Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1090(@200wpm)___ 872(@250wpm)___ 727(@300wpm)
Fudge. Why hadn’t he just hugged her before?
Because you’re trying not to scare her.
He breathed in her cherry scent. So good.
Do not dare get hard. This is platonic. She’s just a friend. Do not embarrass us.
Okay, yes, sometimes he talked to his dick. He’d grown up in a household of women who wouldn’t hesitate to embarrass him, so he’d started talking to his dick in an attempt to stop it from humiliating him.
There was nothing like having your sister barge in on you when you had morning wood to truly traumatize you.
Brody held Autumn carefully. She felt so fragile. He’d been doing his best to get her to eat more. But he couldn’t cook. His own diet hadn’t evolved much since he was a teenager.
He could dial for pizza, though. Pizza was relatively healthy, right? It had cheese and some of it had veggies. Protein. Carbs.
She shook in his arms and he rocked back and forth. “What is it, sweetie? What happened?”
She sniffled and leaned more heavily against him. Shoot.
“Come on, come sit down and rest. You’re exhausted.” With an arm around her waist, he led her over to the sofa. “I’ll go get your painkiller.”
He quickly returned. After she’d taken the painkiller, he sat next to her.
She surprised him by leaning in so close that she was practically on his lap. How would she react if he lifted her onto his knees?
Would he dare do that? Would she want that? He wasn’t one of those guys who could just pick a girl up. Instead, he settled for wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
He rubbed her back. “Sweetie, I would have picked the groceries up for you.” Although he wasn’t quite sure about the bazza. It sounded . . . interesting.
“I wanted to surprise you.” She was rubbing at the scars on her right wrist. He hated that she was so self-conscious of them. Reaching over with his other hand, he took hold of hers, linking them together.
“That was really sweet of you. But I don’t want you to do anything that might make you uncomfortable or anxious for my sake.”
“I’m tired of not doing things I used to be able to do. I thought I was strong enough, and I might have been except . . .”
“Except what?” All sorts of scenarios ran through his head. “Did someone hurt you? Touch you? Who was it?” A rush of protectiveness filled him. He might not be able to take someone physically, but he had his own way of making a person’s life miserable.
A computer virus could cause a whole lot of damage.
“My two exes.”
“What?” he asked. Two exes?
“Ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend. Although, I don’t think she was ever as good a friend as I thought she was.” The note of sadness in her voice hit him hard.
“The ex that broke up with you in the hospital? You saw him?”
“Yep, he was having his tonsils cleaned by my ex-best friend.”
He drew back, looking down at Autumn. “Seriously? They’re together now?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What the fuck? How long did they even wait after he broke things off with you?”
“I know, right?” She straightened, looking slightly better with some red in her cheeks. “And her husband died a week or so after my kidnapping. I kind of wonder if they were doing something behind our backs. I mean, I know that’s terrible to think about . . . maybe I’m an awful person for suggesting it.”
“You could never be a horrible person,” he defended her hotly. “And, of course you’ve got to be wondering that. Did they see you?”
“They came over to talk to me. Apparently, they’re now engaged. So, yay.” She ran her hand over her face, looking exhausted.
His poor girl.
“Laura couldn’t wait to tell me. She rubbed it in my face.”
“What a . . . what a . . .”
“Bitch?” she whispered.
He grimaced. “I was going to say warthog.”
She had to grin. “I like that. Although, it’s probably being mean to warthogs.”
“Probably.”
She sighed. “I don’t know what I would have done if Frank hadn’t been there to help me.”
“Frank?” Who the fuck was Frank? And what was he doing with her? And was that jealousy that he felt?
Yeah, it seemed it was.
He wanted to be her knight in shining armor. Even if he wasn’t really sure how to do that.
He was always the support crew. Never the hero.
“He’s the guy who sold me this house. Anyway, he was kind enough to put them in their place. I got into a panic. I was stumbling over my words and Laura was having a field day with it. So, I was glad he was there, even if . . .”
“If what?” Brody asked.
“Even if he knows what happened to me.”
“What? How do you know that? Did he say something?”
“No, he didn’t have to. I could tell. It was the look in his eyes after I pulled away when he went to touch me.”