It didn’t matter what she tried to do or where she tried to shove things, Kristen decided, knowing that he deserved that much and more for what he’d put her through.
Oh, did he deserve it…
Over the past nine months, he’d turned her once peaceful existence into pure hell. He somehow got her on the banned list for every food delivery service within twenty miles. He’d hired clowns to frolic on his front lawn knowing that they creeped her out and even had Bobo the freaking clown knock on her door and offer her a balloon animal.
He really was a sick bastard.
He hid treats covered in peanut butter along the old fire lane so that the dog that she really needed to figure out a name for soon, dragged her ass through the woods and dumped her in the pond. That was usually followed by blasting the theme song toJaws, knowing that movie traumatized her when they were ten.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he got the neighborhood kids to egg her house on Halloween. He signed her up for Girl Scout cookies for every troop within a twenty-five-mile radius, making sure they came to her house every single day for a month, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to say no. Thanks to him, she now had two hundred boxes of Thin Mints taking up her hallway closet. He also made sure that she couldn’t find any Hostess Snoballs within a hundred miles, knowing that they were her one true weakness.
For the past month, he woke her up every weekend at the crack of dawn to the sounds of loud trucks, saws, banging, and the sounds of his brothers and cousins beating the hell out of each other at all hours of the night as they renovated the house that should have been condemned years ago, making it impossible for her to do anything more than fantasize about shoving his body in a-
Taking another deep breath, Kristen reminded herself that she would never survive prison, which meant that she needed to end this today. Decision made, Kristen slowly exhaled as she forced herself to open her eyes and face the man who had finally gone too far.
“Do you really want to know if you’re in my book?” Kristen demanded, pushing away from the side of the house so that she could glare up at the large bastard that she never wanted to see again.
“Yes,” Garrett said evenly as he met her glare with one of his own.
“You’re right. You’re in the book. In fact, you’re in all of them. You’re the reason why I wrote the book in the first place. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Kristen admitted with a careless shrug, watching as his eyes narrowed dangerously on her as he ground his jaw, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before.
“Yes,” he bit out coldly.
Nodding, Kristen said, “Then, we’re done here,” as she moved to step away only to sigh heavily and add, “I just forgot one thing.”
“And what’s that?” Garrett asked with a look that told her that this was far from over.
“You’re not Greg,” Kristen announced, watching as the anger that lit his eyes slowly turned to confusion as she added, “You’re Tristan.”
CHAPTER 2
This wasn’t fucking happening, Garrett told himself as he dropped the roll of painter’s tape on the floor and stumbled the rest of the way across his office, cursing the fucking rose bush that broke his fall every step of the way as he made his way to the closet, telling himself that she was lying.
God, she had to be fucking lying, Garrett told himself as he thought about everything that he’d put her through over the years and-
Fuck!
She was definitely lying.
She had to be because there was no fucking way that he’d ruined everything over a simple-fucking misunderstanding. He just…
She was definitely fucking lying, Garrett told himself as he tore through his closet, ripping open boxes and quickly shoved them aside when he didn’t find what he was looking for. Once he’d managed to tear through his closet, he tore through his desk, the books filling the built-in bookshelves lining one side of his office that he’d replaced, the boxes that he’d shoved in thecorner months ago, until finally, he found what he was looking for.
Slowly exhaling, he told himself that she was lying one last time before he opened the battered book that he’d used for batting practice and-
“Oh, God…”
Feeling sick to his stomach, Garrett dropped down on the leather couch that took up half his office as he forced himself to read the words that let him know just how badly he’d fucked up. The more he read, the more he saw himself in Tristan. He just…
This had to be a mistake.
He kept telling himself that as he sat there, forcing himself to read every damn word, praying for something, anything, that would prove that he didn’t destroy his life. When he was done, the book fell from his fingertips as he thought about everything that he said that night and the look of absolute devastation on Kristen’s face and-
“Oh, God…” Garrett muttered hollowly as he sat there, feeling sick to his stomach as he thought about the moment when he ruined everything.
She was…
Christ, she was his world.
