Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
I had no clue if those personal issues had anything to do with me since the woman hadn’t even bothered to answer her goddamned phone.
I’d spent the next few days in a state of constant worry until yesterday evening when a nurse from the hospital called to inform me that my ‘friend Naomi’ was there and that she’d asked me to pick her up tomorrow when she was discharged.
I’d jumped at the chance, but after days of stewing in anger and worry, I wasn’t in a good place.
So by the time I’d gotten to the hospital to pick her up the next afternoon, I was one seriously pissed off man who wanted to hurt her with my words instead of telling her I’d missed her like crazy.
Apparently, we hadn’t shared what I’d thought we’d shared, and it’d all been in my imagination, just like always.
Which led me to now, two days later, taking Naomi to the fucking walking trail again so she could share two hours with her new friend instead of talking to me.
“Ready?” I barked, startling Naomi who was just coming out of her room.
She bit her lip, then nodded once.
“Yes.”
She said that so quietly that I crossed my arms across my chest to keep myself from reaching for her.
“Then get in the truck.”
At least she was well enough now to get in by herself.
If I had to put my hands on her, I wasn’t going to be responsible for what I did.
For what I wanted to do.
Apparently, being mad at the woman didn’t take away from the fact that I wanted her.
No, life was a cruel bitch like that.
***
Naomi
“The man, though he hasn’t professed his love, really cares about you. I could tell that the day he picked you up from the hospital.”
I bit my lip and looked away from the greasy guy who’d finally managed to pass us, letting my eyes take in the grass that was lining the trail that we were currently walking at a crawl-like pace on.
I’d been seeing that same greasy guy everywhere I went over the last few days.
“I don’t know about that,” I said to Brady. “He doesn’t act like he likes me all that much.”
“That’s because you upset him. He doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that his girl would have major surgery without telling him. Instead of taking his feelings into consideration, you dismissed them in an attempt to protect yourself from potentially being disappointed. You left him the day before in a good place, and the next day you totally disregarded anything he might have been feeling. How do you expect him to react?”
That was so true.
I would react much the same way, and I only had myself to blame.
I frowned down at my feet.
“When my Molly and I married, she never kept a single thing from me. Until the day she found out she had cancer.”
That dropped between us like a two-ton elephant, and I had no clue what to say.
“She took that from me. Those hours that I would’ve sat by her side, she stole, thinking she was saving me from heartache.” He sounded lost. “Had I known that she was getting treatment, I would’ve been at her side, holding her hand. By not telling me, she robbed me of that and that time we could have spent together. I would’ve done anything for her, but now she’s gone, and I don’t know who I am anymore.”
Tears started to trickle down my cheeks.
“I’m furious. I want to yell and scream and curse. But I can’t.” He looked down at me. “You wanna know why?”
I knew why.
Because she was gone.
“I see you have your answer.”
I did.
“Why are you crying?”
I looked up to find Sean standing there, waiting for me.
He’d dropped me off at the trail, just like he’d done the day before, and he ran in the opposite direction while we walked the short route.
Then he waited patiently for me to return before he drove me back to his dad’s house and then left for the rest of the day.
He didn’t always leave the premises. Most of the time he went over to his father’s shop and worked on his project motorcycle either with his father or by himself.
I, on the other hand, was unsure of my welcome so I stayed where I was, bored to tears.
The one and only time I ventured out there to where he was, he’d totally ignored me.
I felt like I wasn’t wanted, so I’d gone inside without saying a single word to him in ten whole minutes.
“Mr. Thorton was telling me about his marriage and his wife,” I finally settled on. “It was sad.”
His eyes took in my face, the tears still coursing down my cheeks, and then turned his attention to my walking companion.
“You need a ride home today?”