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I don’t even kno to respond "Uh--"

"Kel," Lake interrupts "Will and Caulder can’t help, they’ll be out of town all weekend"Seeing the exciteht here "Actually, that was before I found out erecancer," I say "I think we’ll have to reschedule our trip"

"WHERE’S YOUR MEASURING tape?" Lake asks Julia

"I don’t know," she says "I don’t know if I have one, actually"

I have et Lake to co to knohat happened today and I owe her a huge apology for acting the way I did toward her last night She had experienced asevent alone with Javi, and I acted like a jerk the entire way hoht, when I should have been consoling her

"Will has one We can use his," Lake says "Will, do youtape?"

She rolls her eyes "Yes, it’s in your sewing kit"

"I have a sewing kit?"

"It’s in your laundry room" She spreads themachine on the shelf behind yourto pattern nu-- Never mind," she says quickly She shakes her head and stands "I’ll just show you"

Thank you

I quickly juerly

"You put his patterns in chronological order?" Julia asks

"I was having a bad day," Lake says over her shoulder

I hold the door for Lake, then close it behind us She turns around and completely loses her calm demeanor "What happened? God, I’ve been worried sick all day," she says

"I got a slap on the wrist," I say as alk towardanother student, they couldn’t really hold it againsta few steps and openaside to let her in

"That’s good What about your internship?" she asks

"Well, it’s a little tricky The only available ones they had in Ypsilanti were all primary My major is secondary, so I’ve been placed at a school in Detroit"

She looks up at me, her eyes full of concern "What’s that ?"

I love the fact that the thought of ourIt’s just for eight weeks I’ll be doing a lot of driving, though I was actually going to talk to you and yourto be able to take the boys to school, or pick theood time to ask for your help--"

"Stop it You knoe’ll help" She grabs the tape measure and shuts the box, then walks the kit back to the laundry room I follow her, but I’m not sure why I feel coht back to her house and I still have so much left I need to say to her I walk into the laundry roo quietly in front of her, running her fingers across ot that distant look in her eyes again I lean against the doorfraht she would willingly allow Javi to kiss her, especially after seeing ht I know her better than that, and she knows she deserves so much better than Javi

Hell, she deserves so much better than ht, then turns towardthe doorway She quietly gasps and looks up at ain She scrolls her eyes overfor me to either speak or move out of her way I don’t want to do either All I want to do is take her in my arms and show her how I feel about her, but I can’t She stares up at s on her bottom lip with her teeth and nervously darts her eyes to the floor

I’ve never wanted to be teeth so bad in my entire life

I take a deep breath and prepare to get out what I need to say, despite knowing I shouldn’t say it I just need her to knohy I did what I did last night, and why I acted the way I acted I fold ainst the doorway, looking down at it Avoiding eye contact with her is probably best right now, considering my lack of resolve at the moment It’s been a while since we’ve been alone in a situation like this The way things have been going the past feeeks, I had er than I am, and that I’ve overcome the weakness I feel when I’

My heart slaainst my chest at record speed and I’rab her by the waist and pull her to hter in an attempt to keep my hands toa way to bury e to confess to her, but I can’t The words spill out of ht," I say, ehaht you were kissing hi for a reaction Any reaction I kno she tries to hide what she’s feeling more than any other person I’ve ever met

Her eyes widen at the realization that I wasn’t defending her at all last night I was reacting like a possessive boyfriend, not her knight in shining armor

"Oh," she says

"I didn’t know the whole story until this , when you told your version," I say I don’t kno I heldwhen I found out All I wanted to do was lunge across the table and punch Javi’s father across the jaw for raising such an asshole Just thinking about it causes s to their h I notice ht fists, so I relax the to face her

"God, Lake I can’t tell you how pissed I was I wanted to hurt hi you? I want to kill hiainst the doorfraht of him out of my head He hurt her, and I wasn’t there in ti his ainst her will is clear in my mind, as is the fact that his lips were the last to touch hers She doesn’t deserve to be kissed like that She deserves to be kissed by so ht by her Someone ould rather die than see her hurt She doesn’t deserve to be kissed by anyone other than me