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Maybe it was selfish of me to think like that.
“Kids have school lunch debt?” I asked seriously.
Rylee let out a harsh bark of laughter, but there was no humor in it. “God, you’re so out of touch.Yes.Some parents can’t afford their kid’s lunch, but the kids have to be fed, so they owe the school money. And some people can’t afford shoes, so they wear what they have until the things are literally falling apart. There are people that cry over a one hundred dollar bill from the mechanic when their car has something wrong with it. There are even families that have to choose between buying food and paying their rent.”
I could tell she was passionate about this, and her words hit home. I felt like she was opening my eyes to so many things that I didn’t know about.
“You’re right. I am out of touch,” I exhaled a deep breath and dragged my fingers through my hair. “I guess it’s easy to forget that there are people in this world that don’t have it as good as I do. I’ve been rich my whole life, so it’s not something I think about a lot.”
“Just like the sunset yesterday,” she pointed out. “You have to open your eyes to see what’s going on around you. Sometimes it’s something beautiful, like a sunset. Sometimes it’s not so pretty. There are so many people in the world that could be helped by a fraction of what you have.”
“I’ll think about that,” I promised, and truly meant it. I reached over to take her hand and give it a grateful squeeze. She let me without pulling away, which I decided was some real progress.
We kept talking, the conversation shifting in a lighter direction. I talked about KeenTech and the work we did. I told her about the newest software development that I was overseeing and how the family company was going to be inherited by my oldest brother, Logan.
But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about what Rylee said about helping people. She was right; I could be doing more. If I were honest with myself, I would have to admit that I didn’t worry about that kind of thing before because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to feel guilty because of what I had in life, the privileges and comfort.
Now that Rylee had bluntly called me out on it, I resolved to get more involved helping people. For some reason, she made me want to be a better person. I wanted her to be proud of me.
CHAPTERNINE
Rylee
My heart raced wildly in my chest as I parted my lips to allow Hayden to slip his tongue inside my mouth. I wasn’t sure how this even happened. One minute, we were talking, sitting next to each other in the sand, and the next, we were kissing.
I let my guard down without even realizing it. I wasn’t even sure which one of us made the first move. The desire between us was too strong to ignore, and if I was honest with myself, I’d been thinking about this since the moment he came outside. I just couldn’t stop reliving what we did last night in my mind.
Now, my body was on fire. Giving in to the lust rising within me was so tempting, but I just couldn’t do it. This was about more than just insecurity around my virginity or even my issues with the way he spent his money. I had a bigger problem with the Reid family that tied to my mother and I had to stop this now.
Pulling myself away from Hayden, I stood. He looked up at me with darkened eyes, and the heat there made everything inside of me clench with need. It would be so easy to give in to it…
“This is a bad idea,” I said. Grabbing my sandals and the book I was reading, I forced myself to walk off, heading back to the house.
Of course, it wasn’t that easy to get away from him on this secluded island. Hayden quickly caught up to me and grabbed onto my arm and spun me around, then gripped my biceps to hold me in place.
“What is going on with you?” he asked, frustration creasing his forehead. “You keep flashing hot and cold and I want to know why. Talk to me.”
“Nothing is going on,” I said, trying to take a step back, but his hold on me was too firm.
It was so hard to hang on to my reasons for rejecting him when he was this close. His cologne filled my nose and the warmth of his body seeped into me. I wanted to mold my lips to his again, to see just how far this could go.
I tried to resist him, anyways. “I just don’t want you.”
We both knew that was a lie, and Hayden arched an eyebrow at me in disbelief and smirked.
“I’m calling bullshit on that, unless you need a vivid reminder of what happened between us last night,” he said, and I blushed at the memories. “Why are you fighting what’s happening between us?”
I wasn’t planning to tell him the truth, but he looked almost hurt and that drew the truth out of me.
“Damn it, Hayden,” I said softly, emotion catching in my throat. “Some things are bigger than us. My mom hates your family.”
He dropped his hands from my arms and looked at me in surprise. “What are you talking about?”
I sighed, resigned to telling him everything. “She worked for your dad years ago and they…”
I didn’t know how to tell him that his dad had cheated on his mom, but there was a knowing look in his eye. I figured my mom wasn’t the only woman he fooled around with while married.
“They had an affair?” he guessed.
