Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“Your mom does your laundry?”
He shot me a look. “No, I use my parents’ machine on Saturdays since I don’t have a setup in here.”
“Likely story,” I joked. “Uh—”
I looked back and forth between the couch and the bed, unable to make a decision. I was ready to drop. I’d barely slept the night before, the cramps were more painful than I’d anticipated, and I was standing in Gray’s home like some lost waif he’d taken in off the street.
Before I knew it, I’d started to cry.
Gray’s sympathetic eyes met mine.
“Ah, baby,” he murmured, reaching for me. He lifted me into his arms and carefully carried me back to the bed, turning sideways in the hallway so we’d fit. I was still sniffling as he sat me down and pulled the sneakers off my feet. “Crawl up to the pillows.”
I followed directions, taking my phone out of my purse before I dropped it on the floor, and made my way up to the pile of pillows at the head of the bed. The mattress was surprisingly comfortable as I curled onto my side. Minutes later, Gray was back. He slid his boots off and took off his cut before crawling up beside me, a cup with a lid and straw in his hand.
“Water,” he announced, reaching over me to set it on my side of the bed.
“Thank you,” I rasped as he lay down beside me, his shoulders propped up on the pillows. “You don’t have to stay with me. You can go do whatever I interrupted with my drama.”
He made a noise of disagreement in his throat and pulled me up until my shoulder was tucked into his armpit and my head could rest on his shoulder. “Didn’t have anythin’ better to do.”
He smelled so good. Wrapping my arm around his middle, I relaxed against his side. I wasn’t sure what had changed or what I’d done to make him care, but I also didn’t have the energy to overthink it.
“Scott’s?” he asked after we’d been lying there for a while.
My stomach lurched. “Yeah,” I whispered.
“He know?”
“Fuck no.”
“Probably a good thing,” he replied, his arm around me tightening.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Accidents happen,” he soothed, cutting me off. “It is what it is.”
“No,” I disagreed, staring at the trees outside the window. “He wasn’t wearing a condom. I thought he was, but he wasn’t.”
“Are you fuckin’ with me?” he asked in disbelief, his entire body tensing.
I felt my neck get tight as I jerked away. “No, I’m not.”
“He ask you?” Gray’s arm tightened, pulling me back.
“No.” I swallowed hard. “He was putting it on and then taking it off when I wasn’t paying attention.”
Gray was silent so I kept talking.
“I should’ve paid better attention. I wouldn’t have even noticed except he didn’t bother to pretend the night of my party, and I found the unopened condom the next morning.”
He was still silent.
“I mean, it’s partly my fault. I know what a condom feels like. I should’ve—”
“Quit it,” he ordered roughly, shaking me gently. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“That’s on him. That’s not on you.”
“I could’ve protected myself better.”
“You were fuckin’ him pretty regular?”
“Yes,” I replied slowly.
“In a relationship?”
“I guess, yeah.”
“You ever talk about goin’ without a condom?”
“Never.”
“That’s on him. You trusted someone you shoulda been able to trust. The agreement was that he wrapped it. End of fuckin’ story.”
“He acted like I was overreacting about it all,” I replied, my voice almost a whisper.
“That’s bullshit,” he said firmly, gently pressing my head back down against his shoulder. “The motherfucker.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” I said with a sigh. “Now I just need to find somewhere else to work.”
“That’s fucked,” he muttered.
“I can’t keep working with him.”
“Don’t need to worry about it today,” he said, turning to kiss my forehead. “Close your eyes. See if you can get some rest.”
“I don’t think I can,” I confessed, my eyes heavy. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll read for a while,” he replied nonchalantly, reaching for the novel on the bedside table.
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t turn my brain off. I listened as Gray turned the pages, his cheek resting against my head.
“Gray?” I called softly. “When you picked up the Tahoe did you fill up my gas tank?”
“You had less than a quarter of a tank. Shouldn’t let it get that low.”
I swallowed against the knot in my throat. I’d wondered if he’d done it, but for a while I just thought I hadn’t remembered filling up again.
“Why are you so good to me?”
He didn’t reply.
When he finally spoke again, his voice was soft, and the words weren’t his own. “‘It’s in God’s hands,” said Sancho. “I believe everything your grace says, but sit a little straighter, it looks like you’re tilting, it must be the battering you took when you fell….’”