Page 41 of Unrivaled Love
His chuff of a laugh makes my lip quiver again.
“Why did you do it, Bryson?”
“What?”
“Everything else was annoying but this was just mean.”
“What was mean Jo?”
“Moving my bookmark!” I finally lift my head to look at him as I lash out. Bryson looks genuinely concerned. And he should. I’m a fucking mess right now. And I’d be irate if I wasn’t so sad. But the fight is gone. I can’t muster it. I’m tired.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He says as his eyes dart between me and my book.
“Oh sure,” I scoff. “You didn’t purposefully move my bookmark ahead by a few hundred pages to ruin the story for me. It must have been someone else.” I throw my arms out wide. “No one else is fucking here Bryson! And you’re not supposed to be here either! I came to Telluride to chill the fuck out and I can’t do that with you here sabotaging me at every turn!”
My chest rises and falls with my breath after the outburst.
“I didn’t move your bookmark.” He says cautiously. I study his eyes for any sign of deception.
None detected.
“You didn’t?” I ask as I wipe my nose with my forearm.
“No, but I think you moved mine.” Half of his mouth lifts in a grin before he chews his cheek to pull it back. The concern from earlier is morphing into amusement at my expense and it feels like lemon juice on a paper cut.
“What do you mean?” I ask because I don’t know if I want his ire or his pity or for him to go back to feeling nothing towards me at all.
“I think that’s my book.” He points to the bookon the floor by my feet. I watch in silence as he steps over and lifts it. He opens to the title page and my eyes follow his fingers as they trace the outline of an embossed stamp. He hands the book over to me and I read “From the Library of Bryson Svoboda” circling a pair of crossed hockey sticks.
“You read?” I ask. He nods. “And you read enough to have a personalized library embossing stamp?”
He laughs and I don’t hate it. But I should hate it.
“Yeah, I read Jo. It helps me relax.”
“And you’re readingRaven Squall?”
He pulls at the back of his neck. “Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to get into it during the season.”
I watch him pull his hand down over the cover. My eyes track the movement and my heart wishes he was soothing me with a hand down my back instead.
“So, are you okay?” He asks as he slowly lifts his eyes to mine.
“Yeah.” I admit in a daze. It was an accident but it led to very real feelings from me. I know I have things to work through. And this outburst has me thinking I have more to work through than I originally thought. “I’m just going to take a walk.”
“Okay.” He says quietly and I move towards the steps that lead to the trail. “Jo?”
“Yeah?”
I turn back to look at him and Bryson’s face holds sincerity as he says these next words. “I’m sorry.”
Chapter 13
Bryson
I have never been happier in the face of failure.
Allshedoesisnod before turning back towards the stairs.
