Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 104501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
My own heart skipped a beat. I murmured, “You need to tell me what’s wrong.”
“I know.” His hand tightened on my waist. “I’ll tell you later, but it was about Colton.”
I glanced at one of his hands. They had moved back to my sides. “Those don’t look bruised or, well, more bruised.” One was a little red. I touched it, knowing that had come from the chanting guy in the hallway.
“You inspire me,” I told him.
“I do? What?” He leaned back to see my face.
I turned up to him. “You do the right thing.”
“I try to do the right thing.” He winced. “I had a whole lot of years where I didn’t. If you’d met me two years ago, even a year ago, we wouldn’t have been friends. I was a dick.”
“Maybe.” Maybe not. I had a feeling he still would’ve been hot. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For organizing this whole trip.”
He laughed. “Now I know you’re just making shit up. I didn’t organize this. The guys did.”
“They did?”
“They did.”
“I’m thanking you.”
He traced some of my hair and tucked the strands behind my ear. His hand lingered there, resting on my neck. He rubbed my cheek. “You should hang out with your friend while you’re here.”
“I will. I wanted to make sure you were good.”
“I’m good.” His eyes darkened, and we were no longer in this feel-good moment. The air spiked, and my body instantly heated. “I’ll be better tonight, later tonight.”
I laughed. “And on that note, I suppose we should head back?”
“No.” He hugged me against him. “Not quite yet.”
So we didn’t.
The weekend was beyond words.
There were no other words for it. Clarissa couldn’t get over the me+Caden thing. That’s what she kept calling it. The thing.
I knew part of that was because I refused to give her a label, mainly because Caden and I never got back to that conversation. I didn’t want to stick a title on us he wouldn’t agree with, so Clarissa made it “the thing.”
She kept it up right until the moment we got back in the Land Rover and drove away, and I was okay with it, I’d decided. It was loose, elusive, mysterious. It couldn’t be pinned down. Free.
Did I mention loose? Like, it could run away? That’s what being free meant too. Free to go away. Free not to stick around. Free to be not committed—and I was working myself up again.
Caden wasn’t that type of guy. He hadn’t been all weekend. He’d been tentative, kind, considerate, tender, amazing, wonderful, and the kind of guy a girl like me didn’t end up with. Cue my paranoia. I felt a ride coming soon.
The phone interrupted my emotional roller coaster ride through my dorm room. I picked it up, sighing from relief. “Hello?”
A male voice replied, “I can pick up my little brother.”
“What? Caden?”
Oh, man. He sounded so wonderful. Warm. Strong. Steady. Not crazy like me.
“Yeah. I was calling to tell you the doctor released Colton.”
“Oh.” I dropped the phone this time. Shit. Fuck. I grabbed for it, sitting down on my chair. “Sorry. Are you going to get him?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to come?”
And my brains were scrambled once again. “Are you serious?”
“Apparently Marcus called Colton yesterday, and you were a big topic between them. Colt’s insisting you come. He doesn’t care about the circumstances.”
“I…” had no idea what to say. “Is that—I mean—he’s okay to be around someone who’s not family?”
“He doesn’t care, honestly. Once he found out you’d been at the hospital the entire night, his mind was made up. He said you’re a girl he has to meet, said you had meat.”
“Meet? Like meet and greet?”
“No. Meat like beef or chicken.”
“Oh.” I chuckled, thinking about that. “He sounds kind of funny.”
“He is. He still has that.” He paused for a beat. “Do you want to come with then? It’s last minute, but I’m going right now.”
“Yes!” I didn’t need to think about it. “Of course.”
“Good, because I’m outside your room.”
“What?”
I looked over, and at the same time, the door opened. Caden stood there, tucking his phone back into his pocket. He gave me a smile that had my heart skipping a beat and my stomach flip-flopping.
I hoped that’d never go away.
I put on a big smile, maybe with a little extra oomph because I saw the dark shadows in his eyes, and I went over to him. “Hey.”
And like it was the most natural thing in the world, he lifted his arm and I stepped into his embrace. My head went to his chest, my cheek against his heart, and his arms closed over me, holding me to him.
The most natural thing in the world, like breathing.
“Thank you,” he said.
I looked up. “I’m honored to be asked.”
He was tense, but he tried to smile back. It faltered. “Colton is…” He stopped.