Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
A week later, my dad found me in the barn and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. He put one glass down and then another and then filled it. He looked at me, and I grabbed the glass and swallowed the amber liquid. It burned all the way down, but I only felt a sliver of pain. “That isn’t your child.” He wasn’t asking me; he was telling me. “There is no way that is your child.”
“How?” I asked him, but I wasn’t surprised he knew the truth. It was why he was so good at his job. “You can’t say anything.”
“Not my story to tell,” my father said, pouring another shot. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I know that I have to protect that child.” I took another shot, hissing, “My child.”
I turn off the water and shake my head. These flashbacks are not going to change or help anything.
I slip on my boxers and the pants that I wear when Ethan is here. He walked in one morning and my cock was at full salute, and we had to have an in-depth conversation about how it gets so big and what to do with it.
I’m just slipping into bed when I hear a soft knock on the door, and I stand here, not sure if it’s in my head or not. But then I hear it again, and my heart starts to beat faster. It starts to beat frantically when I walk closer and closer. I open the door, and my heart drops or maybe it crushes. I don’t know why I expected it to be Kallie. I don’t know why I even care.
“Sorry for coming over without calling first,” Savannah says, walking into my house, and I close the door behind her. “I just …” She takes a deep breath and walks into the living room. I look at her, and see she’s wearing her blue jeans and a tight top. Don’t get me wrong, she’s beautiful, but I can’t look past everything we’ve been through. We even had a talk when she gave birth about moving in together and trying to be a family, but I just couldn’t take that step. “This is crazy.”
“I’m sorry. I’m past the point of tired,” I say. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that Kallie just showed up in town.” She speaks quietly so as not to wake Ethan up. “I’m talking about the fact that the last time you saw her was prom.”
“I know exactly when the last time I saw her, Savannah. I was there,” I remind her.
“You promised me,” she says, and I hold up my hand.
“I have never once told anyone your secret. Not to my parents, not to my brother, not even to Beau, so don’t even start.”
She wipes away a tear. “I’m sorry. Talk in the town has already started. The bar was full tonight. On a Wednesday,” she says. When she gave birth, she bought the town bar and vamped it up. I never asked her how she got the money or what she had to do for it. I don’t want to know. All I need to know is that she is the best mother there is, and Ethan thrives with both of his parents.
“Give it a couple of days,” I say. “Something else will happen, and then it’ll be old news.”
“It’s taken seven years for people to be nice to me.” She sits down on the couch. “Seven years for me to finally walk into the grocery store without being pointed at as the ‘harlot’ who stole you away from the town’s princess.”
“The only thing that matters is that the town loves Ethan,” I remind her. “How they feel about me or you is not an issue.”
She puts her head back. “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” she says, getting up. “I’ll get out of your hair.”
She walks to me. “He has a spelling test tomorrow. Just go over the words in the car.”
“Will do,” I say, and she leans up to kiss my cheek.
“Thank you,” she says and walks out of the house. I walk out the door and watch her drive away. Stopping in the middle of my porch, I sit down and look at the sky.
“What the hell are you doing back in town, Kallie?” I ask the universe, and I expect to get an answer, but instead, all I hear is the silence. It’s always the silence that greets me.
Chapter Six
Kallie
I toss and turn in bed even though I’m exhausted and fell asleep five minutes after getting out of my shower. I wake suddenly and just lie here, my heartbeat going through the motions, just as it has been for the past eight years.
My room has stayed the same since I left, the only things gone are the pictures I had of me and Jacob all over my room. I don’t even think about all the times he climbed into my bed after my parents were asleep and just held me. Memories that I locked away and somehow forgot now come crashing back, making it hard for me to breathe. I get up, sitting at the end of the bed, trying to collect my breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. I get up and go to my luggage that sits open on the floor, looking like it just exploded everywhere. I refuse to wear any of the clothes I left here. I left them here for a reason, so there is no way I’m going to put them on now. In fact, I’m packing them up tomorrow and taking them to the church so they can give them away.