Hope for Us (Hope Series Book #3) Read Online Free

to her. She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, again.
    “I’m not pretending anything.”
    “Then why are you so pissed off?”
    “Because, I’m mad at you.”
    “For what?”
    She uncrossed her arms and stood up. She headed over to the window and I followed, my eyes seeking the body part unique to Carrington. That epic ass of hers made me want to call my agent and thank him and give him a raise. I chuckled at how she affected me even so many years later.
    When I looked up at her face, she held a smirk I couldn’t read.
    “For that.”
    “I’m sorry. What?”
    “For looking at me like that. For walking in her like Mr. NFL quarterback who everyone loves and adores and expect me to do the same.”
    “What are you talking about?” I asked.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I was traded, remember?”
    “I just don’t need this in my life right now.”
    “Well, I’m so sorry that I am interfering with your life again. It’s not like I can afford to handle this distraction either. I have enough to worry about without trying to decipher your damn relationship specifications.”
    “Relationship specifications. What are you talking about?”
    “Forget it.” I grabbed the folder and started flipping through the contract.
    I felt her beside me as she leaned over and took the folder and slid it down the table.
    I stood up fast and stepped in front of her. My blood boiled and sharp pain shoot through my neck. I rubbed it. 
    “I’m not going to do this. Give up everything to prove to you how I feel about you only to have you create some tiny issue to justify why we can’t be together only because you are too scared to admit the truth.”
    She stepped back, but she didn’t have far to go, the window stopped her progress, but she stood tall in heels and attitude staring up at me.
    “And what is the truth?”
    “The concept of you and me, in any form, shape or fashion, scars the shit out of you."
    Her chin dropped to her chest, and she relaxed her arms. She leaned back against the window and looked up at me. When she blinked back her tears before they fell, it crushed me.
    I didn’t mean to say that, but it came out before I could stop myself.
    I relaxed my arms, too.
    I wanted to hold her, lean over and kiss her, and show her how I wanted her, even after all these years. I wanted to tell her how not a day went by that I didn’t think about her. I wanted to hear her tell me the same.
    I stared down at her, fixated on her lips. She bit them as if she could feel my stare. I leaned in a little more. She placed her hand on my chest. I closed my eyes and said a little pray of thinks to whoever put us in each other’s lives again, but when I opened my eyes, she was gone.
     

***
Carrington Olive Butler
    Even the two hours I spent worrying about seeing him didn’t prepare me for the moment he walked through that door. I ran through several emotions all in a matter of minutes. Some expected. But one surprised me: lust. Seeing him again took my breath away. I wasn’t expecting him to look better than he did when we were in college.
    His posture and stance was all upright and confident. He glided when he walked. He wore dark jeans and a white t-shirt that clung to his chest and fit his arms but fell straight over the waist of his jeans and gathered around his hips. A clunky watch slid down his wrist, and he wore no other jewelry. I would have heard if he had gotten married, but I checked out his ring finger on his left hand anyway.
    I thought I would be fine. I would control my emotions and breathe normal any second now, but then he spoke. He asked me how I was doing, and my body tensed and I started sweating. At least that would hide the way I really felt. 
    And then he leaned and I smelled his spicy wood scent and I panicked. So, I did what I always did. I walked away.
    I approached the table and gathered the folder with his contract. I slid it back down the table and placed it in front of the chair