Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
I carry on, tugging open the door and going upstairs to enter the apartment. As soon as I enter the room, I kick the door closed and drop the bags in the middle of the floor before falling onto the bed and crying some more.
CHAPTER 29
Warner
The darkness of night lifts from the Eiffel Tower she left on my console. What little light morning dares to bring allows my eyes to focus on the trinket when I wish she had taken it, like she removed herself from my life.
Did I tell her to go? I had no other choice when she wouldn’t even fight for the little that was real in our relationship. I would have. I can handle yelling. It’s the silence that killed the possibility. We could have fought through it to get to the truth and built a new foundation from there. But she packed her bags so fast that we weren’t given the option.
My phone lights up with another message. I always check just in case it’s Delaney. It’s not this time, just like the past four weren’t. All are from Jimmy. I finally reach for it on the coffee table and flip it open, only reading the last one: You better reply or I’m going to assume you were in another accident.
To be fair, it was a hit-and-run. Describing the driver to the police would be easy: Shorter, about chest high, long brown hair that’s probably twisted up on her head, most likely wearing a stolen Harvard T-shirt, these incredible blue eyes that look at me like I hung the stars and moon when she’s not mad at me, which is quite a bit of the time, and considers cookies in bed an aphrodisiac.
I text: I’m alive. I don’t mention barely, though I feel my life slipping away from me again. Stop making your bride jealous by bugging me and enjoy the honeymoon.
When the screen brightens with another text, I feel my heart kick in again. But it’s not from her. Jimmy replies: Glad you’re alive. Beers when I get back from Aruba.
I stare at the screen for so long that I only see spots when I look away. I toss my phone to the other side of the couch and drop my head into my hand. I know I shouldn’t, but I already miss Delaney so fucking much.
She’s a habit. That’s all. A bad one at that. I’ve broken bad habits before. Twenty-one days. That’s all it will take to get her out of my system. Focus on that, Landers.
Lying down, I rest my head on the couch cushion with my broken arm anchored by my bicep. Seeing how the black ink bled into the fibers of the cast makes me realize nothing, no matter the intention, is only perfect for a short time. The lowercase “i” with a heart dotted was a distinctly Delaney choice when she could have chosen capitalization. I not only lost her and her spirit filling the vacancies in this place, but now I’m stuck staring at a blobby heart until this cast comes off.
Getting upset after the fact won’t do me any good. I close my eyes, wishing the amnesia I had also involved the time I spent with her. The short time we were together caused more damage than the accident, but being trapped in these memories hurts more than any injuries I sustained.
My eyes grow heavy in the early morning hours . . .
A long-overdue contract finally hits my inbox first thing on Monday. I open it and start reading through the details. My supposed “closer,” Carl, failed the company on this deal. We should have been signing papers, not sending them through both legal teams for a fourth round of negotiations. It’s time for me to step in. If he can’t get this deal closed, I will.
I messaged Jocelyn to order lunch for both of us so we can go over every page of this contract. Four hours, a storm brewing outside, two Italian subs, and more cups of coffee than I remember later, we sit back in the chairs of the conference room and look at each other, shocked by the findings.
Jocelyn doesn’t jump in, so I finally say, “Mystery solved. Now I know why she asked me for five million dollars.”
“Did you give it to her?” There’s no judgment in her tone. I think she’d like to hear that I did. Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out.
I release a breath that’s needed to get off my chest for a long time. “I didn’t. But if I had known the circumstances for why she needed the money, I might have considered it.”
“It wouldn’t have been a wise investment, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Must have been difficult to say no even without the facts.”