Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I came back. For you.”
“The effect you have on me. What just being around you does to me. How your touch makes my heart pound.”
“You didn’t only break up with me when you left. You shattered me. Your absence made me just go through the motions each day, not really living, just existing. For months. You left me here, and Kordell picked up the pieces and put me back together. I’m with him now… You can’t just stroll back here, expecting that I simply waited for you this entire time. I have to go. Sorry!”
“I get it, baby girl. I fucked up. But you know me; I never lose a fight. Especially when something matters so much to me.”
“Miss Wells. She paid for a year and then just renewed the lease recently for another one. You’re all good to go up.”
As much as she had tried to act like she didn’t want to be with me after he interrupted us, this motel room told an entirely different story.
“I know I screwed up with Rosalie by leaving like I did. You don’t think I regret it every second of the day? Do you think it was easy for me to leave her? She was all I fucking thought about when I was gone. I don’t regret things in my life, but walking away from her? That is something I regret because I should have never left her in the first place.”
“Fine, whatever you want, Rosalie. I’ll get right to it. Break up with him. Give me another chance. I know, I fucked up majorly, baby girl. But I’ll show you just how much we belong together. No matter what it takes, I’ll prove to you that you are the only woman I have ever wanted. I promise, I’ll do right by you.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix what you broke,”
Go ahead, baby girl. Show me just how you lose control. I’ll catch you when you fall.
And as my mind wandered back to AJ’s face, I realized, I liked me better when I was with you.
“Nah, we just want you to know that your prick of a boyfriend can talk his shit, but he ain’t gonna tell us what we can and can’t do around you. Only you get to.”
“Damn, baby girl. I thought you were still mad at me. Now, you’re giving me a striptease?”
“You could have just talked to me! You didn’t have to steal my car, drive it away, make me panic, or take me away from a fun car meet.”
“Because I knew if I had told you, you would have asked me to stay, and I would have.”
“I knew, but you would have eventually been okay with me leaving. I knew it was a dick move, but people get over assholes faster than nice guys. And so I tried to give you an experience that would make you hate me more than love me in the end.”
“How could I ever hate you? AJ, I’m mad at myself right now for not hating you more than I do. I shouldn’t be able to sit here and talk to you! Not after all you did! But I can’t… I don’t want to. I just want you to be happy, still, after everything you did. Doesn’t that make me stupid? Who the heck cries over their ex who hurt them when they broke up?”
But there was also a huge hole in my life. And that was Rosalie.
“I love being distracted by you, Rosalie. You know I won’t lose this fight. How could I with you watching?”
He loves me. He never stopped loving
He remembered exactly how I loved to be touched, like we hadn’t spent so much time apart.
And then a purple lowrider pulled into the parking garage.
“Why don’t you get the fuck away from Rosalie? Before I make you.”
I ignored his words and lifted the frame up and leaned it against the ledge. Getting as much leverage as I could, I pushed. His bike fell and fell until it collided with the water of the pool below with a loud splash.
“Now, you listen to me, you piece of shit. You are going to stay the fuck away from Rosalie. You put your hands on her last night, you fucking waste of space. You never deserved to be around her. If I see you come near her again? I’ll fucking throw you over the garage wall next. And there won’t be a pool at the bottom to break your fall.”
“Move in—for real this time. Like, stop renting the motel and just move in. I’m tired of not telling people what I want, and I want you. I want to be your girlfriend, and I want to enjoy life with you every single day.”
Instead, home felt a lot like who I had wrapped up in my arms right now.
“Give me a reason, big guy. I’ve been dying to do it. I’ve wanted to put a bullet between your eyes since the first time I saw you with her. I could have killed you a long-ass time ago. I could have had my club do it, too, but I didn’t. For her sake.”
“Stop. Rosalie did what she chose to do because she loves you. She’s no different from the rest of her family. We put the people we love above ourselves. All we ask in return is for you not to throw that love away.”
