I sucked in as much air as I could hold and focused on his beautiful light-green eyes as I whispered, “You.”
THIRTY-THREE
COLSON
Me?
That was what Sophie had said she wanted. A reply so shocking that I chuckled immediately after I heard it.
“Don’t laugh, Colson. You have no idea how difficult it was to admit that.” Her hand moved to her stomach as she stood in front of my desk, the three feet of solid wood the only thing separating us. “This conversation is so far outside of what I’m comfortable with.”
And this conversation was completely unexpected. I hadn’t anticipated this direction or the shift from feeling rage at her arrival to empathy in her presence.
Troy and Jenner were extremely involved in our business and well aware of our future endeavors. It had never crossed my mind that Sophie’s relationship with the Gordons was different.
I’d just assumed, and … I was wrong. And I’d flipped that switch so fucking fast because of my past that I didn’t give her a chance to even slide in through a crack.
But she had found one.
Am I glad she did?
I still had so many goddamn questions. “Explain why it makes you uncomfortable.”
Her hands flattened against the top of my desk, her arms extended, her upper body almost leaning through them. “I never want more with any man.Moredoesn’t cross my mind. Ever.” A burst of air came through her lips. “It’s painfully difficult to admit that. Which you wouldn’t know since I’ve told you nothing about my past.”
A past I’d been curious about. But if it was painfully difficult, then it came with scars.
“I should tell you to wait until you’re ready to talk about it …”
“You don’t have to. That’s one of the reasons I’m here. Am I technically ready? That’s a bold statement that may never be true.” Her head dipped. “But it’s only fair that you understand those layers of me.”
My stare went past those gorgeous sapphire eyes and went as deep as I could reach. And when I came up with nothing, I voiced, “Show me those layers, Sophie.”
She pulled her hands away like the desk was burning her, and she backed up, heading for the couch on the opposite wall. She stopped when the edge of the cushions hit behind her knees, and she took a seat.
“Your past is full of manipulation. Mine is bursting with abandonment.” Her body folded, and she hugged her stomach with both arms. “When I was eleven and Hayden was nine, we were taken from our home and put in foster care. That’s where we spent every night until we graduated high school andturned eighteen and the state of Florida no longer had power over us.”
“Sophie, I …” I shifted in my chair. The comfort of the cushiony leather now felt like cement. “I had no idea. I’m?—”
“If you’re going to follow that up withI’m sorry, please don’t. It’s the last thing I want to hear.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
She let several seconds of silence pass. “Hayden and I have different dads. We’re not positive who his father was, there were a few possibilities, according to my mother, and she said she didn’t have the phone number for any of them. As for me, there was no question. I was a spitting image of my sperm donor. He lived with my mom until the first ultrasound and then took off.”
What a fucking asshole.
“Sounds like a stand-up dude.”
“It gets worse.” She pulled up a leg and hugged her knee to her chest. “When Hayden and I were taken from our house, the state tried tracking my father down to give him full custody. What they learned was that he had died from an OD two years before. If my mother knew, she never told me.”
“To protect you, perhaps?”
She huffed. “Don’t give her that much credit. She doesn’t deserve it.”
A shit dadanda shit mom.Jesus.
“Why did your mom lose custody?”
