Beautifully Broken by Shayne Donovan Read Free Book Online Page A

mix of coffee and cream. “Are you stalking me?” I questioned. So far this morning he knew my favorite flower, how I took my coffee and one of my favorite breakfasts. He let out a hearty laugh, one from his belly that echoed off my paper thin walls. “No Marley Masters. I’m not stalking you. I’m just an observant man. I paid attention when you were making your coffee. When we were ready to order the other night, I noticed how your finger lingered next to the pastry section and on our way to the train you stopped and smelled every daisy we passed. It was the most relaxed I’ve seen you thus far.” He reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb softly trailing down my cheek and resting at my chin. “Whatever you’re running from Marley, it can’t be as bad as you think.” Without a word I pulled away and walked out the door, fighting to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill over onto my cheeks.
                  I walked to my car and ripped open my door. I pausing, trying desperately to calm down. My anger was fueling my every move. “How dare you.” I growled as I heard him approach. I spun and felt the tears spill over and down my cheeks. “How dare you pretend to know me?” I wanted to scream, yell and jump up and down but all I could manage was a barely steady voice. Cole stood in front of me, his hands tucked into his pockets, a solemn look on his face ready to weather my verbal onslaught. “You have no idea. None! And yet you come in here acting like I need to open up. I was doing fine here until you came along!” Cole watched me his eyes filled unexpectedly with sadness and understanding, not the pity I had expected. “You call barely living, keeping yourself shielded and lying to everyone including yourself getting by?” He asked. His voice was strong and steady as he spoke. “Yes! Yes I do! It was a hell of a lot better than what I grew up with. A hell of a lot better! And in one day you come in and start chipping away at everything I so carefully built!” I could feel the panic pulsing through my veins faster than the blood. I was shaking, trembling all over and darkness was threatening the edges of my vision. I was having a full blown panic attack. “Someone has to Marley. Someone needs to show you that the life you’ve been living isn’t living. It’s just barely surviving. Whatever you are hiding, whatever it is, this town can help you. Whether you think so or not people around here care about you and they notice things like you spending every single night locked in your apartment drowning your sorrows and fears at the bottom of a bottle.” He stepped forward and before I could stop myself my hand flew across his face, stinging my palm. He stopped and I felt everything inside of me come to a stop. His blue eyes studied me carefully. “One day Marley everything you’re working so hard to keep locked away is going to come flooding out. It’s going to drown you if you have no one there to help you float.” His voice was sad and that only made me angrier. My eyes were swimming with tears when I responded, “No. I refuse to sink.” I could barely breathe at this point. Black spots were dancing and swirling in my vision and I kept blinking to push them away. I starting breathing harder but the darkness was winning and I was falling before I could stop it.
                  When I came too I was lying on my couch, my end table pulled up next to me and a glass of water, two Tylenol and a handful of daisies in a vase sat on top with a note folded neatly next to them. I opened the letter and smiled. ‘ I’m sorry. Went out for a bit. I’ll be back to check on you later and will be bringing you dinner as my sincerest apology. –Cole ’ I took the pills in my hand and tossed them into my mouth quickly chasing them with a gulp of water before chugging the whole glass. Would it be so bad to open up a little bit? It wasn’t like I