Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“Dating?” He cringed involuntarily. “Who said anything about that?”
Understanding dawned on her face. “Oh, I see. No beating around the bush there, either, so to speak. Just straight to the main event.”
“If you’re implying I don’t know how to make a woman wet, I’d be happy to disprove your theory, gorgeous. I only need one hand to drive this car.”
A split second before she looked away, her eyes turned unmistakably smoky, her exposed thigh muscles shifting right there in the moonlight. While he was berating himself for slipping again into an inappropriate place with her, Tallulah was visibly regrouping. And if she had to regroup with him, she was uncomfortable, right? He wasn’t having that.
Change the subject.
“What did that geek do to make you upset?”
“Don’t say geek. It’s mean.” She sighed. “He is kind of a geek, though.”
Burgess’s expression remained stony. “What’d he do?”
She tapped her fingers against her knee and Burgess got the impression she was weighing what and how much to tell him. Everything. Come on. “He wanted to share an Uber,” she said finally. “I said yes, even though I didn’t want to. Then I panicked and told him my boyfriend was coming to collect me.”
“Good. Why did you say yes to sharing a ride, even if you didn’t want to?”
“It’s complicated. Part of it is that I’m going to see him at school and why make things awkward. But mainly . . .”
“Mainly?”
“I want to stop feeling like this,” she murmured. “Distrustful and helpless. It’s not me. I hate it and I don’t seem to have any control over how it makes me . . . react. I guess I’m just being impatient with myself. Forcing myself to behave like who I was before. But I’m learning over and over again that I’m not the same person.” She said the last part almost to herself. “I’m not bold and fearless anymore.”
“Really? I think you’re twice as fearless. Most people have the benefit of putting on blinders, walking around thinking that will never happen to me. You don’t have blinders and you’re still going. Still doing.” When she turned to stare at him in silence, he wondered if he’d said the dead wrong thing. “I can’t imagine someone coming out on the other side of something like that . . . unaffected. But I disagree that you’re not bold and fearless. Now that I know what you went through, when I think of the way you came into my apartment while I was yelling because you wanted to help out with Lissa . . .” He cleared his throat. “You’re plenty goddamn bold, all right?”
She let out a hitched breath. Paused. “Thank you for saying that.”
The back of his neck felt suddenly hot and all he could manage was a grunt.
“Now that I’m here in Boston and I’m reluctant to do new things, the difference in me is a lot more obvious than it was in Antarctica. As much as I loved hanging out with Chloe, I can’t lean on her company every time. I just don’t want to reach that place where I start staying home and forgoing risks. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not who I am. Was.”
Her explanation made something hard form in his throat and he couldn’t get it down with a swallow. “What things are you reluctant to do?”
She inhaled and let the breath seep out slowly. “I want to go to a show at Paradise Rock Club. I want to climb up beneath the Citgo sign on campus and watch a Red Sox game. I want to go skinny-dipping in Jamaica Pond.”
“Jesus. And you won’t even say yes to a hockey game?”
“I’m thinking about it!”
“What is there to think about?”
“I don’t know. At first, I was hesitant to witness the wrath of Sir Savage. Now . . . I don’t know.” Her voice dropped to a grumble. “It might be a bad idea to see you in your element.”
Something that felt suspiciously like hope sparked in his midsection. “Why is that?”
“Well. I already know you’re good at kissing. Throwing in a second skill seems like it could get . . . distracting. Too much capability porn muddles the mind.” Her wince told him she already regretted saying that out loud. But hell if that revelation wasn’t making him sit a little taller. Fine, a lot taller. “And anyway, I don’t have time to be a sports fan. Too time consuming.” She made a face. “Josephine tried to make me like golf and I almost had to kick her to the curb.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
“I know.” She covered her face and groaned. “I love her so much it’s painful. I can’t believe she’s marrying Wells Whitaker. Once, on a particularly wild weekend in New Orleans, I had to talk her out of getting his name tattooed on her bikini line. That was before they even met. Now they’re going to have a bunch of little golfer babies. It’s too much weight on my heart.” She sat up straighter on a gasp. “Do you think we’re going to be godparents?”