Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Because I had grown up with it from a very young age, I never saw it the way he did, but now I get it. And I feel such guilt for not seeing it sooner, not understanding what the world saw as his bad boy act as a cry for help.
I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around him but held myself back. We’d caused enough of a stir for one day. Instead, I waited another five minutes until he was done signing autographs for my colleagues to approach.
The first thing he did was take my hand with the ring and bring it to his lips before walking me out of the room back to the dressing room to gather my stuff so we could leave. I was still too choked up to speak, so we communicated with smiles and hand squeezes until we left the building.
I was too preoccupied to notice that we left the building another way with my new security team leading the way, and by the time I did realize we were in the car being driven back to my place. I looked at him questioningly, “I didn’t want you having to deal with the crowd that was waiting out there, so the guys came up with this idea.”
I nodded and kept staring at him. He keeps surprising me, and I’m not sure my poor heart can handle it. I knew he’d changed; I’ve seen those changes myself, but it’s still a jolt to the system to see this new, self-assured, and very mature Ryder by my side.
This is the version of him I always wanted. The man who just sat in front of a band of microphones and told the whole world how much he loves and has always loved me. He admitted his part, his negligence, even admitted to not being deserving of me in the past, but I think the thing that got to me and is still making my heart beat out of time is the way he’d forcefully proclaimed that he’d do much better this time around.
That and the way he’d looked into the camera and asked my mother for forgiveness and apologized to everyone else who held me dear. It’s such an Un-Ryder-like thing to do. It was so out of the ordinary for him that I was having a hard time even now, even with all the changes, believing that he had come this far.
“Did someone else write that speech?”“Nope, it came straight from here.” He pointed to his chest. “I knew when you walked out the door with my ring on your finger that it would set off a shit show. Thanks for that; by the way, I would’ve been crushed if you’d opted to take it off.”
I knew it. I didn’t say it out loud, but the grin on my face came from the heart. “But…” I started to ask about his PR team and the backlash he might face because of what he’d done, but he stopped me. I had so many questions.
No PR team in the world would have their client bare himself to the world the way he just did. And they definitely wouldn’t have allowed him to take the blame for the situation and go so far as to spell out every detail of the last five years the way he had. I was still coming to terms with what I’d seen, and I was living it right alongside him.
“We’ll talk more when we get home okay.” He squeezed my hand and relaxed in his seat, no doubt now coming down from the rush of the huge decision he’d made.
As for me, I was on tenterhooks, but I wanted to watch it again and then again until I’d had my fill of the sweetness. After all the speculation and talk about us in the last few weeks, this was bound to cause an uproar, no doubt, but hopefully, it would put all the questions to rest. It was also going to get us hounded for at least the next year.
His phone rang, and he had to release my hand to answer, but he pulled me in close to his side to answer. I felt his body tense, then relax as he looked down at me. “That actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I’ll ask her.”
Ask me what?
Chapter 95
*Elena*
“What was that about?” As he’d asked, I waited until we made it back to the apartment before speaking, but now, instead of the press conference, that last phone call was on my mind. He’d seemed so pensive afterward, and his ‘I’ll talk to her’ had me a bit on edge.
“It’s nothing bad, so don’t look like that.” His reassurance helped to quell the knots in my stomach, but it was the way he pulled me in and kissed my forehead that really did it for me. It was something from our past, something he knew always gave me comfort.