Bittersweet

Bittersweet: Chapter Twenty-Seven

THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN AND HEAVILY EDITED. NAMES, PLACES, AND SOME SCENES WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. SOME STUFF WILL BE TAKEN OUT AND SOME WILL BE ADDED.

THE INITIAL PLOT STAYS THE SAME.

So, if you begin reading as of 5/21/2021 and choose to read ahead further than I have updated-some things might be confusing or might not make sense. As of right now and will continue, slowly, adding the new chapters as I write them. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN has been rewritten & updated.

**IF A CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN/EDITED THE ^^ABOVE^^ NOTE WILL BE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Austin

The hotel was a little less than I was expecting, and it pissed me off to no end that this is what Hart was staying in while she was recovering. It was a very small hotel that had at most twenty rooms-one of those hotels where you drive up and the walk to your room is maybe ten steps at max. I suppose it wasn't the worst place they could be staying in, it looked clean and there weren't any sketchy people lingering about. I was thankful for that. But, I still I refused to believe that this place was the best she could find close to the clinic.

As soon as I spotted Ava's little green Mazda, one of the only vehicles in the parking lot, I felt like I could somewhat breathe again. She was there-less than fifty feet away and it somehow excited me and scared the shit out of me equally.

I cut the engine of the truck and sat in silence for a few long moments. My hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles were white. She was right there, and I had no idea how to face her. I should know this by now, I'd been driving for the past two hours, trying to sort everything in my mind. But, for the life of me, I couldn't feel much of anything other than the shame, devastation and anger that was churning in the pit of my stomach. Somehow, I found myself caught somewhere between wanting to throttle her for going through with this without me by her side and wanting to drop to my knees and beg her for forgiveness. While I knew that it was my actions that had driven her to this, didn't I deserve to know that she planned on stripping my child of any chance at life?

No. You don't deserve shit when it comes to Elizabeth Hart.

I swallow the lump in my throat and jerk my head. Man the fuck up, Burkhalter. Go in there and be there for your girl. You go in there and hold her through the fucking pain because you know damn good and well that she's shattered right now and it's all because of you.

It was pointless for me to waste any more time waiting around because I knew that I wasn't ready to face her, to face this...Loss. Suddenly, I found myself gazing to the passenger seat and observing the self-made bouquet of colorful wild flowers that had been carefully tied together with a yellow polka-dotted hair bow that belonged to a sweet little girl that had an adorable gapped-tooth grin and the bluest eyes I'd ever seen.

Lenora.

I'd spotted her sitting on the bench out front of that sports bar her father owned as I sped out through her town on my way here. She looked sad and lonely as she sat cross-legged with a big yellow bow in her hair and dressed in a girly dress, which was vastly different from what I saw her dressed in the first time I'd met her. Regardless, I pulled into the parking lot and jumped out of the truck, and stood there for a moment, waiting for her to realize I'd come back for another one of her special PB&J's.

I'd failed the most important person in my life right now but seeing that little girl's eyes light up in excitement somehow shaved off some of the grief I felt on my chest. And fuck, I was so damn thankful for that because I wasn't sure if I could have made it the whole way here if I hadn't stopped and gotten a pep talk from the most foul-mouthed little eight-year-old that I'd ever met.