Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
She stiffens in my arms, and I know she’s putting her guard up. She doesn’t want to talk about our past, and she’s not going to listen to my apologies. I gesture to the grease stain that is now on her shirt. “I was trying to help, but I’ve covered you in grease. I’m sorry.”
She looks down at her shirt and surprises me with a smile. “It’s okay. A stained shirt is the least of my worries.”
She pushes against me to stand up, and I wish I could hold on to her and keep her where she’s at, but I release her. She stands up, shifting back and forth on her feet and then leans against the edge of my desk.
I stand up, grab the keys for her car off the hook, walk over to her, and drop the keys into her palm. “Take your car. I don’t want your money.”
She clenches them in her hand. “I don’t want to owe you, Dominic, and if I take this car without paying you, I’m going to owe you.”
“You won’t owe me anything.”
She shakes the keys in her hand and then holds them out to me. When I don’t reach for them, she puts them on the desk. “I’ll be back to get my car when I have the money to pay for it.”
She walks away from me, and she has that look on her face again that tells me she could start crying in an instant. I’ve only seen her like this one other time, and it’s the time I pushed her away and said I never wanted to see her again. I was lying to her then. Hell, I would have given anything to keep her with me forever, but in that instant, I knew I had to do right by her, and being with me was the worst thing for her.
She walks past the garage doors and keeps walking. I want to stop her, but I let her go. I’ll get the car to her, but I’m going to wait to do it so that I won’t make her cry. I’ve hurt her too much already, and I vow not to do it anymore.
5
LUCIANA
“I can’t believe you’re home,” Violet says softly as she looks at me across the table at the Whiskey Whistler. Violet and I were friends in high school. She owns Red’s Diner, the most popular diner in Whiskey Run, and she’s now married and has two kids. We’ve kept in touch through the years, and it feels like we haven’t missed a beat. We picked up right where we left off.
I pick up my drink and take a big draw off it before I set it down and nod my head. “Yeah, I can’t believe I’m home either.” It’s hard to think about considering I’ve been avoiding this place for so many years.
Violet leans toward me. “You know your life is like something out of a television show, right?”
I just told Violet about my business, my ex-fiancé, Ray, his cheating, and everything that has transpired in the last few days. I didn’t leave anything out, even telling her about seeing Dominic again.
“Trust me, I would give anything for my life to be boring. Hopefully, I’ll get to that point.”
Violet shakes her head in disbelief. “So how was it seeing Dom again?”
I lean back in my chair and shake my head. “Just like I thought it would be.”
Her forehead creases. “What does that mean?”
I roll my eyes, disgusted with myself. “You know how I felt about him, and you know I didn’t want it to end. But you would think after seventeen years I would have been over it, right? What draws me to men that want to hurt me?”
She tilts her head to the side and gives me a doubtful look. “I don’t think that’s true.”
I wave at the bartender for another beer. After he acknowledges me, I decide to lay it all out for Violet. “Really, I think it’s completely true. My first love, Dom, might as well have ripped my heart out of my chest. I dated a few guys since then, but they were never anything serious. Not until Ray and now look, he cheated on me, hit me, and now I’m fighting him to keep my share of our business.”
Violet’s shaking her head. “Ray’s going to get his, I’m sure of it. And the fact that he did that to you tells me he’s not a man, Lucy. Not a real man, anyway, but what I mean is that I don’t think Dominic meant to hurt you. At least, not on purpose.”
I sit back in my seat. “Not on purpose? He cheated on me. He told me he never wanted to see me again.”
Violet runs her finger around the rim of her empty glass. “Luciana, he was in jail and about to go to prison. He dealt with all that shit with your parents and—”