Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
I stared at him, forgetting to even breathe. He’d done what?
“It was in September, five months after I moved away. I made it all the way to your college campus in Iowa City. I didn’t know how to find you, so I went to the Admissions Office and talked to every student I saw until I found someone who knew you. She told me where to look for you. But when I found you…”
“What?” I asked, breathless with shock.
An emotion I couldn’t place swam in his eyes. “You were with a guy. You had on a baseball hat and a brown jacket. Ever since we’d started dating, you’d worn my hockey hoodie. When I saw you in a different jacket, and that guy had his arm around you and you were looking at him and smiling, I realized…” He cleared his throat. “You were over me. So I left. Got shit-faced at a bar near campus, crashed at a hotel, and drove home the next day.”
I couldn’t do anything but look at him for the next few seconds, unable to process what he’d told me. So many emotions surged through me all at once, but the main one was sadness.
“I remember the jacket,” I said softly. “But I still have that hoodie in the back of my closet. And I don’t remember the guy. Whoever it was, he wasn’t important to me.” Tears welled in my eyes. “Archer, why didn’t you say something?”
“It didn’t feel like there was anything left to say. It was too little, too late.”
My tears spilled over. “It wasn’t, though. I would have said yes.”
“Like I said, I didn’t know if you’d even want to know. But I thought you deserved to know.”
It hurt to know. It was like a sucker punch to the gut, finding out that the man I’d been so in love with actually had wanted to marry me.
“I’d like to be alone,” I said, suddenly tired.
Archer’s expression was grim. “I’m not leaving. But I will stay over in the chair and not talk to you.”
I didn’t have the strength to argue with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Day Twenty-Thirty
Archer
“You’re all set,” the doctor told Lauren with a smile.
I put up a hand, objecting for the fourth time. “It’s only been forty-eight hours. She was in really bad shape when she came in here. I think it’s too soon for her to be released.”
The doctor gave me an indulgent look. “She’s continuing with antibiotics, and if she has any problems she should return to the emergency department. But she’s progressed a lot and she doesn’t need to be here.”
“Thank you for everything,” Lauren said.
The doctor put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re very welcome. You’re lucky to have a husband who cares so much for you. A nurse will be in soon with a wheelchair to walk you out.”
Lauren and I exchanged a look as the doctor left the room, adding tension to our already awkward situation. Just great.
“So we’re going to the resort?” Lauren asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Yep. Nadia said a car is waiting outside to take us there.”
“So no money, but at least we can eat bread again,” she cracked. “I’ll be eating it by the loaf, not the slice.”
“You need to eat and rest up.”
She smiled. “Trust me, this place is made for eating and resting. I assume we’re going to the same resort we were at before the show started filming?”
“That’s the one. And you already know this, but we’re not allowed to say anything to anyone about when or how we left the competition. Not even to the other contestants at the resort.”
A nurse came into the room with a wheelchair, and I helped Lauren get situated. As promised, when we got downstairs there was a black SUV with a driver waiting to drive us to the resort.
“Do you feel okay?” I asked as the driver pulled out of the hospital parking lot.
She gave me a reassuring look. “I feel good. I promise to be honest about whether I’m sick for the rest of our time here.”
I nodded and looked out the window. She’d given me the silent treatment for a few hours after I told her about my almost-proposal almost eight years ago. And since then, she’d kept our conversations light and impersonal. We talked about the weather, the hospital food, and the lame TV shows we watched in her room.
What more was there to say about that fall day I’d planned to propose but changed my mind? If I’d known she would say yes, of course I would have done it. I’d already had regrets. Now they were magnified by her disappointment in me.
It was a fifteen-minute drive to the resort, and when we pulled in I realized the producers had shelled out for a much nicer resort for the women than where the men had stayed prior to the start of the show. This place had manicured tropical gardens, fountains, and a two-story lobby with a teak-planked ceiling.