Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Sweat poured off me, and I pulled at my tie. We could do it. She could keep moving. She was going to get me to the office one last time.
But she didn’t.
The old car coasted along the Gilbert Avenue exit, coming to a final wheezing stall just at the cross streets of Seventh Street and Broadway. I was still more than four blocks away from my destination. I had no other options. Cincinnati wasn’t one of those cities like New York, where taxis were roving everywhere, waiting for someone to flag them.
Cursing my luck while refusing to be beaten, I snagged an old backpack from the rear seat and stuffed all the paperwork Danielle had given me into it. My phone and keys immediately followed.
And then I fucking ran.
I would not let Sebastian leave town, potentially flying out of my life forever, without him knowing that I loved him.
Yes! That was it. That was exactly what I needed to tell him.
I loved Sebastian Courtland.
I loved his impulsive insanity, his silly grin, and his larger-than-life heart. There wasn’t a thing about him I didn’t love. Even the stuff that drove me crazy. I wanted all of that every day for the rest of my life.
The brutal July heat beat on me, hammering on my head and cooking me in my suit. Sweat soaked into all the fibers, making the pants stick to my legs as I moved. The hard soles of my dress shoes knocked angrily on the sidewalks as I rushed forward, dodging other pedestrians going about their normal lives. As I approached, a few stared at me and laughed at the insane idiot in a suit running like a horde of zombies was on his heels.
They didn’t understand. I’d found the man I wanted to spend my life with, and I could not let him go. Not yet. Not without telling him how much he meant to me.
Two blocks south and four blocks over. It wasn’t that far, but it had been a long time since I’d run, particularly in the summer heat. A stitch formed in my side and sweat slipped into my left eye.
At last, Fountain Square came into view. I wheezed and coughed like my poor old car. It was right at lunchtime, when the square was at its busiest. People were slipping out of the surrounding skyscrapers to hit many of the nearby restaurants and food trucks for something to eat.
I could do this. So close. Nothing was going to stop me.
I charged up a few stairs leading to the square that held the famous Tyler Davidson fountain with her arms outstretched, raining water down on other bronze statues. Not far now.
“Byron Graham is the most honorable, amazing man in Cincinnati.”
My feet almost tripped over themselves at the sound of Sebastian’s voice. But it wasn’t him standing near me and talking. It sounded as if he were coming across loudspeakers.
I turned, trying to spot him. Several other people had also stopped and were pointing at the giant screen on the building across the street.
My picture was on the screen.
Holy shit! My picture was up there!
26
SEBASTIAN COURTLAND
I’d been standing there as Kaylan had taken Byron’s call.
Of course, I might have also gotten a quick call from my mother hours earlier telling me her plan to woo Byron into taking the COO job at Stanton Holding and that if I promised to not fuck it up again, she might try to sneak in a good word for me.
I’d planned everything to the second days ago with help from Rome, Pierce, and Declan, but I’d been stuck in a holding pattern until I could find the perfect moment to spring it on Byron.
Kaylan might have enjoyed his part of trying to talk Byron out of coming back to me a little too well, but he’d gotten what I needed—a timeline for Byron’s arrival and the reassurance that he would cut through Fountain Square to get to the office.
Now he was standing in the center of the downtown park, staring openmouthed at the jumbo screen as it scrolled slowly through more than a dozen pictures of my sweet Byron. Most of them were taken from corporate events where people had snapped candid shots of him smiling and laughing. There were even some more recent pictures of him helping at my mother’s charity fund raiser.
And then there was the picture that threw our life off track.
When you stepped away from the turmoil and chaos, all you could see was the love and the happiness. They were beautiful pictures of two men seated on a park table framed by dark-green leaves, sharing a tender, intimate moment.
I wanted to include them here to remove the stain that had inadvertently tainted their beauty. I just hoped that Byron could see their perfection as well.