Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“You’re moving out?” Copper asked.
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
Eventually, I worked up the courage to say, “Yeah. I think it’s time, don’t you?” I swallowed hard. “That way, you can have your life back. You don’t have to babysit me anymore.”
“Was that what you thought I was doing?” he asked.
I laughed humorlessly. “That’s exactly what you were doing, and we both know it.”
For the rest of the night, and then the next morning as I packed my things up, Copper was nowhere to be found.
He’d left me behind last night at the clubhouse, and I’d caught a ride home with Audric of all people in his truck.
Dad was fast asleep on the couch when I got there, so I let him sleep and went to my bedroom, wondering if I was making a mistake.
But when I heard Copper come home and then talk to my dad in the living room about me moving out, and how he thought it was a good thing for me, I solidified my decision.
Yes, I was definitely moving out.
It was time.
Twelve
If you’re not in my circle of trust, you’re probably in my triangle of suspicion or rhombus of doubt.
—Copper to Keely
COPPER
I hadn’t realized just how comfortable I’d become in my life with Baker and Holt firmly in it until they were both gone.
I walked into my office a week later with no Baker, and no Holt—I’d been working from home because I was too pissed off to go into work.
When I arrived at my desk, it was to see Keely sitting at it, tapping a pen on the edge of my desk, looking annoyed.
“What is it?” I asked as I walked in.
She looked behind me, then flicked her gaze up toward me before saying, “I can’t believe you let her leave.”
I felt those words like a shot straight to my heart.
I couldn’t believe I’d let her leave, either.
I was still reeling.
A week ago, I’d been at a club party, happy as could be, and the next day I was stunned into silence as she moved out without a backward glance.
I’d let her go, and I was still kicking myself for allowing it to happen.
I rubbed at my chest, the ache having started right around the time she’d announced her future departure, and said, “It was time.”
“Sure, it was.” Keely rolled her eyes. “You’re not a bad guy, Copper.”
I jerked my head up to look at her. “What?”
“I saw the way you looked when Holt said ‘dada’ the other day at dinner,” she said, opening up that wound that I hadn’t realized wasn’t closed all the way until now.
I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw screamed.
“But I’m not his dad, and the idea of Holt being raised by someone like me…”
Okay, so I’d been standoffish with everyone, even Holt, when Holt had babbled that at dinner in front of everyone. I’d been holding him, giving him a bite of tortilla, when he’d smacked my face hard and leaned in to give me a gummy kiss on the cheek.
He’d pulled back, and I swear he’d said “dada” and it’d gone straight to my soul.
But moments later, that sinking feeling of never being good enough sank into me.
“If you finish that sentence, I’m going to fucking scream!” Keely bellowed, standing up so fast that the computer chair smashed into the wall of windows behind her. The glass cracked, and I had her away from the edge of the now broken window so fast that my heart hadn’t even registered that I’d moved.
“What the fuck, Keely?” I growled. “You could’ve been killed.”
“I can’t believe you!” she hissed, her tiny little finger poking into my chest so hard that I would have tiny bruises by tomorrow. “I seriously don’t understand you…ugh!”
I tugged Keely to my couch and sat her in it, then left to find Millicent at her office, staring with startled eyes at my wide-open door.
“Can you call a window contractor in and get them to replace the glass in my office?” I asked. “I don’t care who it is, or how much it costs. I just need it done quickly.”
“Of course.”
I turned back to Keely.
“What the fuck, Keely?” I asked, enraged now. “You could’ve been seriously hurt, and then where would I have been?”
“The same fuckin’ place!” she seethed, her fingers fisting on the leather couch beneath her. “You are good enough, Copper. You! YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!”
I looked away from her intense gaze.
“I love you, Copper,” she said. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have your happily ever after. You deserve Baker. You deserve Holt. Give yourself a chance.”
With that, she stood up, poked me hard in the middle of the chest, and said, “Get your shit straight, or you’ll lose them.”
The first time I saw her, three weeks after she moved out, was completely by coincidence.