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Someone told me a long time ago that trust is like an eraser; it gets smaller and smaller until there’s nothing left. I don’t want it to disappear, so I don’t use it much.
Oliver seems like someone worth risking being hurt over.
She’ll fit in just fine with the James’.
I can’t get into either of them, so they just sit on the corner of my desk untouched, unloved. Kind of like me.
I don’t hide the curve of my downward lips before Everett sees them. His eyes fill with sympathy. “Don’t worry, River. You’re still my number one.”
“I’m … pretty.” Steph gives my shoulders a squeeze. “You’ve always been pretty, River. You’re just extra gorgeous tonight. Ready to show yourself off?”
“It’ll be okay. I’ll be right there with you. Plus, you said it’s a small dinner party, right?”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people need to find out for themselves who’s worth investing time in.
Yanking on the shirt, I replay the words that spewed from Isabel’s lips. I wish I would have been the one to permanently mark my skin. Then it would have been my choice.
I’ve always had a soft spot for River because she’s a kindred spirit.
“Believe me, River, if I had you, I’d have all of you. There’s not one piece of skin that I wouldn’t see, touch, or kiss.”
Your virginity isn’t something you can misplace, you give it to someone. Preferably, someone you trust. Maybe even someone you love. That’s why I wanted Everett to have it.
I’m not sure when I realized I loved him. I think I kind of always have.
He made me feel special, like I wasn’t some foster kid in a place I didn’t belong. He m...
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My virginity should have been his. If it goes to the person you love, he should have said yes. But he didn...
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It makes me believe he’s the only one I can truly bare my soul to.
“We’re friends,” he points out. “Friends look out for each other. They’re also supposed to stop each other from doing stupid things.” “Like kidnapping?” I mutter. “Like sleeping with douchebags.”
Like siblings, he always says. The term makes me feel sick as fuck.
We haven’t been the same since she asked me to take her virginity, since I punched Asher Wilks for taking it, or since I saw her marred body. We’ll never be the same. After all, there was no peanut butter on her lip.
She may not know it, but she’s been the one consistent thing in my life for years. The only other person who comes close to that is Oliver, but he doesn’t even surpass his little sister’s place in my life. And that’s the fucking problem.
I know she still feels the same way. She didn’t have to say it back when I told her how much I missed her, I saw it in her glassy eyes as she fought with herself. Do I or don’t I. She chose not to feed the growing tension, but I heard her heart, felt it beat wildly when her chest was pressed against mine.
River James will always be mine, even if she doesn’t want to be. Even if she can’t be.
I’ll have River James. Even if it completely ends me.
When he went off to Penn State for college, I missed him like crazy around the house. When he’d come home for breaks, I would run into his arms at full speed. Now he visits once or twice a month since he lives a few cities over with a girl none of us have met. It makes his visits that much more exciting. He catches me when I throw myself at him, grunting but still spinning me around in circles.
“And I’ll miss you,” I add, smiling. He flips his hand over, so he can squeeze mine once. “You’re the little sister I never knew I wanted, River. But I’m glad I got you. And I’m really proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished.”
“And you’re the … brother … I’ve always wanted,” I whisper.
“But if you’re worried that I’ll somehow forget about you if I do, you’re wrong. You’re my sister, River. You’re a big part of my life. Nobody can get in the way of that.”
Friends eat together.” They also have unbelievably hot sex sometimes.
Pressing my lips together to mash down my wavering amusement, I study her reddened cheeks. She’s cute when she’s mumbling, and even cuter when she’s embarrassed. The faint color of her blush makes her cheekbones pop in a way that highlights her natural beauty.
I don’t know, because Bridgeport has the very thing I need and it’s sitting across from me right now.
“I’ve always been yours, River.”
The glaring truth is that he’ll always pick her, whether he believes I’m his or not.
He shifts closer, his nose nuzzling my ear until I think I die a little.
The truth is on the tip of my tongue, and I’m two seconds away from saying River’s name when she says it instead.
“When your emotions get the better of you, you stutter. If you’re angry, sad … other things.” “O-Other things?”
“If the wall out front wasn’t glass, I would mark every single place I touched and kissed. You’d be a new kind of artwork. A fucking masterpiece, River.”
I know what it represents. Or, what I want it to. That he’s mine, even the deepest, most shattered part of him.
Everett Tucker doesn’t have to break my heart, because I broke it myself by loving him.
The truth about heartbreak is that there is no such thing. It’s your soul that shatters, along with every fiber of your being that screams for another person.
Our love has brought nothing but pain, to a place where I’m considered the other woman.
I’ll never be the one he puts a ring on, who he shares his bed with, we won’t have children and grow old together, because ten years ago he made the choice to do all those things with her.
I’m not a doormat, and I won’t be second best. I deserve so much more than wh...
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“Don’t talk to me again unless you figure out what you really want from life, Everett. I can’t keep living like this...
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His green eyes glaze over. “Don’t say that, baby.” “I’m not your baby.” Sniffing back tears, I blow out a shaky breath. My chest hurts. It’s as though my ribs have caved in from all the pressure and misery and hurt. Before spinning arou...
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I’m in love with your daughter.
Whoever you truly love needs to wait until you can give her every piece of you. It won’t be fair to you, her, or Isabel if you offer what you have now, because that isn’t much. Love … it’s a precious thing. If you feel like you’ve found the real deal, then I’ll stand behind you in any way possible. Just do me a favor.”
But home isn’t as simple as four walls and a roof. Home isn’t a place. It’s a person. And mine is somewhere suffering as a wrecking ball threatens to tear down her walls.
All because of one night. No. All because of ten years. I just hope there will be a hell of a lot more to come.
Isabel called him a mystery the night she gave me a ride home; she said that’s what drew her to him. But he was never a mystery. Not to me.
No worries, I still love you anyway. But some might define your actions with Everett as stupid. Not me though, because I’d jump on that dick—”
