Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 39424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 197(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 197(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
I stare at the piece of paper in front of me. It says black coffee and the total with a big heart drawn with red marker. She wrote the name Katie with another fuckin’ heart over the i and then a phone number. I’m not going to call her, but I also don’t want to hurt her feelings. “I have a girlfriend,” I blurt out.
“A girlfriend?” She tilts her head. “Well, I hadn’t heard that in all the gossip. Who is it?”
I grit my teeth together. Fuck, I didn’t think that through at all. I was just trying to get rid of her, and now it’s going to be all over town that I have a girlfriend. What will Chloe think if it gets back to her? Will she even care? Or will she be relieved that I’m out of her hair? I pull a ten out of my wallet and push it with the check and her number on it back toward her. “Thanks. Keep the change,” I tell her, ignoring her question altogether.
I scowl at her, and it’s not on purpose, but all I can think about is getting back to what I was doing, and that’s watching Chloe.
As soon as Katie walks away, I look at Chloe again and let out a breath of relief when I find her sitting in the exact same spot. She and the man she’s sitting with are talking again, and I wish for the hundredth time I could hear what they’re saying.
I watch her closely… the way she tilts her head when he’s talking to her. Does she blush when he talks to her or does she lean toward him or away? I don’t know if I’m making shit up or not, but I want to think she’s not interested. Even though it was years ago, I remember how she was with me like it was yesterday. I can still feel her put her hand on my shoulder when she would talk to me. Or the way she reached for me. Her cheeks always turned pink when she would catch me watching her, and her eyes would stare back at me as if she didn’t want to miss a word I said. Does she feel the same for this guy?
Her cheeks are pink, but I don’t want to believe it’s because of her date. She smiles at him, but it doesn’t light up her face, and she hasn’t reached for him one time.
Fuck, if I could go back in time, I never should have left her. I should have refused the mission, but even knowing what I know now, I knew I had to go. There were so many lives saved on that mission.
We were together one night, but I fell in love that night. I like to think she felt the same. I promised her that after the mission I had to go on was over, I would come back. It took me five years to get here, but I’m not the same man I was. Hell, I don’t think I’m half the man I was.
I clench my hands together in my lap and watch Chloe with her date. She keeps looking over at me, but I don’t look away. I can’t.
I wish I could talk to her and explain that I had to leave and that I didn’t know I would almost die a few days later. Multiple gunshot wounds, a concussion, and I lost so much blood that no one thought I would pull through. I eventually did, and it was after a long hospital stay and rehab before I was even able to stand on my own two feet again.
I couldn’t do missions like I used to, and I fell apart, trying to figure out what I was going to do to survive. I couldn’t go back to Chloe then. Hell, she deserved more than I was able to give.
I threw myself into my work, and luckily, Walker just moved me to another position where I spent ninety percent of my time behind a computer. It was good… until it wasn’t.
Two years ago, I was on a mission that killed one of my best friends and injured my entire unit. Davis hurt his leg, Jason is blind, Kanan hurt his arm, Randall lost his life, and I’m covered in scars. It could have been worse, I know that, but now I’m a man with no hope for love in the future. There’s no way I’d subject Chloe to a man like me.
I force myself to relax when the people in the booth next to me are glancing at me nervously. I shake my head, trying to get the pitying thoughts out of it, and just when I think I’m going to walk out of here, Chloe’s date makes his move.