“See, I wouldn’t steer you wrong.”
“I’m not convinced of that.”
“You’re a suspicious little thing.”
“I’m not little. I definitely weigh more than I should, so you have to stop feeding me this stuff,” she says as she slides another spoonful into her mouth.
Her ensuing groan is another kick to my libido.
“You’re little to me, and if you make one more comment about your weight, I’m going to do unspeakably dirty, filthy things to your body to prove just how beautiful you are.”
She stifles a laugh. “That only proves you like sex, which everyone knows.”
“But you’re sexy as hell, and you should know it.” I shovel a bite of the pie into my mouth. It’s good. Really good. I’d still rather have her tits on my tongue. And…there goes my raging erection again. It’s going to be a long night. “You’re too worried about your weight. Why don’t you have more confidence?”
She frowns. “I haven’t exactly been a man magnet.”
Is she crazy? “At the hotel bar the other night, you could have had three takers.”
“No. The bartender flirted with me for a better tip.”
“Bullshit.” I know the difference.
“The married guy next to me just asked what time it was.”
“Guys with no game ask questions like that so they can talk to you.”
“You have an active imagination.” She rolls her eyes. “I have no idea who the third guy was.”
“In the corner with the rowdy crowd. I gave him the I’ll-fuck-you-up glare and he backed off.”
“You did not.”
“Oh, I did.” This back-and-forth isn’t telling me what I want to know. “What did Riley do to you?”
“W-what do you mean? He didn’t do anything.”
That’s a lie. “Did he tell you you’re overweight?”
“No, but I have a mirror.” She spoons up more of the pie. “And I know I shouldn’t be eating this.”
“You think weight is why he broke up with you?” That would make him a shallow prick.
“I don’t know. He just…abruptly called it quits. Before that, I would have sworn he intended to…” She bites her lip.
“Propose?”
“Clearly, I was delusional. And if he never loved me, I’m better off without him.”
There are so many things I could say, mostly that he wasn’t worth her time. Instead, I take her hand. “It’s hard when you think your future is set, right? I thought Hadley was the one.” I laugh at myself. “What the hell did I know? I was twenty-one. My biggest worry then was my midterms. I hardly thought beyond the next party. Hadley was good in bed. I didn’t know what love was.”
“Do you now?” she asks softly.
“Firsthand? No. But I see all my siblings with their spouses. At least I know what love is supposed to look like.”
“My parents were really in love. I remember that. Our house was happy. There was laughter. Even my brother was decent to be around then.”
“How old were you?”
“When they died? Almost eight. They left for a weekend to celebrate their anniversary and…” She shakes her head, her eyes tearing up. “Sorry, this shouldn’t be hard all these years later.”
“Yeah, it should. I still can’t think about losing my mom without getting choked up. What happened after they were gone? Your grandparents took you in, right?”
She nods. “All the friends I had been looking forward to seeing when school started… I never saw them again. After my grandparents moved us in to their house, my grandmother decided that my mother had raised me too ‘bohemian.’ She thought I would benefit from boarding school. Parker, of course, got to stay home. He was just starting high school and he’d made the basketball team. That was somehow more important than my activities.”
“That doesn’t sound fair.”
“I got used to it. He was always the favorite. And nothing I ever did was good enough.”
She interpreted Riley’s breakup the same way. She hadn’t been pretty enough or skinny enough or whatever enough to suit him. Her grandparents have passed now, so there’s no telling them how she feels. But if she ever sees that asshole ex of hers again, I hope she slaps him in the face and tells him that she’s amazing, no matter what he thinks.
Better yet, I’ll tell him.
No, it won’t be my problem because I won’t be with Corinne. We’re here to hoodwink her brother. Once she has her money and I have my revenge, she’ll be gone.
“Wow, that went dark fast,” she quips, shoving the rest of the pie in my direction. “Sorry.”
It’s only half gone, but I’ve lost interest, too. “You are good enough. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.”
She sends me a sad little smile that makes me want to put my arms around her and hold her. Of course, if she wanted to get naked, I’d be game, but…
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“It couldn’t have been easy, knowing your dad walked away before you were born.”