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“How much do you know?” I asked.
His lips twitched. “I know that you got involved with Killian Warrick and that things got…messy,” he answered. “I know that there’s some concern with his association with the Benettis, and that Lennon paid him a visit. I also know what he does and why.”
“It’s a lot,” I muttered like an idiot.
Uncle Ramsey nodded in agreement. “It is.”
“I’ve got problems,” I kept muttering.
“You do,” he agreed again.
“Still, I’m not here to talk about my problems,” I told him. “At least, not right now.”
“Okay,” he said easily. “Then why are you here, Posie?”
“I loved working at the call center,” I went on to explain. “I…it felt purposeful. It felt like…real life.”
He arched a dark brow, making the scar across his eye peak. “Being bless with a happy life doesn’t mean that your life isn’t real, Posie.”
My shoulders sagged as I let out a deep breath. “I know that, Uncle Ramsey,” I assured him. “That’s not how I meant it.”
“Then how did you mean it?”
“Even though I’ll never be able to forget what happened to me, the call center was a way to keep me from…becoming numb to it,” I said, trying my best to explain. “Time shouldn’t heal some wounds.”
He nodded in understanding. “You’re right, it shouldn’t. The problem with time healing all wounds is that it’s too easy to forget all the wrong that you still have to make up for. Just because the people around you have gotten over their hurt, that doesn’t mean that you still don’t have to atone for it. That’s how we start taking people for granted again.”
“Exactly,” I sighed. “Even though what happened to me happened a long time ago, it’s still a part of me, and it’s still happening to other people. Just because my evil had been extinguished, that doesn’t mean there’s still not evil out there. I don’t want my current contentment with life to make me be able to turn a blind eye to what’s still happening out in the world. Does that make sense?”
“It does,” he replied kindly.
“I’m not ashamed to admit that it was Lennon and your family-”
“Our family,” he corrected.
Sheepishly, I agreed. “Our family is what got me through those dark years, and I can’t stand the idea of knowing that there really are people out there, enduring their own personal hells, thinking that they have no one to turn to. I want to be that for someone, Uncle Ramsey. I want to be to someone what Lennon and all of you guys had been for me. Even if it’s just a voice over the phone, I want to be the voice that makes a difference.”
“Then why did you quit the center, Posie?”
“Because I’m lucky enough to have choices,” I answered. “I have enough money to do my own thing, and when it was a decision between carving out my own path and being trapped in this thing with Killian, I chose to carve out my own path.”
He cocked his head a bit. “So, it’s really over with Killian? Because I’ve gotta say, Posie, when Maddox did his thing on Killian Warrick…well, he doesn’t seem like the type of man to give up easily. I mean, his tenacity shows in how he’s been avenging his sister for years. It’s not a small thing to kill someone, Posie.”
“He wants things that I can’t give him, Uncle Ramsey,” I replied honestly.
“Sexually?” he asked, and I liked how he wasn’t embarrassed to ask. He wasn’t treating me delicately or differently from any of his other children.
“Well, yeah…and…trust,” I clarified. “He’s demanding my trust more than my love…and I…I think I might have been able to give it to him at one point, but now…well, knowing that he lied about knowing about my attack…” I waved a hand around loosely. “I don’t know. I’m just so confused.”
“Can I be frank with you, Posie?” I nodded. “Insecurity in the bedroom should only apply when the man is only after sex. If the relationship is all about sex, then whatever he’s not getting from you, he will get from another woman. In fact, that goes both ways. However, if a man is after more than just sex, you’d be surprised at just where sex will fall under his list of priorities.” He leaned back in his desk. “Whenever I look at your Aunt Emerson, it’s my heart that reacts first at seeing her, and my first thought is how lucky I am that she loves me, despite all of the reasons that she shouldn’t. Trust me when I tell you that sex is the last thing that Killian Warrick is worried about if he really loves you, Posie. A man that is genuinely in love with a woman will take her any way that he can get her, and it’ll be enough for him because men don’t love easily, Posie.”
“And…and what about the trust part?”
“I can’t help you there,” he answered honestly. “I lost my wife’s trust once, and even after all these years, two kids, and four grandchildren, I still haven’t really gotten it back completely.” His lips softened in a tender grin. “But your Aunt Emerson is also different from most people.”
“Yeah, she is,” I agreed because there was no denying it. Emerson Reed was something else.
“So, let’s get back to why you’re here,” he said. “I know it’s not to talk about Killian.”
