Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
“It took a long time for me to admit how I felt about her even to myself,” I said low to her in English. My father had yet to say anything, but he’d always been a man of few words, yet I was pretty sure he had plenty to say right now.
I looked at him then, my eyes locked on his, feeling the weight of all this, of never saying how I felt for Pyper, lifting off my shoulders. But I was finally honest with someone about how I felt.
My father’s gaze was steady, even. There was no judgment in his expression. He finally leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table, both his hands now wrapped loosely around the beer bottle.
“You love this girl, Gio?”
I swallowed roughly at the low, deep tone of his voice. I cleared my throat and nodded, and then I said, “I do, Pops. I love her more than anything else.” My muscles felt tight, strained, and I loosened the fist I had, my nails having been digging into the flesh of my palm painfully.
He gave a slow nod then leaned back again. “Then, I say go for it.”
Everything around me stilled at his words. Go for it?
He wasn’t going to try to “talk some sense into me”? He wasn’t going to try to talk me out of my feelings? He wasn’t even going to try to tell me it wasn’t appropriate, that I’d be crossing boundaries?
I was stunned, speechless. I looked at my mother then, this small smile on her lips. She patted my arm in a comforting manner. “All I want is your happiness, my son.”
My heart was thundering. My parents approved of this, encouraged me to be with Pyper? I actually lifted my hand then, rubbing the spot right over my heart. I needed to go to my room and grab the bottle of whiskey I stashed there, the bottle I bought from a shady-as-fuck kid I went to high school with. I bought the bottle months ago, and the fucker was still nearly full. I’d only taken a few shots from it when I was feeling especially sorry for myself where Pyper was concerned.
I brought myself back to focus and the fact that I was still sitting here with my family. They heard what I felt for her, and now it was time Pyper heard them too. But telling her I loved her came with its own worries and fears. It came with rejection and a pain I never felt before. But I was already in pain by not being with her.
Nothing could hurt more than that, right?
Chapter Four
Pyper
Later that night, I found myself alone in my room after just finishing dinner with my family. I closed my bedroom door and leaned against it, so many conflicting emotions filling me, so much confusion and worry, excitement and anticipation and… hope.
But hope was an empty thing if there wasn’t a silver lining, right? And I had no clue if there was or would ever be the kind of silver lining I wanted.
I exhaled and pushed away from the door, lifting my arms and grabbing my hair up into a ponytail. I walked over to the window while I slid the elastic off my wrist to secure my hair. I pulled the curtain aside and looked down at the patio, my bedroom directly above the pool. I didn’t see a soul, and as I stared at the crystalline pool that was always this unnatural, vibrant shade of blue, I became lost in thought.
I was about to turn away from the window and get ready for bed, to wallow in my own fantasies, maybe even shamefully touch myself while I imagined it was Gio doing it, when I spotted a dark shadow rounding the side of the pool house.
I froze, my heart in my throat as the figure came closer to the patio lights, no longer shrouded in darkness. And that’s when I saw Gio, my pulse racketing even higher. What was he doing down there after he was already off for the day? Although it wasn’t terribly late, he and his parents stopped working hours ago.
I silently willed him to look at me. I was fully facing the window now, one hand curled into a tight fist at my side, the other one gripping the curtain. I watched as he looked around, and my heart gave a little skip, thinking maybe he was looking for me. Was it too much to hope, too much to want?
And then this idea came to mind, this wicked and dirty, totally inappropriate idea. I swallowed roughly just as I saw him tip his head back and look in the direction of my window. He’d been working here long enough he knew which room was mine.
I darted to the side quickly, embarrassed to have been noticed. I needed to decide if I was really going to do what had come to mind. My face heated at the sudden nervousness filling me. Had Gio seen me? Maybe I moved away fast enough.