Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I blinked at her, speechless. “Anything I want?” I asked, grinning mischievously. That’s a pretty risky bet, Karlie.”
“That’s the thing,” she said, smiling. “It’s really not that much of a risk at all. That’s how confident I am in how that man feels about you.”
And with that she turned, leaving me alone in the storage room. My heart beat in a nervous flutter as I considered her proposition. Could I really do what she suggested? Drive down to New York and confront James and see if there was a possible future between us? Could I really lay myself bare and take the risk that he might reject me?
But could I risk the opposite—letting him go without ever knowing what could have been?
The thought terrified me. Karlie was right. If I never tried with James, I would regret it for the rest of my life. It was better to try and get rejected than never try at all.
After all, if there was one thing I knew for sure it was that James was worth it.
Later that night, after closing up the bar, I returned to the Sea Sprite and flipped through the guest files until I found the form James had filled out when booking his room. Sure enough, his home address was printed along the top in firm block letters. My heart beating with a sickening combination of fear and anxiety and hope and anticipation, I copied the address down on a Post-it note and tucked it into my pocket.
The next morning, after a night of tossing and turning and thinking about James and how much I already missed him, I got in my jeep and started for the city. Every time I considered turning back, I remembered our last morning together and the sound of his sleepy voice in my ear murmuring, “I wish I could wake up to that every morning.”
I had that same wish.
Which is how I found myself on James’s front stoop later that afternoon. Unsurprisingly no one was home, and I waited. Sometimes sitting, but most the time pacing. I’d just reached the end of my loop and turned to pace back when I stuttered to a stop, my breath catching in my throat. There he was. He wore a dark navy suit that showed off the narrowness of his waist and the length of his legs. He’d taken the jacket off and held it casually over his shoulder with one finger. In his other hand he held his phone pressed to his ear. Familiar lines marred the skin between his eyebrows, and I itched to reach out to him and press my fingers against them, smoothing them away.
I could tell from his expression and tone of voice that it was a business call, but he wasn’t yet near enough for me to make out any of the actual words. The closer he came, the more my heart thundered until the rush of blood through my veins was the only noise I could hear. I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry and my stomach alight with nerves.
He was so deep in concentration when he reached the steps to his brownstone that he almost walked right past me. But then he froze. His eyes met mine. The hand holding the phone slowly dropped away. He frowned. “Sawyer?”
I smiled, hoping it didn’t appear as strained as it felt.
“What are you—”
We could both hear the voice through the phone calling James’s name. Absently he raised it to his ear and said, “I’ll call you back in the morning,” before hanging up. We stood there a moment, neither of us saying anything, just staring at each other.
“Um, hi?” I offered.
His suit jacket and phone clattered to the ground as he reached for me. And then his mouth was on mine. His hands came up to cup my cheeks, and I could feel a tremble in his fingertips. He kissed me like he was starving, and I responded in kind, our tongues tangling. His taste was so familiar, the smell of him so comforting that it made my heart ache.
Eventually he pulled back, his hands still on my face, holding me close enough that our foreheads almost touched. “You’re here.”
I smiled. “I am.”
“Why?”
I’d spent the entire five-hour drive down here drafting a speech in my head for this moment, but suddenly the words left my head. I cast about, desperate for something to say, and ultimately decided to just tell the truth. “Because I missed you.”
He grinned. “I missed you too.”
But that wasn’t all. I drew a deep breath, telling him the rest of it. “And because I want you. I want… us.”
James pulled his head back so that his eyes could meet mine. For a moment he said nothing, and I was sure he must be able to hear the pounding of my heart in the silence between us. His thumb traced along my cheekbone. “Oh Sawyer, I’ve never wanted anything more.”