Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
It was all lies.
There was nothing innocent about him
“You can stay in one of the apartments. And watch the game there,” Travis told him as he tucked the blanket around her legs.
“But it’s so boring watching it by yourself.”
“Let him watch it here,” she said quietly. “It doesn’t bother me. And I’m the intruder here.”
Like usual.
To her shock, both men shot her chiding looks.
“You’re not an intruder and I won’t have you speak about yourself like that, understand me?” Travis pointed at her.
“Yeah, don’t know why you’d say an idiot thing like that,” Tyler told her. “We’ve known you for years, Caren.”
“And then I just upped and disappeared without a word.”
Tyler shrugged. “Everyone has shit in their lives that they can’t talk about. I’m sure you had your reasons. And you were a kid, right?”
“Fifteen, nearly sixteen.”
“Yeah, so a kid. Don’t sweat it.”
Don’t sweat it.
She wished she had a tenth of his easygoing nature.
“Tyler, you can stay as long as you keep the noise down,” Travis said. “I’m going to get you some water, Caren. You need to hydrate. If it gets too much, tell me, and you can go take a nap.”
“Ooh, water and a nap. Party on, brother,” Tyler cheered.
Travis just shook his head.
Oh, this was going to be a fun afternoon.
17
Caren rolled over in the comfortable bed and stared at the white wall.
Why couldn’t she sleep?
The afternoon had been a lot of fun until Tyler had to leave to go to the club and she’d been left alone with Travis.
Then, for some weird reason, things had just felt off.
Awkward.
It was like they had nothing to say to each other. It was likely her fault. She still felt strange telling him as much as she had. And there were times that she’d find him staring off into the distance, as though he was thinking deeply about something.
After some pizza that Travis had delivered, she’d gone to bed.
She’d actually managed to sleep for a few hours. But something had woken her up and now she was lying here, playing the day over and over in her head.
What could she have done differently? Should she have told him so much?
Did her mother remember her visit?
Finally, she got out of bed and grabbed her laptop from her bag. She knew that Travis would disapprove of her working on her computer. But she might as well answer some messages if she couldn’t work.
A sigh escaped her as she saw an email from her agent. Actually, three. She winced.
Shit.
It wasn’t just Travis she’d been avoiding taking calls and messages from.
Oliver was getting more and more annoyed with her. And she couldn’t really blame him. She needed to get back out there. It had been almost a year. It was ridiculous to still stay here, hiding.
There was a whole world out there and she should be there, taking photos of everything that was happening.
At least she had an excuse to stay a few more weeks until after her exhibition was over. But then she knew that she couldn’t put it off anymore.
Either she took another assignment . . . or she quit and found something else to do with her passion and time.
God.
The thought of not taking photos terrified her.
It’s not like you have to go to dangerous places to take photos.
Right. Of course not. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly.
She’d send him back an email asking when he wanted to meet with her.
Hopefully that would get him off her back for a bit longer. However, about five minutes after she sent it, an email popped into her inbox from his assistant, arranging a meeting for the morning.
Awesome.
Then her phone started to ring. Shit! She thought she’d turned that onto silent. She quickly turned it off and sat there, her heart racing, wondering if Travis had heard.
Dear Lord. Why was she acting like a terrified teenager who was about to be caught necking by her daddy?
Idiot.
When nothing happened, she let out a sigh. This was ridiculous. She rubbed her forehead. It seemed that looking at the computer screen wasn’t the best idea. Travis had given her some more painkillers with dinner. Which was close to six hours ago.
So she could have some more. Grabbing hold of the empty glass on the bedside table, she got out of bed. Travis had given her a glass of water to take to bed with her.
His thoughtfulness was kind of surprising. And she felt bad that she’d assumed he was just a demanding caveman who was only interested in making sure that everyone around him did what he said when he said.
Sure, he could be a little bit like that. But he could also be thoughtful and kind. She crept out of the bedroom, hoping that she wouldn’t wake him.
In the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water and swallowed the painkillers that she’d brought out from her room. Then she took the glass of water over to the wall of windows. Travis hadn’t pulled the drapes so she got an amazing nighttime view of the city.