Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
I felt bad that Dex was put on the spot like that, but honestly, he deserved it.
Dex stared at her. “Look, I’m sorry—”
“Apologize to him—not me.” Daisy pointed at Mason. “He was the one you just called an idiot.”
“Babe.” Mason placed his hand on her arm. “You know I like it when you get pissed, but let’s just chill for a sec, okay? No apology necessary. Let’s just forget about it—”
“It’s different, alright?” Dex ignored him and looked at his sister. “When Derek was fucking around, he was just fucking around. And when I’m fucking around, I’m just fucking around. But it’s different with you—”
“And what if I’m just fucking around?” Daisy snapped. “That’s unacceptable because I’m a woman?”
“That’s not what I said.” Dex was drawing attention from the other tables, but his gaze was focused on his sister like no one else was there. “I admit I feel differently toward you than I do with Derek, but it’s because you’re younger than me, not because you’re a woman. I know what it’s like to have my life ruined by the wrong person, to have my heart broken into so many fucking pieces that it can’t be fixed, and I would rather die than watch you go through it, alright?”
Daisy didn’t scream at him anymore, but she still looked angry. She gave a sigh and dropped her voice. “I’m a big girl, Dex. It’s impossible to go through life without getting hurt, but I’m strong enough to recover from that unavoidable trauma that everyone experiences and carry on. You’re the one who needs to let go of the past, who needs to be strong and carry on, not spend your time worrying about me.”
Dex breathed hard as he stared at her, like he had nothing left in his arsenal.
She stared back.
Dex eventually shook his head. “Alright…I’ll try.”
6
Dex
We left the bar and stepped onto the sidewalk, the air frigid and cold, patches of snow in random places on the sidewalk and in the gutters.
Daisy turned to Sicily. “You know what, I gotta pee. Come pee with me.” She hooked her arm through Sicily’s and dragged her back into the bar, pulling a conniving stunt to get me alone with her beau.
Mason stood with his hands in his pockets, the breath from his nostrils escaping as mist, and then he crossed his arms over his chest, his muscles stretching the fabric of his shirt. He was a pretty man, and he knew he was a pretty man.
I guess that was why I didn’t like him. Because pretty men never committed, and if they actually liked a woman, they would just string her along until they were ready to bounce to the next hot piece of ass.
I would know—I’d done it.
Catherine was the only woman I’d ever committed to…because she was the one.
I knew she was the one the moment I saw her.
But whether my impression of Mason was dead on or completely wrong didn’t matter. I was being a dick, and I needed to stop being a dick. “Look…I’m sorry about before. It’s just—”
“Don’t worry about it, man. I get it.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a sister. But my sister isn’t anything like Daisy, so I wouldn’t worry about her so much. Daisy’s a smart girl, and I didn’t realize how much I liked that sort of thing until I met her.”
She wasn’t as tough as she pretended to be sometimes. She had a big, beating heart, and she wasn’t afraid to show love to the people she cared about. She claimed it was casual with this guy, but I knew he meant something to her if she brought him around. I didn’t like that because I could already tell he wasn’t right for her. He was right for a fling that lasted a couple weeks but not anything serious. But I kept my mouth shut and let it go because nothing I said would change anything. “Yeah…she’s a lot.”
He chuckled like he understood exactly what I meant by that. “Sicily seems like a cool girl. You two seem happy.”
“Oh…she and I aren’t together. She’s my assistant at the office.”
He nodded slowly, but he seemed surprised. “She’s your assistant?”
“Yeah.”
A slight smile moved on to his lips.
“What?”
“I just…don’t understand why you would hire someone like that if you can’t be with her.”
“Hire someone like what?” I asked.
Now he looked at me like I was crazy. “You know, I’m just gonna shut my mouth now.”
“Hire someone like what?” I repeated.
He shrugged. “You know, beautiful, smart, laid-back, go-with-the-flow… Girls like that don’t come up often. Come on, I’m telling you something you already know. You two seem really close. I don’t know how you keep your work professional when you spend so much time with her.”
“I mean, I find her attractive and everything…” Okay, I found her drop-dead gorgeous, and every time she wore those tight dresses and heels, I was a bit entranced. “But we’re friends. We’re colleagues.”