Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“I didn’t hear that much about you or anything. Reginald never mentioned you except once, and it was lucky he did, or I wouldn’t have known how to find you to come and beg you to help.”
I don’t mean to search his face, but I guess I do. He sighs this long, drawn-out, windy gust.
“I’m still extremely thankful that you did. I know I came to you, and my guilt trip game was strong, but you did have a choice,” I add.
He watches me like he’s trying to figure out if what I just said is code for something entirely different. I’ve never been good at silence or doing anything awkward, so I let my mouth run on.
“It’s not my place to say this, but I do know Reg’s mom a little better, and I can see why maybe things didn’t work out between you two. You said you’d been used before, and that’s what put you off believing me. You thought I was there to extort money as some kind of sham orchestrated by Reg and Candice. That’s dark, but if it was bad before or after Reg was born, I can understand why you reacted the way you did.” I’ve confessed this much, talking so fast that my words all cram together, so I might as well just keep burying myself. “I thought you were a first-class jerk, and I cursed your ass seven ways to Sunday, all while I drove back to Harrisburg that morning. I’d like to apologize to you right now. And if my curses took hold and have anything to do with your tummy, I’m doubly sorry.”
His brows crash down. It’s the first frown he’s given me through everything I just said. He should not look so adorable with a side of panting hotness just by lowering his eyebrows like that. “It was solely the cabbage. I’m feeling much better now.”
“Did Candice hurt you?” Whyyyyyy can I not shut up and just eat this cheesy goodness with the questionable bread?
It takes him a minute to answer, and I’m about to blurt that he doesn’t owe me an explanation when he seems to make up his mind about something.
“I was sixteen, and it’s a long story. The thing that hurt wasn’t that I felt targeted or used. It was that she threatened to tell some pretty nasty lies to anyone who would listen if I didn’t pay her every month and stay away from her child. She wanted my money, not me. Her family would have liked the connections, but she found a way to be free and live her life without answering to anyone. She didn’t, to the best of my knowledge, help her family out at all. They’re old money, and they’d run out.”
Okay…what? How did I not know any of this? I’ve never met Reginald’s grandparents.
My lunch is totally forgotten, and I feel sick to my stomach. I can’t imagine how I would feel if someone treated me that way.
“That’s…I’m so sorry that happened to you. What makes it even worse is that she doesn’t care about helping her family. I always knew she was self-absorbed, but that’s an entirely new level. I wish Reg knew.”
“I don’t want him to know these things,” Warrick says sharply. He scrapes a hand over his bearded jaw, the facial hair bristling against his fingertips. He moderates his tone, glancing over at me sheepishly. “He needs to formulate his opinion himself, and it’s hard to do that with family. I thought maybe he’d see it as he got older and would want to reach out, but even so, there are things he should never know.”
“You were young when you had him.”
“Yes. We were both sixteen.”
Not only can I not imagine someone using me like that, wounding me, but I would never have recovered if it happened to me so young. I can’t even comprehend bringing a child into the world at that age. I can barely even think about doing it now, and I’m twenty-four.
He looks like he’s fighting a battle with himself. Just when I think that’s it, he’s not going to go on, and we’re dropping the subject, he does.
“I thought I was in love. I was sixteen, so what did I know? We dated for a while. We were teenagers, and I thought she felt the same way about me. We did what people called fooling around, I suppose, but it was never that kind of fooling around.”
I’m not the only one who is scarlet anymore.
“I was scared of disrespecting her. I might have been a teenager, but I was also infatuated with her. I thought she’d hung the entire galaxy. I wanted to wait until marriage. I was probably the only sixteen year old who even considered such a thing. She…” He has to look away, fixing his eyes firmly on the kitchen windows that overlook the sprawling backyard.