“Yes, sir.”
His expression was stern under the streetlamp. “What are your intentions toward Brittany?”
Without hesitation, he said, “I love her. She’s unlike any womanI’ve ever met. She’s talented, warm, generous, beautiful... She makes me want to be so much better than I ever hoped to be.”
“Then be that for her, Hunter.” His tone was forceful. “Don’t throw away a good thing, like I did.”
Hunter nodded, then opened the door and got out. Daniel waited until Maude, wearing a bland housecoat, opened the door. Then he left.
“Come in,” she said, her expression guarded, something he’d never seen from her before. “She’s in the kitchen.”
“Thanks.” He followed her to the back of the house, a little surprised by the calm décor and muted grays and whites. Very different from their colorful, eclectic shop. When they reached the kitchen, Maude disappeared.
He stopped in the doorway and looked at Britt. She was sitting with her head down, shoulders slumped, pushing her thumb back and forth on the edge of the table, several locks of gorgeous curls against her cheeks. Her gloves were wadded up next to a teacup, and the scent of lemon and lavender filled the room.
Taking in a deep breath, he approached her.
***
Britt didn’t look up as she heard Hunter’s footsteps against the linoleum in Maude and X’s kitchen. When he sat down next to her, she could smell his cologne, even above the essential oils X insisted on diffusing. His scent wasn’t overbearing, but it was different. Expensive smelling. Just another reminder that she never really knew him at all.
“Britt.” His normally low voice had dropped even lower, his tone tentative.
She bit her bottom lip, almost to the point of drawing blood.She kept her gaze glued to the table, unwilling to risk looking at him. She didn’t want to get lost in his magnetic eyes or lose her senses at his charming smile. He knew how to get to her, and she had to keep her walls up.
“I guess I should start at the beginning.” He paused, as if waiting for a response. When she didn’t move or speak, he continued. “My parents are Arthur and Lila Pickett. I have two brothers, Payne and Kirk, both hugely successful. They’re married, but no nieces and nephews yet. My parents always had high expectations for us. Straight As, college prep, Ivy League educations. Expectations I consistently failed to meet.”
She couldn’t stop herself from looking at him, and she saw the torment in his eyes.He’s faking... He’s acting...“Is that supposed to make me feel sorry for you?”
He blinked. “No. I’m just telling you about my family. We never talked about them, remember?”
She shifted her gaze back on the table.
“Payne and Kirk were stellar students. The only thing I was good at was sports, and in a family like mine, that’s not a worthy accomplishment. But it’s not my parents’ fault for how I dealt with being different. I was always able to charm my way out of anything, so I used that to my advantage. And when I was old enough to use my looks as leverage, I added that to the mix. By junior high I was running with the wrong crowd. I had my first drink at twelve, my first hit of weed at fourteen. By high school I was an alcoholic and a drug user.”
Her head popped up. “What?”
“I got kicked out of a lot of schools.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I was even in your mom’s class for a while when I was a freshman.”
“You knew my mom?”
“Barely. I made the connection about a month ago—”
“And never told me.” She grabbed one of the gloves and started twisting it. When he started to take it from her, she snatched it away.
He withdrew. “Sorry,” he mumbled, averting his eyes. “I didn’t tell you because I wanted to wait for the right time.”
She stilled. How many times had she said that to her dad about Mom?
“There’s more. So much more. I got kicked out of so many high schools I had to get my GED. I broke the law numerous times—drunk driving, buying drugs, even petty theft once. Every time, my dad covered for me. Mostly out of self-preservation. Couldn’t have his youngest son humiliating the family at every turn. And then there were the women—”
“Enough!” Hearing about his alcohol, drug use, and law breaking was one thing. But she couldn’t bear to hear about how many women he’d been with.
“Britt, I’m being honest here. I’m ashamed of my past. All of it. By the time I was twenty-six, I was so lost. I hated what I’d become, but I couldn’t stop it. Then I got arrested for petty theft at a liquor store. And for the first time in my life, my dad didn’t show up to bail me out. I had to get a court-appointed attorney, and because my record was expunged, I ended up with a light sentence. But I still went to jail.
“When I got out, I was banned from my parents’ house. I had to get a job, an apartment, and I couldn’t get either of those until I got clean and sober. I had to grow up.”
He continued to tell her how he’d pulled himself out of the mire—thanks to people at the church he started attending. “One guy gave me a job at a fast-food place he owned. I met with a group there, and we worked through a sobriety program. I wasliving at a weekly rate motel until I got the warehouse job. The nephew of a friend of my mother’s was also working there. Sawyer. He’s my roommate.”
