Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“What’s the name of the other two?”
“Whiskers and Ginger.”
“Let me guess, Ginger is an orange tabby.”
“Your guess would be correct, but you didn’t come here to talk about horses or cats, Erin. Why are you here?”
The lighthearted conversation they were having was about to quickly come to a screeching halt.
Erin pulled in a breath before answering, “To apologize.”
Dylan’s brow wrinkled and his lips twisted. “For what?”
“For what happened yesterday.”
His head twitched to the side. “Which part?”
She frowned. Which part? “What you saw upstairs in the playroom. Did something else happen that I missed?”
His expression once again closed up tight.
“You two didn’t get into a fight after I left, did you?”
“No, nothing like that.” His initial hesitation was a bit suspicious.
“It was a stupid idea.”
“What was?”
“Thinking that if you saw us together, you’d be tempted to join us,” she answered.
“In a playroom with the blinds open?”
“No… I…” She shook her head. “No, in private.”
“What I did see, Erin, was once again, he didn’t use a condom.”
Why did that bother him so much? Unless he joined them, it didn’t affect him at all. “Ford and I are long past that, Dylan. I told you that.”
“Are we?”
What? “We haven’t… We aren’t…”
“Not yet, but you just said your goal was to tempt me. So, if I joined you two, shouldn’t that be one of my concerns?”
“No.”
His brow furrowed. “How would it not?”
“Simple. I don’t have sex with anyone else but him.” She had free rein to do so, but she didn’t. Anytime she was in the mood to have sex, she contacted Ford. He was always accommodating.
“He doesn’t have sex with anyone else, either?”
“He gets tested regularly. But he always uses protection when he’s with anyone else.”
“Him being with others doesn’t bother you at all?”
“No.”
“That’s not normal, Erin.”
“Says who? Society? Our relationship is our relationship. We make it what we want. And right now, we don’t want it to be exclusive.”
“Would it be if you asked?”
“I didn’t come here to discuss that, Dylan.”
“Then, why are you here?”
“Again, to apologize for going about it the wrong way.”
One eyebrow lifted. “Why do you think it was wrong? Maybe it wasn’t and it convinced me.”
His tone sounded a bit aggravated, which led her to believe he wasn’t convinced. Was he being sarcastic? “Did it?”
Dylan scratched his forehead, then, without a word, unclipped the cross-ties and led Rebel by his halter to a nearby stall. He slapped the horse softly on the hind end with a soft, “Good boy,” closed the stall door and turned.
“Well?” she prodded.
“I loved you, Erin.”
Holy shit. She hoped to move forward and not rehash their past. “And I loved you. But we need to get past this, Dylan. It was seventeen years ago.”
“Seventeen years wasted.”
She sighed. Maybe coming to see him today was a mistake. “I’m sorry you see it that way.”
“If I had stayed and asked you to marry me, would you have done it?”
Her chest tightened. “Yes.”
“Then, do you realize our kids could be teenagers by now?”
Was this his way of getting back at seeing her and Ford together? Was this some sort of punishment?
She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled in a breath. “Dylan, that’s not fair.”
“You’re right. Life isn’t fair. You out of anyone should know that since you lost Hart.”
“Please stop,” she whispered. “My heart broke when you left. My heart broke when Kyle died. Please don’t break it all over again.”
She opened her eyes when Dylan’s hand cupped her jaw, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry. I’m being a complete ass. We agreed to move on, and I’ll admit that I’m having a hard time doing that. It was difficult to think of you with Hart. It’s even harder for me to see you with Ford.”
“Two years, Dylan. We had two years together in school. I’ve been seeing Ford for ten.”
“But not seriously.”
“Every relationship doesn’t have to be serious,” she reminded him.
“You were supposed to be mine.”
“If you can’t share me, then I never will be. Ford has been there for me during all the years you weren’t. I will not kick him to the curb simply because that’s what you want. And since you insist we head down this path again, I will remind you, you could’ve stayed,” she said softly.
“No, I couldn’t have. I needed to get out of this town. It felt like I was suffocating, and it would’ve held me back. I needed more.”
“More,” she murmured.
“Yes, an education, to see the world, to discover—”
“More than me.”
“I knew I was different, so I needed to figure out who I was and not rely on who everyone expected me to be.”
“You found yourself.”
“It took a while.”
“I found myself while living here,” she countered. “You might’ve too if you had given it a chance.”
“It wasn’t a chance I wanted to take.” When she thought he would explain that remark further, he instead asked, “Was Hart into what you’re into?”