Almost Broken Read Online Free Page B

him to be flirting with me, which is why I need to get back in that house where I’m not alone with him before I do something that’s going to make this really awkward for the rest of the day.
    “Does this invitation have an expiration date?” I ask, my eyes meeting his briefly. He smiles and shakes his head.
    “Not at all,” he says, folding his arms across his chest and closing the distance between us. Not so much where I feel like he’s invading my space, but enough where my heart catches in my throat. I let out a deep breath because it’s taking everything in me to keep my hormones and emotions all tied up in a neat little package.
    “I’ll take you up on it when I haven’t been walking around the zoo all day,” I say lightly and I turn away from him to walk back towards the house.
    “Uhm, about earlier,” he says, quickening his pace to walk beside me. He’s walked next me like this all day, but now it’s causing my skin to tingle and feel hot even though it’s cool and damp from the rain.
    “Yeah?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the wet grass that’s being crushed under our feet.
    “I didn’t. When you asked me if I remembered anything…”
    My heart almost stops and so do I, right in my tracks. I turn to face him and look up at him, hoping my expression isn’t showing how I feel inside. I look into his eyes. They avoid mine for a few seconds, then he looks into them briefly.
    “I do want to remember,” he says quietly. I feel like he has more to say but I wish he wouldn’t because this, what he just said, is enough to get me through the rest of the day.
    “I want you to remember,” I say with way too much enthusiasm and a smile so wide I have to bite my cheeks to contain it. I see him look down nervously.
    Okay, dial it down a bit.
    “I mean, I want you to because if you start to remember that’s a good thing. Right?” I say, trying to turn this around from being about us or about me.
    “After Cal left,” he says, pushing his hands deep into his pockets, “what made you not…You didn’t I—you…” he trails, and I let out a deep breath.
    “Get a divorce?” I say, trying to help him along and he nods. I try to think of the best thing to say. The thing that will make him the least uncomfortable, that would make this the least awkward, but I don’t know how to say it in any way that won’t. I always tried to hide my feelings from Cal, even before things started to go wrong. When we first met, I didn’t want him to know how much I liked him. I didn’t want him to know I was starting to fall for him because I thought it would scare him away. It’s ridiculous now because he knew everything before I did, even about myself. With Chris, I’ll take a different route. Complete honesty. Well, when he asks for it.
    “Because I loved him, and I still had hope.” My eyes don’t leave his chest. I’m afraid to look in his eyes. I don’t want to see what’s there, but I wish he didn’t have on that big khaki coat he’s wearing. I want to see if his chest is heaving, to know if his heart is beating as fast as mine is right now.
    He’s shifting his weight around. I glance up at him and see his eyes on the ground, a chill passes through the air and one creeps down my spine as I wait for him to respond.
    To say anything.
    I hear him let out a breath a long one and he runs his hand through his hair. “And now?” he asks quietly, and I close my eyes and think carefully of how to answer him. I raise my gaze to meet his, and as soon as I see his eyes, even though they’re not the grey I’m used to, I love them just the same. I look up to the sky and feel myself biting my lip. Ugh. The truth. I want to tell the truth, but the truth could really complicate things between us and cloud the reason I should be here.
    Caylen.
    “You don’t have to answer that,” he says quietly. There’s warmness to his voice, and when I’m brave enough look at him, he’s wearing a sympathetic smile, one