Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Staring at Ashlyn, her little gummy grin and spurts of brown hair out of a silly little ponytail, he was choked with emotion, and he considered it. He considered coming out, for her. For Wells. For Avery. Damn it, for himself. His dad would murder him, and all Matty had wanted growing up was the respect and love of his father. That would be gone the moment he came out. If he thought he wasn’t invited to dinners with his sister at that moment, his invitation to anything with the family would be gone forever if he told his truth.
But then, he’d have Wells back.
God, he wanted Wells back.
When a slap came to his back, he looked over to see his brother Seth sitting down as Laurence took a seat on the other side. “Hey.”
“Hey,” they said together, each ordering a beer before Laurence pointed to the picture that was filling Matty’s phone.
“She’s a cutie.” He smiled as he pulled out his phone. “She looks just like Avery and is a doll. She kept grabbing my face and nuzzling her nose in my beard.”
Matty tried to smile as Laurence went through his pictures. Seth leaned on the bar and said, “Yeah, and she’s walking now. It’s so cute. She’s like a little drunk person.”
Matty scoffed as Laurence played a video of Ashlyn eating some pasta, dancing with the spaghetti falling from her mouth. Jace was right there, trying to wipe her mouth and clean her up, though it was no use. Matty’s heart hurt as Avery’s laugh filled the video. “He’s a good dad, I guess?”
“The best,” Seth agreed, leaning back. “I didn’t think I’d like him since he knocked her up and married her without anyone knowing, but he’s actually great to both of them. Really respectful to Mom and Dad.”
“Yeah, he’s a good dude,” Laurence agreed with a nod.
Biting the inside of his cheek as Laurence scrolled through the pictures, Matty found himself asking, “How’s Avery?”
Laurence paused, dropping his phone to the bar, and Matty didn’t miss the look he shared with Seth. “She’s good. She’s gained some weight,” he laughed, and Seth shook his head ruefully.
“Dad said something to her, and man, I thought Jace was going to throw the table across the room.”
Good. Their dad could be a little hard to deal with, and it was good to know Jace was there to defend Avery.
Since Matty wasn’t. Not that he ever had been.
Swallowing hard, he looked toward the screen as Laurence went on. “She’s sold three more songs, which is awesome. They’re buying a new house, and yeah, things are good.”
“Good for her,” he said softly, taking a pull of his beer.
“She asked about you,” Seth added, and Matty kept his face stone-still as he looked up from the screen.
“She did?”
“Yeah, she wondered how you were.”
Matty slowly nodded as a silence fell between the three of them. She may have asked about him, she may have honestly cared also, but it was well known that he wasn’t invited to anything. He also assumed that his brothers saying what they did wasn’t just conversation. They were trying to build a bridge to bring their siblings back together. They probably had told her Matty had asked about her and Ashlyn, though he hadn’t until that moment. They were constantly trying to get the two to reconcile, and while Avery might have been on board, Matty just couldn’t do it.
And it wasn’t fair to her, Ashlyn, or even Wells.
But most of all, to himself.
The three shot the shit for the next hour before Matty found himself in his room, alone. His roommate, Jeff McNaire, was never in his room. He always seemed to get another room for his mistress or whatever, so Matty hardly saw the guy. Worked great when Wells was in his life, but now… Now, Matty was lonely. He could call his brothers up, but doing that would only depress him more. They’d talk about how great Ashlyn was and Avery, how their mom and dad were just beaming with joy at dinner. Yeah, he was good without that update.
Instead, he found himself doing what he knew he shouldn’t. He stalked Wells’s Instagram.
Pictures of Wells and his best friends, Vaughn and Jensen, took up most of his social media, but there were also lots of pictures of his sister, Wren, along with his parents. In every picture, Wells looked beautiful and happy. When Matty found himself on Wells’s Facebook, his face twisted in confusion when a guy appeared in some of Wells’s pictures. Not a friend either, but a guy Matty knew had a thing for Wells.
Alex Rahim.
They had met Alex once when they went to yoga back in Colorado. Wells had convinced Matty it was good for his hips, and Matty had teased back that Wells just wanted to check out his ass. He did, but what Matty didn’t like was that Alex seemed to be checking out every piece of Wells. He had even offered Wells his number when they were leaving. Wells had declined, but apparently, that wasn’t the case anymore. All over the page were pictures of them kissing, laughing, joking, and doing what couples did.