next to me.” I think back and wonder if I hadn't been crying, would he have stopped?
Caroline sits down in the chair next to me. “Did he tell you why he quit? Why he's in town?”
I’m still shocked from that little bombshell he dropped on me. He seemed adamant that he’s in town for me, but that’s crazy. We haven’t seen each other in twenty years. There has to be more to it. I’m looking at the computer screen in front of me. “Uh yeah, uh, he said he was in town for me. He said he saw I changed my status to single on social.”
She gasps beside me, and I turn to look at her. She's shocked, but I get it. I was the same way. I blow out a breath. “He thinks I cheated on him. He thinks that's why I broke up with him.”
“You told him, right? He knows why you broke up with him now?”
I shake my head, and I can feel Caroline getting riled beside me. She was by my side back then, and she’d begged and pleaded with me to tell him what was going on, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew if he knew the truth, he would have stayed and then resented me for it later on. “I never told him.”
“Isabel,” Caroline admonishes.
I shrug, as if it’s not a big deal. “It's done. It was twenty years ago, and it's over.”
She laughs. “Yeah, uh, maybe you should tell him that.”
I throw my hands up. “I tried.”
Caroline swings my chair around so I’m forced to look at her. “Isabel, listen to me. You deserve to be happy. I know you don’t feel like it, but you do. Your husband cheating on you was not your fault.”