Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
I want to tell him what he needs to hear, but the truth is that touching Oliver, even after all these years, makes me feel alive. Makes me feel like my heart’s stretching her arms and standing upright after a long sleep. I want to lie, but I’m too weak to form the words. “It doesn’t matter.”
His eyes shift back and forth between mine. “I never stopped loving you.”
“Don’t,” I rasp. “You never loved me. Don’t pull that shit now.”
“You know I did. And you felt the same, or you wouldn’t have run the way you did.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Walking away from Oliver was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but telling myself he never really loved me carried me through it. Telling myself there was a reason he never said those words was the only thing that kept me from calling him when I woke up in the middle of the night and reached for him before remembering.
Rewriting that history means tearing myself open again.
I squeeze my eyes shut, and when I open them, he’s leaned in closer. So close I can feel his heat.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t walk away. You deserve better.” He slowly lowers his mouth to mine, and I close my eyes, too weak to resist the soft brush of his lips. Who knows if I’ll ever see him again after this weekend? I’ll let this be the goodbye we never got.
He cups my face, and his lips are as gentle as I remember them. His kiss is intoxicating and a reminder of all the kisses I once naïvely believed we had before us. It’s warmth and safety.
He angles to deepen the kiss, but I pull back before he can, shaking my head. All those feelings are lies. Oliver and I crashed and burned, and it’s no use pretending otherwise. “I can’t do this with you.”
“So it’s him, then?” he asks.
I hang my head. It’s no one. “We should get inside.”
OLIVER
“Oliver! You rescued Savvy!” Rose squeals when we step into the Italian restaurant’s party room. “Thank you!”
Alec snaps his attention toward us from across the room, his gaze angry when it meets mine and then morphing to hunger and lust when it lands on Savannah.
At least I’ve finally earned the loathing my brother feels for me. I can’t regret that kiss, though. Can’t regret telling her how I feel. Even if I should.
Savvy gives my sister a brief smile before making a beeline through the room. To Alec. Will she tell him about the kiss? Will she think about it tonight when he holds her in bed?
I pull Rose into a hug. “It wasn’t a problem.” I kiss the top of her head before releasing her. “How’s the wedding prep going?”
She groans. “Cruella de Vil is doing her usual. Nothing’s good enough; nothing’s classy enough. Every choice I made has been declared either trite or overdone, or in the case of my cake topper, both trite and overdone.”
“Wow. Who would’ve seen that coming?”
“Right? I pretended to fight for a few things, but I made my peace with her hijacking my wedding a long time ago.” She sighs and scans the room and the dozen or so guests she invited to dinner. “If Dad were here, he’d never let her take over my day.”
“He’d totally let you control the details,” I say wryly, standing by her side as we look at the guests scattered out in the room, “as long as he got to choose the groom.”
“Ugh. You’re right, you’re right. Mom is the lesser evil.” She cuts her gaze to me. “Don’t hate me, but I wish he were here to walk me down the aisle at this stupid wedding anyway.”
I take her hand and squeeze it. “I’d never hate you for that. The old man had his moments.”
She takes a glass of champagne from a passing server, then snaps around to stare at me. “Holy shit! I’m so focused on me I didn’t even ask about the car ride.” Her whisper is so loud, I glance around to make sure no one is paying attention to our conversation, but they’re all happily enjoying the open bar. “Did you tell her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She slaps my arm. “Stop it! I’m dying here.”
Across the room, Savvy stands next to Alec at a small cocktail table. He catches me staring at him and slides his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.
“I’m waiting,” my sister says.
I tear my gaze off them. I’ve had my heart pummeled enough for tonight. “I told her,” I say so low she has to lean in to hear me.
“And . . . ?”
“And then I kissed her.”
“You dirty dog!” she shouts.
Her mother gapes at her from across the room then gives her a pointed look.