Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
“Ava.” He began to shake his head. “If you start on this where I’m here, and you’re here, and we’re too different, or if you start talking about the differences in our socioeconomic status, I’m going to hurl this beer bottle off into the dark. And I know you hate that shit, so you’d have to go and look for it, and then I’d have to go with you because it’s dark out and who knows what creatures are scurrying around here, and I don’t want to do that. You think I’m all this brave guy, but I’m really just a scaredy cat.”
I was fighting back a grin. “You’d be going to protect me?”
“No. I’d be going so you could protect me.” His tone was dry, and he was giving me a subtle look. A subtle hint. The ghost of a smile was on his face, just briefly. “I told you, I’m the scaredy cat here.”
“But you’re not.” My tone went serious. “You are the brave one. You’re the one who wades into any battle that’s going on if it means helping out one of your friends. I don’t know why you swung on Mitchell, but I can take a guess.”
I was holding his gaze this time. I leaned in closer, dropping my voice. “When I thought about it, I figured that probably Dirty Mean Mitchell said some not-nice things, probably about me, maybe about others, but most definitely it was bad enough where you reacted.”
“I’d do it again.”
My heart thumped, real hard in my chest. “I know you deleted my account with his bank. Someone I know who works there called me this afternoon. She was worried, heard what happened, and knew about you and me. She looked me up, saw I wasn’t there, and panicked.”
“Your money is safe. I just transferred it all to your other account. I was going to tell you, but shit hit the fan.”
“I won’t lie. It’s alarming that you can do that, what you did.”
“I was only protecting you.”
“I know.” I moved up and touched a hand to his chest, moving him back so I could sit on his lap. I liked getting up close. One of his hands went to my leg, anchoring me in place. “I know all of that. I know why you did it. I’m just saying that’s a little scary, but—” I held up a hand when he started to say something. “—I realized today that I have somewhat hid from life. I think. I hid in work. I hid in my family. I hid when I didn’t go to graduate school. I even hid in my ex. Remember Jarrod?”
His hand curled around me. “The offer to beat him up still stands. I don’t think I scared him enough.”
I smiled a little at that. “In the grand scheme of things, Jarrod was no one to me. I hid in him because problems my parents were having, and then I hid in Roy because Roy was everything Jarrod wasn’t. Roy was a good guy. Kind. Nice. Not flashy. Not charismatic. Roy was like me. He was steady.”
“Not enjoying hearing about the either ex. It makes me want to do something stupid, again.” He gave a low growl.
I held up a hand. “I’m getting to my point. Roy worked all the time, but now, looking back, I think he was hiding too. He was like me in that way. Then he met someone, and he fell head over heels for her. I didn’t understand. I was okay with it, but I just didn’t understand.” I tipped my head back to get a better look at him, moving so I was straddling him. Both of his hands moved to my back, one slid down to my ass, palming me. The warmth just kept getting warmer inside of me. “Until you.”
“Me?”
“Until I fell in love with you.”
His whole face softened, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “You love me?”
I nodded, so serious. “You scare me. You unnerve me. You challenge me. You are the opposite of me in so many ways. And you make me live. You make me smile. You make me laugh. You make me feel loved, and that scares me, but Zeke, there is no one like you. No one will ever be like you. You are the foundation that supports others, and you are a foundation for yourself. You don’t need anyone to stand for you, and I don’t think you even realize that about yourself. You’ve not asked anyone to stand for you, but I will. I want to. I want to be the one who helps you stand at times.”
“Babe.”
“I started thinking about all the firsts I’ve had with you. My first beer. The first time someone broke into my apartment and crashed my pity party in the bathtub.”