Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Second best. And second best didn’t even deserve a goodbye.
I let out a shuddery breath, clenching my eyes shut and letting the pain roll through me in waves.
I heard her laugh from below and Gage’s deep voice saying something that was surely charming and complimentary.
I didn’t move a muscle, just stood there alone in her room where she’d left me, until his car doors shut outside and I heard the smooth motor of his Audi—the car that cost the entirety of two years of my salary—pulling out of the gravel driveway.
Only then could I move, propelling myself out her door, down the stairs and back to my truck, where I jumped inside and peeled out of the driveway.
I turned in the opposite direction from the one they would have gone in, toward the lakeside restaurants in Calliope where he’d wine and dine her. He’d probably notice she was tense. She had been uncomfortable hurting me because she was kind.
But she’d done it anyway because she didn’t have the same feelings for me that I had for her.
Only when I’d turned down the dirt road that led to my land was I able to take a full breath. I came to a slow stop, rolling down the windows and turning off the ignition, staring unseeing at the faded red barn. It would be years before I saved up for the one thing I wanted. The only thing I had left.
I was spinning. Spiraling.
You will lose it all. Or lose it all.
Desperation spiked, a hot flood of despondency, and I leaned back on the seat, the breeze through the window ruffling my hair but doing nothing to cool my blood.
The pile of things my mother had given me was sitting on the small space of floor behind the passenger seat and I twisted, reaching for them. Why? To torture myself further? To remind myself that I’d always been thrown away by people I cared about? By people who mattered?
The picture album was on top of the folder of documents and I rifled through that, shutting it after only a few pages. It hurt to look at my father in that moment.
I could have used you right now. I could have used you in so many moments.
But even if you had lived, you left. You chose him over me.
You fucking asshole.
Only I didn’t hate him. I wished I could. And that’s what hurt the most.
Underneath the albums was the file of original documents and I opened it, taking several minutes to read through it, furrowing my brow as I read it again, more slowly.
Holy shit. She was right.
I saw what my mother meant.
I looked up momentarily, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. Tap, tap, tap. This amendment to the original contract regarding the ownership of Pelion changed everything. I leaned back, considering. A legal challenge would almost definitely work with the right lawyers involved.
At the very least, Archer and I would split the town. I considered the documents again. I’d regain the social status among the Pelion and Calliope elite I’d once enjoyed. I’d have the money to build the house I wanted on this land in front of me. The land that had once been my father’s but now was mine. Only mine.
I’d meant it when I’d told my mother that Archer did a great job running the town and that the citizens of Pelion thrived under his leadership. But Archer could still keep doing what he did. He didn’t have to split the ownership of the town. But I could gently demand that he buy me out.
Why should he have everything when Connor Hale had been my father too? Even if he didn’t want to be.
We didn’t have to get lawyers involved.
It didn’t need to get messy.
My pulse slowed and I felt more in control. Tap, tap, tap. Relief descended.
Why not? Even if there was a small possibility of Haven staying, she had walked away from me tonight, showing me that I meant little to her. I had simply been her friend with benefits…temporarily…something I had done to others many times if I was honest. All over Pelion, women would be—justifiably—laughing their asses off if they knew the pain I was in. Despite what Burt said, Haven would not be the one to fill or complete me. The hope of that potential future had died. If I was going to lose it all—again—this time, why not grab what I could before all of it was gone?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Travis
“I’m glad you made it. But you should have taken the time to change into something more comfortable,” Bree said, eyeing the uniform I was still wearing and handing me a fistful of skewers as we walked down the hill toward the bonfire I could already see dancing on the beach below. “Your uniform is going to get all smoky.”