Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
And moments like this, where I was pretty sure even he didn’t know who some of these people were, he never let them know. They knew him, so he returned the greeting, and when he caught my hand and said our goodbyes, I saw the residue he left. It was a good kind of residue, where they felt warm and important, like they mattered.
That was Shay being himself, polite and considerate.
I had another come-to-Jesus moment. Shay wasn’t anything like I first thought. He was almost the opposite.
“What?” he asked, frowning as he opened his bedroom door.
“Nothing.”
“No.” He put his keys on his dresser and stood there as I sat on the edge of his bed. He started to reach for his shirt to pull it off, but paused. He gave me a thoughtful look, cocking his head to the side and narrowing his eyes. “What is it? You definitely thought something there.”
He whisked his shirt off, disappearing into the closet and pulling a new one out. He pulled it on, his hands going to his pants. He paused, looked down, as if he forgot what he’d been doing, and shrugged. He left them on, crossing to pull his desk chair out and he sat, right in front of me. Catching my hands between his, he leaned forward. His elbows rested on his knees, and his legs rested on the outside of mine, trapping me in place. “Tell me what’s up.”
I watched as he toyed with one of my hands, tracing it with his fingers. “I was just really wrong about you in the beginning.” I shrugged. “That’s all.”
“Wrong?” He lifted his head. “You know, we never really did talk about the beginning when you hated me.”
My throat stopped working. “You want me to tell you why I hated you?”
He nodded solemnly. “Why not?”
My throat was full for some reason. I coughed, clearing it, and started again. “I think I assumed you were like my ex.”
“The Parker guy?”
I raked my fingers through his hair. He ducked his head, a small rakish grin showing, and I felt flutters in my stomach. I sighed. “He looked like you.”
“He did?” Shay grimaced, continuing to trace his fingers over my palms.
“He wasn’t as good-looking as you. You beat him in spades in that area.”
He stopped tracing my palm and held my hands between his. “Thank goodness for that, huh?”
I gazed at our hands, my mind in memories. “He was arrogant, but I didn’t notice. Not at first.”
He asked me for coffee. I thought how mature he must’ve thought I was. But no. He knew exactly the effect of his charm. A mere freshman being asked out by a senior.
I had swooned.
“We went on a few dates before anything happened. I thought maybe he was scared to make a move, since most guys were. You know, because of Gage.” I could only shake my head. “That was so far from the truth. He was biding his time. He wanted me to fall completely in love with him.” A bitter laugh slipped out. “I found out later that he had a timetable. He wanted to make sure I was under his thumb by the time Christmas came around. Blake had been gone on a work thing. He was coming back then, and he wanted to meet my new boyfriend. Parker told me to keep it as a surprise. He thought Blake would get a kick out of it, so I never said his name. I was vague on the details, too. Blake just knew there was a guy.”
“He didn’t ask Gage?”
“Gage didn’t know how much Blake hated Parker. Blake kept everything a secret. We didn’t find out what happened until later.”
So, I told him.
Parker was a year younger than Blake, but he was still leader of the debate team, Yearbook Jr. Editor, and then Senior Editor later on, and in all sorts of academic events.
He was captain of the swimming and boys tennis team.
Blake was the opposite.
He excelled at partying, football, wrestling, and baseball. They were both popular, but Blake ran with friends who didn’t fight with words. They fought with their hands, and one night at a party, the two went at it. It didn’t matter that Parker was younger.
Blake humiliated him.
Parker was stripped of his clothes. The guys were laughing at him. There was an incident about running through a field where they chased him like he was a deer.
It wasn’t right, and I heard enough to be horrified.
The police charged my brother, and he did a year of probation. He never went to college, instead he stayed home and got a job with a local construction company.
“You didn’t know it was Parker?”
I shook my head. “I knew about the incident, but I never knew it was Parker. I might’ve heard, but I was four years younger than Blake. I only knew his friends. I didn’t know anyone else in his grade. I just knew it had been some guy.”