Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Don’t be selfish, I told myself as the three of them continued to chat about the renovations. This isn’t about you.
It was good she was leaving, in fact. I didn’t have any room in my life for a relationship, long-distance or otherwise. She’d sell the house and go home, and we’d stay friends. That’s what I wanted. That’s how it would be.
Easy. Uncomplicated. Best for everyone.
But my chest had started to ache.
“Honestly, this is such a relief,” Maddie said, glancing at the house. “I should have dealt with this place years ago, but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.”
“I get it,” Bianca said. “Childhood homes always come with some heavy emotional baggage. It can be hard to let go.”
“I will gladly say goodbye to the heavy emotional baggage accompanying this house,” Maddie said, pretending to brush dirt from her hands. Then she glanced at me. “My good memories in Bellamy Creek are safe and sound.”
“I’ll get paperwork over to you this week.” Moretti glanced at me. “Feel free to keep working here, though. I love free labor. Would you mind taking out that dead tree over there? Looks like it’ll be a pain in the ass.”
“Fuck off,” I told him with a grin. “If this place is yours now, I’m out.”
He laughed. “I don’t blame you. Coming to practice this week?”
Bianca tugged Maddie’s hand. “Hey, come inside with me for a moment. I want to tell you about an idea I had for the kitchen.”
I watched her follow Bianca up the steps, admiring her curvy body and kicking myself again for being so fast last night.
Moretti’s laughter yanked me from my thoughts.
“Sorry, what did you ask me?” I frowned. “Something about practice?”
“Dude.” He glanced over his shoulder at the house, into which Maddie and Bianca had just disappeared. “You’re still a mess over her. It’s like senior year all over again.”
I swallowed hard, unable to deny it.
“Did something happen?” he asked.
I rubbed the back of my grimy, sweaty neck. “Uh, yeah.”
“Does that mean those marks are from her?” He gestured at my chest. “Or did a rosebush attack you?”
“Those are from her.”
“Damn.” Moretti looked amused and impressed, crossing his arms over his chest. “So it finally happened. How was it?”
Cringing slightly, I shook my head. “Don’t ask.”
His jaw dropped. “It wasn’t good? After you waited all that time?”
“It was amazing. It was just . . .” I grimaced. “Over really fast.”
Moretti’s head fell back as he laughed. “So go slower next time.”
“I don’t know if there’ll be a next time.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s really hard with her son and my dad in the house. Last night we managed to wake up my father, who started taking out pots and pans in the kitchen at midnight because he heard noises upstairs and thought it was morning.” I shook my head. “Our timing is shit.”
“I don’t know.” Moretti shrugged. “Who’s to say there’s ever a perfect time?”
“I keep thinking I’m an idiot for waiting so long.”
“You think you’d have lasted longer when you were eighteen?” He shook his head. “I assure you, that would not have been the case.”
“Yeah, maybe not.” I wiped sweat from my forehead with my arm. “It just sucks that we can’t be alone. And once the house is sold, I doubt she’ll be back.”
“Let me ask you something. Who’s with your dad and Elliott right now?”
“My sister Mallory.”
“So what the fuck are you doing yanking weeds, asshole?” Moretti asked. “You finally got the girl. Grab her and get out of here.”
I looked at the house again. “Yeah. Maybe I will.”
Eleven
Maddie
The moment the door was shut, Bianca spun around and said breathlessly, “Oh my God, I saw the scratches on his back, tell me everything right now.”
I laughed and shook my head. “I told him to put his shirt back on.”
“I’m glad he didn’t! Now you have to tell me how it happened. Did you make the first move?”
I hesitated. “Yes and no.”
“Go on.” Bianca gestured frantically with both hands.
“After I got home last night, we sat at the kitchen table and talked for a while.”
“About how you wanted to jump his bones?”
I laughed. “No. Mostly it was stuff about my mom, just baggage I’ve had to work through. But he listened like he really cared.”
“Because he does, Maddie.”
“He has this way of making me feel so good about myself,” I gushed. “I always feel so safe with him—safe enough to admit that I’d always had feelings for him, and I was sorry I’d never told him.”
Her jaw dropped. “So did you kiss him?”
“Not right then.” I felt the blush creeping into my cheeks and the sly smile overtaking my lips. “But later I snuck across the hall into his bedroom.”
She squealed and jumped up and down. “You didn’t!”
“I did. Because right before we went to bed, he said two things that pushed me over the edge.”