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If this had happened at the beginning of the summer, she would’ve thrown a tantrum and given her father and Gemma the cold shoulder for weeks, if not months. But now, after everything that had happened—after meeting Nate and realizing the importance of every second spent together—she couldn’t bring herself to lash out.
It would take her time to digest everything, and she wasn’t ready to call Gemma “Mom” yet, but she was willing to give her a chance. See where it went.
“My dad isn’t getting married to Gloria,” Kris said. “Ever.”
Gemma’s brows lowered. “But I thought—this November—”
“He ended it the day he came to the cafe.” Satisfaction blossomed in Kris’s stomach, as beautiful and long-awaited as a night-blooming flower. The sudden death of her father’s relationship with Gloria was the one unequivocally bright spot in this tangled mess. “He found out she was cheating on him.”
Kris thought Gloria was smart enoughnotto carry on an affair right under Roger’s nose, especially before she’d sealed the matrimonial deal. Apparently, she’d overestimated the Stepmonster’s intelligence.
According to Roger, he’d found a burner phone filled with explicit texts and pictures between Gloria and her personal trainer. The Stepmonster had denied it, but the proof was in the pudding: she’d been cheating on Roger for at least a month.
Roger, who’d already been suspicious after Kris’s claims and who had not appreciated Gloria’s lack of concern over her soon-to-be stepdaughter’s welfare over the past few days, had dumped her on the spot. He’d gotten Kris’s whereabouts from Teague and showed up at Alchemy to apologize, only to run into Gemma.
The rest was history.
“Oh.” Gemma sucked in a breath. “Oh.”
“Didn’t your P.I. tell you?”
“I—no,” the other woman said, looking dazed. “I ended our contract after I came to L.A. and saw you for the first time. I wanted to get to know you myself, not get the information secondhand.”
Kris swallowed the lump in her throat. “Maybe,” she said slowly. “We could have a real coffee date next week and…start the whole ‘getting to each other’ process?”
It would take time to heal the wounds of the past, but Kris was going to focus on the present and future instead of bygones. There was no use dwelling on things she couldn’t change.
Gemma’s eyes shimmered as her mouth curved up into a hopeful smile. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”
