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“If you tell me something and you say it’s a secret, I will take it to the grave. I’m not going to sell you out. I don’t need the money. I have everything I want already.” She chuckled, but I could tell that she meant what she said. I found it fascinating that a woman who had been basically carless not so long ago, who also happened to live in a casita in her brother’s house, claimed to have everything that she wanted. I’d been surrounded by people who had every material thing under the sun my entire life.
Big houses and fancy cars.
Vacations that most people couldn’t even dream of.
Jewelry and purses and every luxury item one could want.
Yet they were all miserable in their own way.
And this girl really did have everything that she wanted. I admired it. I respected it.
A part of me longed for it.
“My father has been in the press over the years for being a bit of a douchebag. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface. He was an absentee father, an absentee husband, and a selfish prick of a human being. But he has a ridiculous amount of money, so he gets excused for his actions constantly.”
She forked a bite of mashed potatoes as she listened intently, like what I was saying was the most important thing she’d ever heard.
“And where is your mother?”
I startled a bit at her words, surprised that she didn’t know. “You don’t read the tabloids, huh? My mother passed away when I was a senior in high school. She fought Lou Gehrig’s disease, also referred to as ALS, for two hard years.”
She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears.
This girl had so much empathy and heart—she reminded me of my mother in a lot of ways.
“I’m so sorry, Maddox.” Her voice was just a whisper.
“I’m surprised you didn’t google me. Her fight with the disease was rampant on the internet. The billionaire’s wife’s life that came to a tragic end way too early,” I hissed.
“I would never google you. I like to make assessments about people on my own. I’m really sorry about your mom. That must have been unbelievably hard.”
Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it.
When you have one parent who loves you unconditionally and then that’s taken away… Well, it makes you a cold, ruthless bastard when it comes to personal relationships.
Just another reason that I should be staying far away from this woman.
But sometimes, all the reasons in the world just don’t matter.
Because wanting her seemed to be trumping everything.
thirteen
Georgia
My heart ached.I’d come over here wanting to give him a piece of my mind, and instead, I wanted to wrap myself around him and make everything better.
I couldn’t fathom that kind of loss. My cousins had lost their mom, my aunt, far too young, and it had been a horrible time for all of us.
Grief was a cruel beast.
“Are you and your brother close?” I asked, because after all they’d been through, I couldn’t imagine not leaning on one another.
“We are in our own way. But he really shut down after my mother’s death. Hell, I guess we all did. Wyle is a reckless and angry guy.”
The heaviness in my chest made it hard to breathe.
“I’m guessing he’s probably lonely. Did he live with your father after your mother passed?”
