AllFreeNovel
Share Us
To Teresa?
Fuck. Probably.
No.Definitely.
He’d done it to his mom, too, and…shit…he’d done it to every woman he’d ever dated.
Before he’d died, Jeremy’s dad had told him to watch out for the women in his life, to protect them and care for them.
But his dad hadn’t made his mom feel like she was useless, hadn’t put that look in her eyes.
And he suddenly understoodexactlywhat Teresa had been saying in the hall, finally understood what she was afraid he was going to do to her if she let him in.
Make her small.
Take away her choices.
Fuck. Was he seriously that much of an asshole?
Yeah.
Maybe even more of one because he’d always thought he was a good guy, always thought he was thebestkind of man.
“I know you’re not incapable,” he said softly. “I do,” he added when her shoulders crept up, body language telling him she didn’t believe one word of what he was saying. “I—” A breath, and he just decided to level with her. “Look, someone recently told me that I have a tendency to take over. I didn’t take her seriously—”
A snort.
“And now, I realize I should have.”
A glance over her shoulder, eyes narrowed at him. “Yeah, you should have.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “But I’m a stubborn asshole who likes to think he’s right.”
“A dumb, stubborn asshole,” she muttered, turning around, and walking again.
“I might be dumb,” he said as they started to shuffle along the row to their seats, wanting to see her smile, and glad that his self-deprecation managed to, at the very least, curve her lips up on the corner he could see. “But I can learn.”
Her brows lifted and she shot him a look. “Really?” she asked dryly.
“Really,” he said as they slid into their seats. “And while I can’t promise I won’t do it again,” he admitted, which was probably not the smartest course of action, the smartest thing to say to the pissed-off woman next to him, admitting that he would probably fuck up at some point in the future. But though he might be an idiot, he wasn’t a liar, wouldn’t start now. “Icansay I didn’t get it before. I can tell you I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I was taking care of the people in my life who mean something to me—”
She sat down, her expression having gone gentle. “I get that.”
He sat, too. “I didn’t get it, didn’t understand what she was telling me.”
Mel took the drink from his hand, plunked it in the cupholder. “She sounds smart.”
“She is.”
“She also sounds like the type of person you should be listening to.”
Yeah, he should have been listening.
Not just Friday in the hall.
For the last three years.
Regret sliced through him.
