Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 124005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 413(@300wpm)
“I overheard a bunch of people shit-talking Wills in the office today.”
He arches a brow. “Did you say anything?”
I shake my head. “I wanted to, but she was with me, and she shut me down before I could.”
He nods. “Was she upset?”
“She brushed it off, but she’s not immune.” I tap my thigh. “This is my fault, Ash. I made it like this for her. Pulling the shit I did with one drunken mistake—I turned her work environment into the thing she never wanted it to be.”
He glances over at me. “What are you really upset about? That people are saying nasty things about the woman you love, or that you can’t protect her from it?”
“Both? It just makes me think of how she was treated growing up. I guess this explains why she wasn’t super thrilled when I stopped by her office.” I don’t like the tightness in my chest. How can I make it worth her while to put up with that kind of office gossip?
“How so? What happened?”
“She just…didn’t seem all that happy to see me.” She seemed bothered by the distraction more than anything.
“It’s a busy time of year in the front office. I usually message Shilps first, so she has a heads-up,” he offers.
“Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. I probably wouldn’t love it if I was focused on game tape and she tried to get me to take a break.”
He inclines his head as he pulls up to my building. “You want me to come up for a bit?”
“Nah. It’s cool. Thanks for the chat.”
I get out of the car and head up to my penthouse. I should do something nice for Wilhelmina. Something to show her I appreciate her, and that I’m sorry for all the stress that comes with being in a relationship with me.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and find a new message from her.
Wills
Thank you for stopping by my office earlier. I’m sorry I couldn’t make lunch work, but your smile was the highlight of my morning. We can compare schedules tonight and see if something would work later this week. I’m picking up supplies so we can make pizza for dinner. Xo
The weight in my chest lifts a little. I need to remember that work Wills isn’t the same as the one I get to see when it’s just the two of us.
When six o’clock rolls around, she appears on time, and we make dinner together. But when I try to bring up what happened in the office, she distracts me with her mouth. We end up having sex on the couch, and then again in bed. She stays the night when I ask her to, and I wrap myself around her, wanting this to be how every night ends.
I wake alone, which isn’t a surprise. She tends to go in early to tackle emails before morning meetings. I shake off the vestiges of my dream. In it, Wilhelmina was pregnant, with a rounded belly and soft smile. She radiated total contentment. I want that with her. I want to love her, take care of her, spoil her, tell her every day how fantastic she is, watch her become a badass mother, teach her it’s safe to show her softer side. I know it’s there. When she’s with her girlfriends and every time she’s come to a church fundraiser or the retirement village, I see that softness. I want a family with her. Four kids and a house on the lake. And isn’t it so fucking ironic that I can see this life unfolding with her, how amazing it could be if we can put the past behind us, but I’m the reason it sucked in the first place? I’m the reason for so much of the hurt, and I want to fix it, but I can’t.
I’ve bound her to me with a promise of forever in the form of an engagement ring. But what if she can’t ever love me the way I love her? What if the walls she built around her heart never come down? High school might be in the past, but it doesn’t mean she’s not still guarded. And how can she move forward when shitty office gossip has replaced all the crap she’s tried to leave behind? Am I signing her on for a lifetime of people misjudging her? What if where we are right now is as close as she ever gets?
CHAPTER 37
HEMI
“Where is it?” I prop my fists on my hips and survey my bedroom. Now that I’m looking for the purse, I can’t rest until I find it. It doesn’t matter that I have a million other purses. Or that there are three perfectly acceptable options on my bed. I need this specific one. It matches my outfit precisely. And I picked that out for maximum Dallas enjoyment, so I don’t want to change. I know he’ll be extra touchy and desperate to get me back home and out of it later.