AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry,” she mutters after adjusting her robe.
“Don’t be,” I rasp, and though I mourn the feel of her already, I mean it.
“Dinner will be served at six thirty,” I say curtly, then leave before I do something I might regret.
* * *
Dinner came and went in stewed silence, with Molly on one end of the table, me on the other, and neither of us willing to extend an olive branch.
“I can’t believe her,” I say to Reginald, falling back into the leather chair in front of the fireplace in the study. “Can you believe her?”
In a moment of weakness, I revealed every gory detail to him about me, Molly, and this goddamn will and testament.
“Have I been so horrible to her that she feels the need to hide from me?”
He pours a hefty amount of whiskey over ice before offering me the glass. “If someone were shouting demands at you, would you be so accommodating?”
Fuck no, but I don’t tell him that.
“You’ve got a soft spot for her,” I mutter, giving up on the paperwork I’ve been sifting through for the last hour.
I set the folder on top of my computer on the edge of the coffee table. Between the sight of Molly in that bathing suit and my regret over raising my voice at her, I’m not in the mood to do business.
“I believe I’m not the only one,” he muses.
I scoff, and the older man smiles as he gathers an empty tray. “Your situation is delicate. Give her time to get used to things around here. Besides that, it’s got to be difficult moving into a place like this that’s unlike anything she’s known before.”
“I suppose I could’ve been easier on her,” I say while furiously tapping my fingers on the worn, rustic leather.
This is what that woman does to me. One minute, I’m calm, collected, and level-headed, and the next, I’m completely unhinged.
She’s threatening to dismantle the foundation of control I live by, and I don’t fucking like it.
When he leaves me to brood alone, I distract myself by responding to the emails Everett’s been forwarding me now that he’s temporarily taken over most of my portfolios.
Unsure if he’s even bothered to eat, I order him a meal through the GoodEatz app, and fifteen minutes later, I receive a text.
Everett
Thanks, Mom
He follows that up with a kissy face emoji, an eggplant, and several water squirts.
I’m responding with a succession of middle fingers when a shadow quickly passes by the doorway. I flick my gaze up, but when no one enters the room, I set my phone down and return my attention to my laptop.
Not one minute later, I see another flash of something glide by.
“May I help you?” I grouse, expecting one of the housekeepers might be lingering for one reason or another.
What I don’t expect to see is Molly, in a matching set of plaid pajamas, meekly poke her head in. “Um. Hi.”
“I see you’re still refusing to wear the clothing that was provided for you.”
I made sure to ask for her measurements before she arrived, and even went through the trouble of having a whole wardrobe custom-made and sent to the manor just for her. Efforts which have been in vain, since she continues to wear those damn overalls every day.
She rolls her eyes. “Someone stuffed my drawers full of lingerie and thin nighties, which are both inappropriate and uncomfortable.”
I conceal a twitch of amusement as she steps closer. “No idea who would do such a thing.”
