Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Yet, she was married. She was forever beyond my reach. Still, those fleeting moments, those tender touches fueled dreams I dared not confess.
My body gravitated closer to hers, drawn by an irresistible force that alarmed me as much as it enticed me. “Kierra…” I whispered, the word tumbling abruptly from my lips as my heartbeat quickened.
“Yes?” she responded, her voice quivering with uncertainty at our closeness. Yet, she leaned in, too. She leaned in. She felt it—the pull between the two of us. Each time I saw her, the magnetic pull felt stronger, more intense. More real. At first I thought I was making it up, but she leaned in, too.
“Are you happy with him?” I ventured, knowing I shouldn’t have asked her such a question but needing to know the answer.
“Happy?” she echoed, her head tilting slightly in bewilderment, puzzled by the weight of my question. “With Henry?”
“Yes.”
She was close. So close that her breath fell against my mouth. So close that if she whispered, only my soul could hear her secrets.
Abruptly, she rose from my desk. She shot back a few feet and cleared her throat. “You should ice your eye for a few hours tonight. And take Advil. And have someone check in on you to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
I rose to my feet and walked toward her, not ready to leave the feeling that I felt—the feeling that she felt. “Kierra—”
“Does someone live with you?” she asked. “So they can check in on you?”
“No, they don’t.”
“Well, maybe someone should stay the night with you, to make sure. Or have someone call in to check.”
“Kierra—”
“Can you not?” she asked, holding a hand up toward me. “I…” Her voice dropped and tears flooded her eyes. “Whatever you’re going to say, can you just not say it?”
“I just want to know if you’re happy.”
“I know and I can’t have you asking me that, Gabriel.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t force myself to lie to you about that, and if I told you the truth, it would be the first time I’ve said the words out loud, and I’m not ready to go there yet, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay.” She sighed and shook herself slightly. “Keep icing your eye,” she said, deflecting. The answer lay in her refusal to address my question; unhappiness was her unspoken truth. Had she been happy with Henry, affirmations of her love for him would’ve rolled off her tongue. Yet instead of declarations of love, she left me with advice for my eye.
“Keep icing,” she repeated, a firm note in her voice. Maybe to silence my questions or maybe to steady herself and come back to reality.
I nodded and placed the ice pack back on my face. The coldness of it seeped into my skin, which was a strong contrast to how her warmth felt against my soul.
As the silence stretched between us, the sudden creak of the door shattered the moment. Ava peeked into the room, unaware of the tension she diffused with her simple presence.
“Mom, are you done yelling at Gabriel? I’m pretty sure he apologized like a billion times,” she stated. Right then, reality snapped back, pulling us from the precipice of my forbidden emotions.
“Yes. I think he got the message,” Kierra said, turning to her daughter. “And I’m happy to inform you that you’ll be going to Cory and James’s house to apologize in person with me later this week.”
“What?” Ava gasped.
“Both of you,” Kierra said, turning her stare to me.
What? I silently remarked.
“Oh, come on. Those guys deserved…” Ava started, but the stern look Kierra gave her made her words stop. “Fine,” she grumbled, then looked over at me. “Thanks anyway, Gabriel. I know you were just trying to look out for me.”
“There are better ways than using fists, kid. Your mom made sure to remind me of that.”
Kierra smiled slightly before wrapping her arm around Ava’s shoulders. “Let’s get home.”
“Okay. Bye, Gabriel! See you later,” Ava said.
“Bye, you two,” I said with a small wave.
“Mom?” Ava whispered as she and Kierra walked out of my office.
“Yes?”
“I know you’re probably pissed about what happened, and I get it, but you should’ve seen how he backed me up. It was just like in those books. I think he was written by a woman.”
A small chuckle escaped me as Kierra glanced over her shoulder to look my way. A tiny grin flashed over her face before she turned back forward and continued walking. “Me too, Ava. Me too.”
10
Kierra
Sixteen Years Old
“A party?” I asked with a cocked brow as Rosie set down her lunch tray across from me. “At Brett’s house?”
Rosie swirled her straw around before sipping her chocolate milk. We had been friends for a while, even though we were quite different people. She was more of a partyer than I was. Gabriel was, too, but he never tried his hardest to get me to go to parties with him. If anything, he told me time and time again to avoid said parties.