Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“Me?” He points at himself. “I’ve never been more at peace before,” he reveals, shocking me. “It’s as if I was living my life in black and white, and suddenly, it’s in color.” All the breath in me leaves my body, all of it. Here I was thinking, his life’s been turned upside down since I came in it, but he’s telling me the opposite.
“Brady, you don’t mean that,” I tell him, and he just looks over at me.
“Why can’t I mean that?” he asks. “I’ve spent the past ten years hating you.” I look down as fast as I can not to let him see the hurt on my face. “Not because of anything you did, but because you were associated with him. Now for the past month, I’ve been trying not to kick my own ass for doing that.” I avoid looking at him. “Baby, look at me.” His voice is soft, and all I can do is shake my head and blink away the stinging of the tears. “Harmony,” he says my name, which makes it hurt so much more, “I said look at me.”
“No,” I reply, watching my hands but then raising my head and looking ahead. Knowing he’s looking at me, knowing he’s watching me. He stops his horse from walking beside me and then calls my name again.
“Baby, I said look at me.”
“And I said no,” I retort, stopping the horse also because I have no idea where the hell I am. I mean, I’m sure if I followed the path, it would lead me back to the barn.
He moves his horse beside me, and I keep my eyes ahead until his horse is in front of mine, giving me no choice but to look at him. “I said to look at me.”
“I said no,” I repeat.
“You didn’t give me a chance to finish,” he explains, and I grip the reins in my hand even tighter.
“I don’t think there is anything more to finish.”
“I will never forgive myself for feeling that.”
“It’s fine, Brady.” I try to let him off the hook and show him how much it doesn’t bother me. “I get it.”
“What do you get?” he snaps.
“I get that I was guilty by association,” I answer. “Can we just not talk about this anymore?”
“No,” he hisses, “we are going to talk about this, goddammit, because it’s important for me to tell you how wrong I’ve been.”
“Okay, fine.” I smile at him forcefully. “You get it.”
“Not fucking fine.” His eyes bore into mine, and I tell myself not to cry. “It’s the opposite of fucking fine. I was wrong, Harmony. I was so wrong about you.”
“I guess it makes two of us,” I say, knowing what I feel for him is something I haven’t felt before. I guarded my heart for the past ten years, not letting anyone else in, and in two weeks, he’s snuck in there, and I don’t know what to do about it.
“You are not the person that I painted in my head. You are kind and generous. You are the best mom. You are loving.” He starts to fumble his words, making the sting of his words lessen but not by much. “You are funny and hardworking and Jesus you are just everything.” I can feel the tears coming but this time it’s not because he sort of hated me, but because his voice is now sounding like he’s broken. “Baby”—his voice is broken—“I’m going to make it up to you.”
“There is no need for that, Brady. You’ve done more than anyone I’ve ever known has done.” I watch the anguish on his face. “So between us, we’re even.”
CHAPTER 31
Brady
I sit on my horse facing her, making sure she can’t go anywhere and making sure she looks at me. “There is no need for that, Brady.” Her voice is strong yet sounds broken; her face ashen from the minute I told her I spent ten years hating her. The need to tell her how fucking wrong I’ve been sits like a burden on my shoulder. I don’t want to keep anything from her. I want her to know everything about me. I want to know everything about her. “You’ve done more than anyone I’ve ever known has done.” Her words are like a kick in the gut. “So between us, we’re even.”
Fuck this, I think to myself as I get off my horse and walk over to hers. I can see her body going tense as she flexes her hand on the reins. I should take a second to think, but the feelings of guilt and hurt run through me. Guilt that I felt that way, and I hurt for hurting her. “Get off your horse.” I stand beside the horse, wondering if she says no, how the fuck I’m going to yank her off the horse without scaring the animal. The last thing I want is to freak everyone out. “Please?”