Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
I rub the back of my neck and get in the truck. We’re really doing this. Skipping out in the middle of the night so we don’t get caught. I think I’ve seen this movie before, but no music was allowed in the small town either. Or dancing.
Releasing the brake, I start the engine but am quick to hit the radio to make sure there’s no noise. Since I have no plans to dance, I think we’re safe. Though I shut the headlights off just in case. I start a slow roll backward, trying to make as little noise as possible, and finally reach a safe distance from the house. This is good. I’m not going to have her running a half mile to catch up to me.
I wait.
And wait even longer.
I check my watch to see that fifteen minutes have passed. I don’t remember the ending of that movie, but I have a strong suspicion that he got the girl. At least, I hope so.
Then, an angel appears in the moonlight. Her hair catches in the breeze, her dress flowing behind her, a bag in her hands, and a smile that beats any sunrise set on her face. I reach over and pop the door open for her.
“Did you miss me?” she asks, tossing her bag in the back seat and climbing in.
“I always do.” I lean over and kiss her. “Buckle up, and let’s get out of here.”
We’re not far from the ranch when I can tell the excitement begins to wear off—she’s gone quiet, the smile that she had has smoothed to a more even line, and her attention has remained out her window since crossing the cattle guard.
I reach over to rub her shoulder, which brings her eyes back to me. “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine.” I’m tempted to believe she is by her voice holding steady. There’s no shake or uncertainty heard. She says, “What are we doing?”’
“Staying together?”
“No, I mean with our relationship. Our love for each other shouldn’t hurt the people we care about.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Tell that to my family.” She waves her hand out in the cab. “We’re still sneaking around even though we went public. Help me understand, Tagger, because I’m starting to lose faith that this will work out and keep my family intact.”
I pull off to the side of the road. It’s not a conversation we can have in my boyhood bedroom with my son sleeping in the room below it and my parents across the hall from him. Voices travel in that house. I learned that early on.
And right there is how fucking ridiculous this situation has become.
Gripping the steering wheel, I stare out at the two-lane road ahead, not another car in sight. I don’t want to say it, but this is the line we always knew we’d have to cross one day. “You’re right.” I keep my eyes steady ahead, needing to say it, to get it out there so we can’t avoid it anymore. “We can’t keep doing this.”
Even in the dimly lit cab of the truck, I can see her staring at me in the periphery. I don’t look, not straight on. We should have already had this conversation. “What are you saying?”
“We need to make the hard decisions.”
I know damn well most of those decisions fall on my shoulders, and they’re not being made yet because I’m in limbo with my son’s mom.
With her elbow secured on the door, she rests her head on her fisted hand and stares at me. “Do you care to elaborate?”
“I made your brother a promise when I was barely a man. I guess he planned to hold me to it until the day I died.”
“It was a ridiculous promise that you guys should have never made in the first place. If he’s going to make you choose between me and him, well . . .” Her gaze flows through the windshield into the dark road ahead. She sits up and looks right at me. “You don’t have to choose for me. You don’t even have to choose me over your best friend. You need to do what’s right for you and for Beckett. I’ll understand if I’m not what’s best for your lives. I won’t like it, but one day, I’ll look back and remember how great it was to love you. Even if only for a short time in our lives.”
How did we end up talking about a life without each other when we should be planning our futures? I reach over and rub the back of her neck. Watching her eyes close and her giving in to my touch doesn’t help me decide. I already knew who I’d choose.
“Baylor can call me a traitor all he wants. I’m not willing to lose you, babe. I just need time to figure out how to do this better because seeing you once a month isn’t enough.”