Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Not to mention, I gave up having a normal childhood in order to perform and sing wherever my parents could book me. Friends? I was the odd duck with other kids, not included in get-togethers because I usually had to say no. Eventually the girls stopped asking. So all I really had was my family.
“Did they distance themselves as soon as you told them?” Ben asks.
I curl one leg beneath me and lean against the back of the couch. “No, in the beginning they tried to be there, but they couldn’t seem to draw the line between support and, well, frankly, meddling. They’d call Anna and try to get involved, so I had to ask them to leave my agent to me.”
He winces, clearly understanding that was the last straw.
“After that, they pulled back. They bought a place in South Carolina, but they still knew what I had coming up and when, and they showed some interest in my career, but it was strained. Then they decided to take a long trip to Europe, and I think they lost themselves there. They had a wonderful time, but they also had the time difference, and they didn’t have to think about me or check in on my schedule. But what it comes down to is they can’t figure out how to just be my parents.” I shake my head and sigh.
He places his hand over mine. “It sucks when your family isn’t what you want them to be.”
Something in his tone tells me he isn’t just talking about my parents and situation. I glance at him, looking to read his expression, but he does the stoic, shuttered thing too well, and I am too emotionally drained to question him now.
I rise to my feet. “I’m going to lie down for an hour before I have to get the laundry and deal with dinner,” I murmur.
He opens his mouth like he wants to say something … and then shuts it again, obviously satisfied with letting me be. For now, that is just fine with me. First he pulled away, then my parents closed me out. I might have wanted to push Ben on our relationship, but that was before my video chat with my mother.
I am too bruised inside to be rejected yet again.
* * *
Ben
I watch as Summer walks into her room and closes the door behind her. The sound of soft crying reaches me, and I mutter a curse, but there is nothing I can do. I established my boundaries for a reason, but it is hard not to go to her, wrap her in my embrace, and reassure her she isn’t alone.
Her parents were typical stage parents, living through their daughter and liking the control they had over her career. With that taken away, they seem to have withdrawn their love as well, and I hurt for her. Just like I wish my family was a cohesive unit, my mother and father in love and raising me, she wishes her parents could give her the support she needs.
But I can’t bring myself to break down those walls and tell her about my parents’ marriage and how my father basically gave up, walking away from a lucrative business and his friends after my mother betrayed him twice. Or how my dad is a shell of the man he used to be because he hasn’t been able to bounce back after the betrayal. Or how much my father’s decline imprinted itself on my psyche and how I handle my life.
She ends up sleeping through dinner, so I lock her safely in her apartment and throw her laundry into the dryer, then collect the clothes and bring them back to the apartment. She thanks me, and she seems brighter and happier the next day. I don’t think she is fine. Nobody puts pain behind them easily, but she’s moved on, and I am glad she is more like herself again.
It makes it easier for me to focus on work, which is my goal tonight. Summer’s club opening and the mingling that will follow require my full concentration. Keeping any client safe in a crowded room is always a challenge, and the way Summer distracts me, I need all my faculties fully engaged.
I wait in the family room, having already changed for the night. Wearing a pair of black dress pants and a black button-down shirt and a jacket that hides my weapon, I am ready to go.
The sound of a door opening has me turning in time to see Summer step out of her bedroom in a white floor-length gown cut low in the front, exposing her delectable cleavage, a slim fit that outlines her curves and has a high slit up one thigh, revealing creamy skin. Her hair falls around her beautifully made-up face in perfect waves. I want to kiss her pink pouty lips with a need that borders on desperation.