Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 65429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Is she right?
“Ethan, you know I adore you, and you’ve always been there for my baby girl. I couldn’t have asked for a better best friend for my daughter. I count my blessings every day that she has you in her life. You’ve been nothing but a positive influence, and the way you’ve loved her wholeheartedly isn’t something I’ve ever overlooked. You’re lucky to have one another.” She smirked. “I promise. This will only strengthen your friendship, and one day, who knows, maybe it’ll turn into something else, but you’ll never find out until you both find yourselves. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. After she left to answer the call from my dad—his ears must have been ringing—Ethan turned to face me.
“She’s right.”
I lightly gasped.
“I think this last week or two has proved how right she is.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do, and you know it too. You’re just too stubborn to admit it, so I’ll do it for us both.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we’ll forever be best friends, and nothing will change that, but if this pregnancy scare proved anything, it’s how much we’re not ready to be anything other than that.”
“Are you saying you regret us having sex?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. All I know is that I never want sex to come between us again. You’re too important to me.”
“But—”
“You were right, Livvy. I’m not your boyfriend. You’re not my girlfriend. We’re not in a relationship. We never were. I want you to go to college and not think about what happened between us this summer. I want to go back to what mattered the most, which was our friendship. I can’t lose you. I won’t.”
“Yeah…” That was all I could reply.
“I’ll always be here for you, and I know you’ll be there for me too. Nothing can change that. It doesn’t matter how many miles are between us. You’re part of me, like I’m part of you.”
Needing him to hear it, I coaxed, “I love you, Ethan.”
He smiled. “You still my girl?”
I didn’t waver in speaking with conviction…
“Always.”
Chapter
Fourteen
Ethan
“Ethan…”
I groaned, shaking my head. Stirring awake beneath my white tangled sheets as I faintly felt someone’s lips laying soft kisses down the side of my neck.
“Ethan, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
My eyes fluttered, trying to wake up, but my body wouldn’t allow it, and sleep won out. I was beyond exhausted from not sleeping over the last two weeks, and when my head hit the pillow that night, I was out like a light.
Dreaming only about Livvy.
She was leaving tomorrow.
Moving away.
I had helped her pack all week, and even in my deep slumber, I could still smell her intoxicating honey scent and feel her smooth lips along my heated skin.
“Ethan, wake up…”
“Mm-hmm,” I hummed, feeling her lips trail toward my stomach.
Kiss by kiss.
Peck by peck.
Inch by inch.
Until she reached my happy trail, making my cock twitch at the heady feel of her mouth so close to my dick. I fisted my sheets, wanting, needing her lips wrapped around my cock.
I felt her delicate fingers tug the waistband of my gym shorts down, whispering, “Please, just be with me.”
My breathing hitched, and my eyes snapped open, big and wide as I came face-to-face with the last person I expected to see hovering above me.
Livvy.
There was no way I was still dreaming, but if this happened to be a dream within a dream, then I never wanted to wake up. At that moment, the world stopped spinning, stopped moving, and time just stood still for us. Even with the dim lighting of the moon, I could see her beautiful face in front of me.
She looked stunning and tortured all at once.
I couldn’t form words.
I couldn’t think.
Not when she was looking at me like that.
She stared into my eyes, searching for something in my gaze. As if she was looking for some recognition of who I was or maybe traces of who she was when she was with me.
“Livvy…” I rasped, my voice laced thick with uncertainty and concern. “What are you doing here?”
“My flight is in the morning.”
“I know.”
“I couldn’t leave without erasing the last few weeks of our friendship.”
I cocked my head to the side, and my eyebrows pinched together.
“I just want to be with you one last time.”
“Livvy, we just went through—”
“I know. Trust me, I’m fully aware, but I don’t want our last memory of making love to be on a swing before I told you I was late for my period. We can’t end like that, Ethan. I refuse to end like that.”
“It would be so reckless if we—”
She showed me a condom. “And I just finished my period. It’d be nearly impossible for that to happen.”
I thought about it for a second. She was right.