Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Up until the last thing he said, I never would have thought that man would have known Sadie. But now, I’m not so sure. And I need to find out. If I’m going to protect her, I need to know everything about her. She can’t continue to keep me in the dark like this.
So I climb back into my car and back out of my driveway. Look like I’ll be crashing her work tonight after all.
25
Jake
I can see Sadie through the window as I sit parked outside Cherry’s Diner. It reminds me of the first time I watched her through a window, only this time is infinitely less exciting.
There’s another girl working with her tonight. Julia, probably, the one who told me about her favorite type of ice cream.
It’s actually pretty busy, so I’ve been waiting for there to be a lull in the dining room to go in and talk to her, but it’s been over twenty-minutes now, and I’m getting tired of sitting here.
“Fuck it.” I shut the car off and march up to the front door. I’ll just go talk to her now. Julia’s a sweet girl; she can cover for Sadie for a few minutes. I’ll leave a tip for her.
But as I’m walking up and just about to reach the door, Sadie spots me from inside, and what she does next, I can’t believe. She actually rushes over to Julia, whispers something in her ear, and quickly disappears through the door leading into the back of the restaurant.
Seriously? This is getting ridiculous now.
I go inside anyway and am “greeted” by Julia at the door. She’s giving me one of those fake smiles as though I might be some kind of crazy ex or current stalker, which given what just happened back at Sadie’s house is the most ironic thing in the world.
“Hi,” she whispers. “She, um…she doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that from what I just saw,” I reply. “But it’s important. So if you don’t mind…”
I brush right past Julia and head for the door Sadie went through, moving at a brisk pace. Julia follows after me, but what’s she going to really do to stop me with a dining room filled with diners? It’s not like she’s going to make a scene.
“Jake?” she whispers. “You, um…you can’t go in there!”
“Watch me,” I reply.
I push the door open and find myself in the kitchen. A few cooks look up and see me but look back at their stoves. They really couldn’t care less. But then I glance to my left and see Sadie leaning against the wall. She has her head tilted back and is taking long, deep breaths.
“Sadie,” I say softly.
She opens her eyes and sees me, then instantly looks angrily at Julia. “I tried to stop him,” she says.
“It’s okay,” Sadie replies, but it’s clear from her tone that it is not okay. “Go back out front. I’ll be there in one minute.”
Julia waits for a second, but Sadie gives her a nod, and she goes back out front.
“One minute?” I ask with a grin, doing my best to be charming and relieve some of the tension. “Damn, that’s all I get?”
“You’re lucky you get that,” she says. Wow, she’s angrier than I thought she’d be. “Why are you here, Jake? I thought I made it pretty clear that I didn’t want to talk to you.”
“Yeah, you did.” I nod. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk to you. Doesn’t what I want mean anything to you? What about my feelings, Sadie?”
Sadie frowns and purses her lips. “You see? That’s what I’m talking about, Jake. Feelings. That’s what I told you I didn’t want from this. That’s why I have my rule.”
Her rule. That goddamn rule. If I have to hear about that rule one more time...
“Yeah, yeah,” I reply. “You don’t want to feel anything for me. But you do. Don’t you, Sadie? That’s why you want to cut me out of your life.”
Sadie shakes her head angrily. “This is ridiculous,” she says, moving to step past me. “A minute is up. I’m done with this conversation.”
“I caught a man snooping around outside your house tonight,” I say. Sadie stops in her tracks, her hand on the door. She turns slowly and looks back at me. “He said his name was Howard.”
The look that comes over Sadie’s face shocks me. Not only that, but it confirms for me something that a half-hour ago I never would have believed.
Howard actually does know her.
26
Jake
“Howard…was at my house?” Her voice is quivering. She drops her hand from the door and steps back to me. “Wh-what did he say?”
“Not so fast, Sadie,” I reply. “Who is this guy? How does he know you?”
Sadie shakes her head. She’s really shaken up by this. Her eyes are on the ground, but it’s not like she’s trying not to look at me. It’s like she’s thinking back to her past, recounting something terrible that happened to her.