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Shit.
Not a soul on earth could claim the man wasn’t charming.
I slipped into the driver’s seat and closed myself inside, loving the way it felt to just…bein a car like this. Not that luxury was completely foreign to me, but our wealth was modest and my mother had instilled a commitment to reasonable budgeting in meandSoren.
My Mercedes was cuteandpaid off, but it was mid-range.
There was no waythiscar cost less than twice the value of my old one.
Damn.
Theold onealready?
I shook my head and unlocked the doors so I could climb out. It was a nice gift—agreatgift, even—but I couldn’t afford to get too wrapped up in the kind of lifestyle Orion could offer, knowing that as far I was concerned, it was all temporary.
There was no “’til death do us part”,it was “’til the contract says I can file for divorce”.
I couldn’t waver from that.
Back in my office, I was gracious enough to at least send Orion a text, thanking him—sincerely—for the car. When I didn’t get an immediate response back, I shrugged it off, locking in mentally to get through the rest of my work day before I could head home.
I was in my condo before it struck me that it wasn’t reallyhomeanymore.
I hadn’t done anything with it yet, no subletting or selling had been on my mind.
Hadn’t had thechanceto be on my mind, honestly.
Between the wedding and work and getting settled into the new place, what I was going to do with this place hadn’t even crossed my thoughts, but now that today’s auto-piloted movements had brought me here… Ididthink about it.
I was keeping it.
And keeping up the bimonthly cleaning service that would help maintain an actually livable state for it, in case an occasion rose that I needed somewhere to go.
Just like with the car, I wasn’t completely comfortable relying all the way on Orion, or any man, to be honest. Experience with past romantic interests had proven them to be fickle at best and volatile at worst. And unfortunately for me, even myfatherseemed to be deeply entrenched in the same “can’t count on him”bucket.
The only man I knew on a personal level that I could implicitly trust was my damn brother.
Sad.
Instead of lingering, I did a quick perusal through the condo, making sure everything was as I remembered from the last time I was here. Satisfied that nothing weird was going on, I locked up and left, gettingbackinto the car.
This time, I gave a little more focus to the road.
Just a little, though.
The drive out to Blackwood Hills was a beautiful one, but I had too much on my mind to appreciate it. I was still lost as to what the hell my father meant with his words about my mother, a woman I’d only ever seen as elegant and classy, but still fun and full of life. Smart as hell, andwise—those were two different things—and notable, due to context… a dutiful wife.
Even when my father maybe didn’t deserve that from her.
So to imply something different and give no evidence, was ridiculous.
Right in line with everything else he’d been doing lately.
By the time I pulled up to Orion’s house,my house, I’d nearly convinced myself that William Stark was just spouting nonsense, that there was no merit to anything he said.
Nearly.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something to why he’d chosen to bring up such an accusation when he did, and what the hell it had to do with the topic at hand, which was preserving the store.
