Shattered
Page 28
I smiled at the bunny and ran my fingers through her fur. “Yeah, I was just thinking how Freckles and I had been through a lot together.”
“I know—and I took good care of her for you.” He hesitated a moment before continuing. “She helped me get through some dark times in that place.” He reached out and petted the stuffed animal on her head. “It was a long road, but I did it. I live in a halfway house now. The same one Jayden stayed in for a while.”
“Do you like it?”
He shrugged. “It’s better than I thought it would be. Fewer rules and fewer people to please.” He glanced down at the bunny. “My coach stopped by to visit me. He thinks I might have a future as a physical trainer, but only if I work hard. He arranged for me to take classes and help out at a local gym.”
“That’s wonderful, Flynn.”
“Lucy said that you changed jobs, too.”
“Yeah.” I glanced down at the bunny. “I work in a lab now.” I told him about the potential new medication to help patients. “But it’s still in clinical trials.”
The waitress came with our food, and Flynn waited for her to leave before he spoke. “So you’re doing well on your own.” His voice sounded a little disappointed.
“Yeah, I’m doing great.”
He nodded and pushed his eggs around on his plate. “I’m doing okay, too.”
I watched him for a long moment before I spoke. “Things can get a little lonely at times, though.”
He glanced up at me and put down his fork. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I picked at my pastry as I spoke. “My family is great and everything, but my sister has a new boyfriend and her own life. My mom calls, but she lives so far away, and Lucy is tied up with Jayden . . .”
“No boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Not even a possibility?”
I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. “I’ve been so busy at work . . .” I let my voice trail off. While it was true that I was busy at work, I wasn’t too busy to date. I just chose not to date. There had been opportunities, sure, but no one had Flynn’s charm or intelligence. None had his killer body or dimpled smile.
“I know what you mean.” Flynn folded his napkin and placed it on the table. “My family only visits when they want money. Once I told them I had nothing left to give, they wanted nothing to do with me.” He cleared his throat and adjusted the napkin in his lap. “My coach is okay, but he only visits once in a great while. The rest of his time he spends with his wife and family in Florida.”
I stopped picking at my pastry and cast him a cautious look. “But you’ve made friends in the halfway house.”
He shrugged. “I’ve only been living there for a few days. They seem good enough, but they aren’t Nesto and Jayden.” He reached across the table and took my hand. “They aren’t you.”
My entire body heated as I looked down at our joined hands. “I know what you mean.”
He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. “Look, Mia. I know a lot has happened to you since Newton Heights. Shit, a lot has happened to me as well.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry.” I squeezed his hand.
“I know it’s asking a lot for us to pick up where we left off, but . . .”
“Perhaps we could start over instead?”
The tension left his shoulders as he exhaled. “Yes, I’d like that.”
I smiled. “I’d like that, too.”
He slid his fingers over the sensitive skin of my inner wrist. “I have some restrictions at the halfway house. It could make things messy.”
I shrugged. “I like messy.”
“Yeah.” He slid his lower lip between his teeth. “Me, too.”
The waitress came with our check. “I’ve got this,” Flynn said as the waitress left.
“No, you don’t have to pay. I—”
He grabbed the check from my fingers and winked. “You can pay next time.”
I lowered my hand as my whole body heated. Next time. I liked the sound of that. “Okay.”
Flynn withdrew a couple of bills from his wallet and tossed them on the table. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I grabbed my stuffed animal and purse as I stood.
“To Jayden’s. I promised him that I’d show up and referee any fight that might break out between him and Lucy over drapes.” He cast me a sideways glance. “I thought that it might help to bring you along.”
I chuckled as he led me out into the parking lot and took my hand. “That might be a wise decision.”
“Oh, I know that it’s a wise decision. Just like this is a wise decision, too.” He tugged me closer and brushed his lips against mine.
Tingles spread over my skin as time stood still. It had been so long since I had felt Flynn’s lips against my own. They tasted even better than I remembered. All too soon he broke off the kiss and slid his arm around my shoulders. “I’ve been waiting to do that for a while.”
“Me, too,” I said as I eased my arm around his waist.
We talked and joked on the way to a taxi stand. It didn’t take long for us to fall into the easy banter we had back at Newton Heights. The connection between us was still there, and as he held my hand in the back of the cab, I couldn’t help but feel like a giddy teenager all over again.
Flynn and I still had a lot to figure out, both with ourselves and with our relationship, but that was okay. Like the new sedative I was working on, we were a work in progress. Messy, but still full of potential. With a little TLC, I’m sure we’d turn out just fine.
After all, it’s only when things get a little bit messy that life is truly worth living.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
At fourteen, Ava Conway snuck her first romance novel into bed and read it by flashlight. There she met her first “book boyfriend” and has been hooked on reading ever since. When she’s not writing, she’s stumbling through her Zumba class, obsessing over the latest P!nk song, or feeding her addiction to reality television. She lives in central Massachusetts.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Susan Boucher
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Interior desig
n by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
ISBN 978-1-4767-7337-7
CONTENTS
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
About the Author