AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll understand manipulation for some supposed good? I highly doubt it.”
Hearing himself, he frowned. For once he hadn’t denied he would ever have children.
“I don’t see it as manipulation at all. We never once mentioned Vicky’s name to you, did we? Besides, you already understand that sort of manipulation quite well,” she continued, ignoring his glare. “Think back to the Helping Hands benefit when someone who won’t be named paid off Alexa’s rent bill so she and Dillon would have a chance. I think they would’ve gotten there anyway, but you did what you could to nudge them together.”
“That wasn’t manipulation. Exactly.”
“No? What do you call a man who uses whatever resources he has to try to help his brother fix things with his woman?”
He groaned inwardly, not liking the conversation anymore. It was all going in circles, when one road in particular was clear as day. Standing around chatting was getting him no closer to getting Victoria. Now if only he could decide what would…
He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and looked away from his mom. “I don’t know how to fix things with Vic,” he muttered, feeling like the biggest chump that had ever lived.
Admitting he didn’t know something was akin to him showing weakness. He didn’t. Ever. Yet he’d been driven to that point by his own needs.
Should he rejoice that he was human after all—despite all the evidence over the years to the contrary—or curse and throw things or whatever other men did when they’d been rejected?
No. What he should do was stop stalling and come up with a damn solution.
“Oh, sweetie. Do you love her?”
Absently he rubbed his shoulder. The ever-present burn in his chest was slowly creeping upward to encompass the rest of him. “I think so. I don’t have anything to compare it to. What does love feel like? I mean, for the opposite sex.”
“Much the same as it does for anyone.” Her indulgent smile eased his embarrassment for having to ask. “Except it’s about fifty times worse and a hundred times better. So wonderful you can’t breathe and so agonizing that the thought of being without them makes you want to die.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I figured it was either that or food poisoning. Since I’ve basically stopped eating, I suppose it must be love.” He sighed. “Jesus, this fucking sucks. Sorry,” he added.
She waved a hand and swept in to gather him into another hug. “You need to tell her what’s real and what’s not, before she decides for herself. If she hasn’t already.”
“What about what she should be telling me?”
“That’s not your concern right now. You need to do right by her and let her choose how to respond. Lay it all on the line.”
Yeah, pretty much the same conclusion he’d drawn. He needed to make his stand—and he already had an idea how. It was a risky plan, but at least he had one. All he had to do was put it into motion, assuming he didn’t suffer a cardiac event first.
He grabbed his gut as it snarled. “See? I have the plague.”
His mom laughed and tugged on his shirt. “Sit down. Let me make you some lunch while you catch up your old mom on everything that’s going on with you.”
“Oh, I can’t. I have a meeting with—” He broke off and cast a glance at the ceiling. “Reformed workaholic, reporting for duty. I’ll reschedule.”
“Good.” She pulled his face down to hers and kissed his forehead.
His mother had a point. He had to take a chance and put his feelings on the line. He also had to move fast, before his window of opportunity closed. For that, he would be enlisting help from Jill, who didn’t appear to hate him on sight.
And possibly from Bryan, who might. Bryan had always been extremely possessive of his baby sister and probably hadn’t been too thrilled with Cory after the caught-on-camera debacle.
None of that mattered. With help or without, he would get this done. This time, he wasn’t giving up on Victoria without a fight.
…
She’d almost made it.
In under five hours, her flight to South Carolina would take to the skies and she’d be leaving Pennsylvania behind for a few days. She’d had to do some juggling to shift around her work schedule, but luckily Jill and Lorelie could pick up her slack. The other nice thing was that her college roommate had been excited to have an impromptu guest.
See, someone wanted her. It just wasn’t a sexy, dark-haired magnate.
She hadn’t gone away on vacation in forever, but there was no time like the present to escape. Melly had been so consumed with the scouting trip for her new frozen yogurt store and then just the day-to-day reality of running her business that they’d barely had time to talk recently. Bryan was busy with physical therapy and he needed to stay near the team doctors in Maryland. Her mother would be on her own at the group home. While that bothered her, she couldn’t keep putting her life on hold forever.
