Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
She closed her eyes.
“I want you to stay. Dallas wants you to stay. Please, stay,” she whispered.
Dallas was my younger brother, by exactly thirteen minutes.
He and Bristol had gotten close once I’d been taken away.
Bristol lost her best friend, and Dallas lost the sister that he told everything to.
It was inevitable that they’d find solace in each other’s arms.
I looked into her sincere eyes and felt myself caving.
“You’ll let me pay rent?” I confirmed.
A muscle ticked below her right eye.
“Yeah,” she said very begrudgingly.
“And you’ll let me babysit for you whenever I want?” I asked her.
She laughed.
The sound was sweet.
And I loved it.
“Of course, anytime you want.”
I smiled. “Good. Now, how about you tell me what it is that you’ve been avoiding telling me.”
She looked down at the piece of paper that had lined my straw, she picked it up and started to pick it apart into tiny little pieces.
“Isaac,” she started, then stopped again.
My brows rose.
“Isaac,” I encouraged her.
She dropped the paper onto the tray and reached for my hands.
“Isaac is engaged to someone else. He got one of his secretaries at work pregnant, and he’s marrying her next weekend,” she said in a rush.
I blinked.
“You’re…he’s…what?” I asked, flabbergasted.
She nodded.
“Yeah, you heard me right,” she confirmed.
I looked down at the cheese that’d fallen from my burger earlier and cringed.
“Wow,” I said unsurprisingly. “I always thought he’d give up on me… just, not for it to happen the day I got out of prison.”
Bristol licked her lips, and I knew she had more to say.
She just didn’t want to hurt me anymore.
“What is it?” I asked softly.
She took a deep breath, and then gave me the full force of her brown eyes.
“He’s been doing it since the beginning… I just didn’t want to tell you when you had enough things to worry about,” she admitted.
I froze, but Bristol continued to speak.
“I’ve debated telling you for years now… it’s just… how do you tell your best friend that the man she thinks she’s going to marry is actually with someone else? You’ve given me your life, and I owe you everything. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have my family right now. And it breaks my heart that you had to have something so god awful happen to you for me to accomplish my dreams,” Bristol cried softly.
I grabbed her hand. “Bristol, I’ve already told you a million times that it wasn’t your fault. How many times do I have to do that before you understand? What happened that night… that was all me. Every bit of it. I hit that person. Those people. I chose to drink. I chose to go to that party with you. Everything is my fault, not yours. I love you, but you need to give it a rest. Let your heart heal.”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“And when will you heal?” She asked forcefully.
I shook my head.
There would be no healing for me.
There would just be existing.
And that’s all that there would ever be.
Existing, alone.
Chapter 3
I hate when people accuse me of lolly-gagging when I’m quite obviously dilly-dallying.
-Coffee Cup
Sawyer
“I don’t have much experience with anything office related,” I told the receptionist at the vet’s office where I was applying. “I’m good with dogs, though.”
The woman smiled. “Well, that’s definitely a plus!”
I smiled back.
The woman’s smile was infectious.
Her name was Joanie, and she reminded me a lot of my mom.
“Joanie, I’ll need you to input this into the computer and order some meds for Diesel so Mr. Coby can take him home,” called an older man with a smile on his face.
I watched him walk into the little counter area and hand Joanie a piece of paper before turning to look at me.
He offered me his hand.
“Zack Deguzman,” he introduced himself, offering me his hand.
“Sawyer Berry. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” I shook his hand.
“Are you kin to Dallas Berry?” He asked.
I froze for a second. If I said that I was related to Dallas, he would know exactly who I was, but how else could I explain how I’d heard about him?
There was no guarantee that he wouldn’t judge me like others had.
“I’m…” I hesitated, looking for a good way to phrase it. “Yes. I’m Sawyer Berry. Dallas’s sister.”
I could tell the minute he realized just who I was.
I saw the surprise in his eyes, followed by the pity.
What I didn’t see, though, was disgust.
Something I saw on quite a few people’s faces when they realized who I was and then remembered just who it was that I’d killed.
“Ah,” he said, nodding his head. “I understand. Come, walk with me to the exam room so I can see one of my favorite patients.”
I blinked in surprise.
“Really?” I asked.
Now that he knew, he didn’t act any differently, and I was really surprised.
Most people acted differently, almost as if I had an infectious disease after being released from prison.
I hurried behind Dr. Deguzman, who was walking rather quickly.
“Gosh, Dr. Deguzman, you have long legs,” I panted as we arrived at the room in the very back of the office.
His eyes sparkled as he turned to look over his shoulder at me.
“Call me Zack. And get ready for some fun,” he said, opening the door slowly.
The moment it was open wide enough, a wiggly little body slipped out, darting like a brown missile straight towards me.
I dropped down onto my knees and picked the little cutie up before he could scurry any further past.
“Gotcha,” I cooed, bringing the wiggling, wagging, excited little dog up to my face and giving him a kiss. “Aren’t you just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen?”
“That’s my dog,” a cute, little voice said softly.
I looked up into a beautiful pair of green eyes and smiled.
“This is your puppy?” I asked. “What’s his name?”
“He’s actually a she. And her name is Lou,” she said, crossing her hands across her little chest and glaring at me.
“A girl named Lou,” I nodded. “Got it.”
I handed the dog back to her, and she wrapped her thin arms around its wiggling body and started to struggle back into the room that Zack had closed once he’d realized I had caught the little bundle of energy who had managed to escape.