Perfectly Imperfect Mine (Garrison Brothers Book 1)

only thing she asked for.
“Please, Mom, I promise to take care of it.” Sadie had pleaded.
“No! Dammit, Sadie, dogs are messy and unruly. Do you know how much they cost? I can barely afford to feed you, I’m not wasting my money on a goddamn dog. Now, I don’t want to hear one more word, ya hear me?”
It didn’t stop Sadie from wanting a dog. She vowed that when she was old enough and on her own, she would get a dog. She never did.
She always read a lot as a kid. She loved getting lost in someone else’s story. She loved being able to be someone else through other people’s words. Books were her escape. By the time she reached high school she would swipe her mom’s romance novels. Everything she learned about sex came from those books. That explained why she was so disappointed when she had her first sexual experience.
She managed to hold onto her virginity until she was twenty. She had been kissed a few times. But she never wanted to do anything else. When the few boys she dated realized they weren’t going to get anything else from her, they left. Of course, not getting any didn’t stop Ricky Smith from telling his friends he banged her against her trailer and nailed her in the field behind the school. Sadie was mortified when she heard the rumors. She was embarrassed that she became center of the world of high school teens. The watcher became the watched. But then a new rumor circulated and her alleged promiscuity became old news.
Sadie continued her reading, did her class work, and blended in throughout the remainder of her high school years. Her mom left with Lance right after Christmas during her senior year. He was moving to Indianapolis for work. He had been transferred and asked her mom to go with him. Ironically, the one place she so eagerly fled, she would return to.
She left Sadie the car and paid the rent until July. Sadie was given money for groceries and a promise that she would send more once they were settled.
“This is a new beginning for me, Sadie, this is it, he’s ‘the one,’ I just know it.”
She was happier than she had ever been.
“Lance loves me and we are going to have a great life in Indiana.” People asked why Sadie didn’t go with her. Her mom never asked her.
The next two years Sadie worked. It seemed like that was all she did. She had a routine that she rarely strayed from for those two years. She would work the night shift, come home, and crash until early afternoon. She’d go for a run, which became her passion. She saved enough money to get an iPod—used but new to her. She would read her romance novels or watch TV. She’d eat dinner and head back to the diner. She had always been a creature of habit.
Some days she would go to the park and people watch. For all the changes her life brought, her fascination of watching other people remained a constant.
On her twentieth birthday, Pearl insisted on taking her out. She was too young to bar hop but Pearl knew the bouncer at DL’s bar and got her in. It was the best night. They drank, danced, and laughed. That was also the night she met Tyler.
He had stared at her the whole night before he finally came over to their table. “I have to buy the prettiest girl in this place a shot. What’ll it be, gorgeous?”
He was sweet and charming with boyish good looks. Tall and thin with brown shaggy hair and hazel eyes. He wasn’t gorgeous by Hollywood standards but Sadie was smitten.
From the day they met she was hooked. He told her he loved her after a month together. They had sex two months later. All her romance novels ruined it for her. It wasn’t romantic—it was painful and she was relieved when it was over. Their sex life got better, which was to say it no longer hurt. She learned early on that when it came to sex, Tyler was a taker not a giver. She could never climax during sex. She started to fake it when he got angry that she couldn’t come fast enough. He went down on her twice—in two years. Both times she faked an orgasm about ten minutes in. After he’d leave for the night, she’d take care of it herself.
Best present she ever received—the bunny. She had found the silver wrapped present in her locker after a shift on her twenty-first birthday. The card read, “Happy Birthday and enjoy!” Her face turned bright red when she opened the box to find the pink bunny-shaped vibrator surrounded by tissue paper. It took her weeks to finally take it out of the box and days after to finally get up enough courage to try it. When she did, that bunny changed her life. Thank you, Pearl!
It became obvious to Sadie that Tyler wasn’t everything she originally thought. He told her he loved her but he never asked how her day was at work. He didn’t take her out often and when they did, he always asked her to spot him the cash ’til payday. He didn’t call her just to say hi or tell her he was thinking of her. But still she stayed until their second anniversary. That was the final straw.
After a surprise visit to his place for their anniversary she caught him cheating. It could be best described as “caught in the act,” literally. She was heartbroken, she cried. In the privacy of her home, she yelled, she screamed, and she swore vengeance on him. And ultimately, she healed. She mourned the loss of their relationship.
It’s amazing how clear she saw relationship when she was no longer a part of it. She wasn’t in love with Tyler. She was in love with the idea of being in love. She cried but mostly because the