Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
* * *
Me: I love you. Goodnight.
Baylor: Tossing in a second vote for getting the lady bits serviced.
* * *
Shit. I accidentally sent the message to my group chat with all three of my sisters. My chest aches at the sight of Baylor’s name on the screen. I really miss her.
* * *
Me: Miss you, Bay.
Baylor: Maybe if there were more servicing, you wouldn’t notice as much.
* * *
She follows her message with a string of laughing emojis.
* * *
Me: I take it back.
Baylor: Ha! I miss you, too, big sister.
* * *
Tossing my phone onto the couch, I close my eyes and let the night replay in my mind. The way he breathed my name, as if it falling from his lips was painful and a relief at the same time. The heat in his gaze as he stepped closer and tossed me over his shoulder. The instant bolt of electricity that sparked inside me as my body pressed against his.
I put up a fight, but there was also a piece of me that was thrilled to have his hands on me in any capacity after all these years.
“Drink?” Kinzie asks.
“No, thanks.” I turn to look at my best friend and find her worried expression pointed toward me. “What?”
“You know what.”
“I’ll deal.” And I will. What choice do I have? He’s here with his family, where he needs to be, and I’m where I’ve always been. I need to learn to live in this town with him. I need to learn how to do that, knowing he’s no longer mine.
“Let’s be real, Ellie. You’re hurting. Yes, I know it’s hard for you to have him back in town. I also know you’re stubborn and will try to hold it all in.” She gives me a pointed look, and I shrug. She’s right, and we both know it.
“He’s been in town before,” I counter.
She nods. “He has, but not like this. He’s been here for short visits. Visits where he never ventured into town—at least that we know of. Now, suddenly, he’s here to stay. Staying at your family's property, running into you at the Hideaway. This won’t be the last time, Ellie.”
“I know, okay? I know. Tell me how to handle this. How do I forget what he meant to me? It’s been seventeen years, and still, he’s it for me. It’s pathetic and embarrassing. I was a kid. We were kids. I should be over him. Copeland moving home shouldn’t be a big deal. He’s a piece of my past.”
“It’s not pathetic or embarrassing. You don’t choose who you fall in love with, Ellison. Love just… is. Love challenges you, changes you in ways you never could have imagined.”
“Hold on, back up the cookie truck. Is there something you’re not telling me?” My best friend blushes. “Kinzie!”
“It’s nothing. I mean, I don’t think it’s anything.”
“Tell me all the things. I need this, Kinz. Distract me.”
She smiles. “Cody Wagner.”
I nod approvingly. “He’s a DILF for sure,” I tell her.
“Right?” She laughs. “It’s nothing. Just the last couple of months, when I’ve visited the feed mill to get supplies for the office, he’s been… different. Chattier.”
“He’s been divorced for what? Five years, now?”
“That sounds about right. They were divorced by the time Carter was born.”
“And he’s five. I know because Cody brought him to go horseback riding on the estate. That’s what Carter wanted to do for his birthday.”
“So, a little over five years.” Kinzie nods. “You like him.” It’s not a question. I can tell by the gleam in her eye.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s older.”
“He’s Chandler’s age. So, forty. That’s only an eight-year age gap.”
“It feels like less of one at this age than it did when we were in high school.” She chuckles.
“Truth. So, are you going to ask him out?”
“What? No. Of course, I’m not going to ask him out. He’s just nice and easy on the eyes.”
“If my sisters were here, at least Baylor and Courtlynn, they’d tell you that your lady bits are way past due for servicing,” I snicker when I think about my messages with my sisters when we first got here.
“I think I’ll go with Leighton.”
“Oh, she’s the quiet one, but don’t let her fool you. She’s the voice of reason, so if you want to be serviced, you’d also have Leighton’s blessing. Mine, too. Not that you need it.”
“How did this get turned around on me?” she asks, grabbing the couch pillow and gripping it to her chest.
“I’d rather talk about you. Copeland and I, we’re old news. I have to find a way to let him go. Maybe his being here will help with that.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it will bring the two of you back together.”
My heart flutters at the thought. “How could I ever trust him again, Kinz? He just left me. If we were to give this another shot—hypothetically speaking, which I know is not in the cards for us—but if we did, then what happens if we have kids and he leaves again? It wouldn’t be just my heart he was breaking.”