Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
He stared at her, surprised at how much she seemed to care about this. She’d just taken a phone call from a guy who’d threatened to kill her without freaking out, and now she was upset? Over a missed date with a charity case? Was the woman he’d pegged as superficial, if not selfish, actually this upset about an underprivileged kid? Just the fact that she participated in the program shocked the hell out of him.
“So tell her you’ll make it up to her.”
To his alarm, her big blue eyes swam with tears. “You don’t understand. This is a totally underprivileged kid. Her mom’s a stripper crack whore who barely keeps a roof over her head. She’s probably never had a decent birthday in her life. I’d bought her a great gift and I—” She stopped, her chin wobbling.
“Baby.” The need to comfort her made him want to howl. He wasn’t any good at soothing women—he sorely lacked practice—but he sure as hell had to try. Tucking her against his side, he rubbed circles over her lower back. “Beautiful girl, don’t cry. We’ll go over there right now and explain. Well, we can’t explain about people wanting you dead, but we’ll tell her you had an emergency.”
“But her gift,” she moaned. “It’s at my place.”
“We’ll get her a present on the way and you can tell her you have something else for her later. She’ll get two birthdays. What kid wouldn’t love that?”
Melissa sniffed. “You don’t mind taking me there now?”
He cupped her chin and lifted her tearstained face. The sight of the moisture still tracking down her cheeks was unacceptable. He wanted to crush anything and everything that had ever made her cry. It unnerved him how much power her tears commanded over him. “As long as you stop crying,” he muttered.
She gave a half-sob, half-laugh and shoved him away, dashing at the tears with the back of her hand.
They drove to Dairy Queen and picked up an Oreo ice cream cake, decorated with her little’s name—Margot—because Melissa said she probably didn’t get much with her name on it. With the cake on her lap and a Target gift card stuffed in her purse, Melissa sat rigidly beside him, shoulders square and stiff.
“How long have you been her big sister?” He wanted to know more about this side of Melissa. This unexpected and generous side.
“Not long.” She raked her teeth across her lower lip. “Six months. It’s a project of Brown Realty. I didn’t want to do it at first.”
“Why not?” He expected her to say what a pain it was or to enumerate the problems with the program, but she stared out the window, still worrying her lip between her teeth.
“I get too attached,” she said finally, with a sigh. “I don’t do casual relationships. I’m all in and I never know when to quit.”
Somehow he thought she might be talking about her ex-boyfriend, too.
She heaved another sigh. “I can’t believe I missed her birthday date. I’m such a fuck-up.”
His eyebrows shot up. That was his line. Did Melissa really see herself that way? If so, she’d been looking in the wrong mirror. “How are you a fuck-up?”
“Always have been,” she said softly.
He hated the dullness in her voice, in her blank stare out the window. “I keep trying to better myself, but I just don’t ever seem to get it right.”
“I thought I said no more crying,” he said, hoping to lighten the mood. It didn’t work. She didn’t even seem to hear him.
“Hey… I’m sure you’re an amazing big sister. Margot’s going to be thrilled.”
“Ashley wouldn’t have forgotten.”
Ashley. Was that her twin?
“Melissa, you’re being too hard on yourself.”
“Ashley was the good twin. The one with perfect grades and high test scores. The one who got everything right.”
His lip curled. He knew something about not measuring up to siblings. Quite a lot, in fact. “So what does that make you?”
She gave a harsh chuff of laughter. “I was the one cutting classes in high school. Trying drugs in the lower parking lot with the rough crowd. Dating assholes like Jeremy.”
Ah. He hated that her asshole ex took up so much brain space for her, but at least she knew it had been a mistake.
He pulled up at the address for a low-income apartment building she’d given him and turned the truck off, twisting to face her. “Comparisons will fuck you every time, my friend,” he said, trying to make his voice light. “Next to me, you were probably the golden child.”
He watched her return to him then, blinking and losing the faraway stare. Her eyes searched his face with curiosity and it was his turn to sound bitter. “I have some perfect brothers, too. I hate the motherfuckers.”
She laughed, sending relief flapping through his belly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She shoved open her door and took the cake from her lap before they stepped out. The darted glance she sent from under her lashes seemed shy, as if she hadn’t expected him to be a gentleman. Well, why in the hell should she? He’d practically gone out of his way to shock her with his basest manners.