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“It’s amazing. Thank you for this.” She tried everything on the platter. It dawned on her how hungry she was. The last few days she’d barely thought to eat. But this assortment was exactly what she needed.
“I figured that since I was having a guest, I needed to put something out. It’s something my mother taught me.”
“My mother wouldn’t offer you a glass of water,” she said, placing a piece of prosciutto atop a cracker with another piece of Fruilano cheese. “No, wait. You’re a handsome man, so she would offer you something. She’d let everyone else starve.”
Oh boy, had I just said that? Handsome?
“Is there a story there?” he asked, as her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
“Probably not one you want to hear.”
“Try me,” he said before popping a kalamata olive into his mouth.
Reese sighed heavily. “My mom is all sorts of special. I love her, but…”
She didn’t feel comfortable attacking her mother. She’d been accustomed to saying nothing at all about her. It was easier that way. Reese worried that being honest about her mother would simply put herself in a bad light, making her sound ungrateful. So instead, she’d pretended that Fran was a decent mother, one who cared.
“But?”
She watched Grady place a slice of Genoa salami on a wedge of baguette. He topped it with another olive. She didn’t normally enjoy watching people eat, but Grady was…different. He had a grace about him, yet looked sexy as hell. And despite her initial observation that he was young, she could see the small lines around his eyes that betrayed that youth.
“She was never there for me. Ever.”
The statement caught him by surprise mid-bite. “Never?”
“Have you ever had people in your life who were always competing with you?”
“Sure.”
“That’s my mom. I think deep down she loves me, but she’s always resented my success. And the more successful I became, the more bitter she got. I wonder sometimes if I was competing against my mom as well. Initially, she seemed invested in my skating career. She came to see all my performances, but when my dad left…she left too. You know, emotionally. If Cam’s parents hadn’t taken me under their wing, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”
“When did your dad leave?”
“A week after I turned eighteen. He said in the nicest way possible that he couldn’t live with my mom anymore. At first I was so angry with him for abandoning us. My mom played up being the victim, and I was too stupid to see what was really going on, so I took her side. And because she was so angry and bitter with my father, so was I.” She paused for a long second. “He was the only positive person in my life, and I cut him out. Because I felt sorry for my mom. A woman who has systematically alienated me for the last nine years.”
Grady put on his sympathetic face. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. Do you have a relationship with your dad now?”
Reese’s cheeks burned with shame. “I don’t even know where he is or how to get a hold of him.”
“Listen,” Grady said, hope rising in his voice. “If he’s the man you say he is, when you’re ready, you can find him.”
“And what if he tells me that he hates me?”
“Is that what you’re worried about?”
“I wouldn’t blame him.”
“Obviously I don’t know your dad, but I doubt that would happen.”
He was giving her a lot of think about. And maybe it was a good time to reach out to him. Maybe.
“Thank you for the talk and this amazing charcuterie board, but I should probably let you get back to your life.”
“You’re welcome to hang out anytime. Other than some training before the season starts, I’m not doing much myself.”
She took a moment to stare at him, probably for too long, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d opened up to a new person like that. What was it about him? She didn’t know.
“I would kill for a proper workout facility, but I’ve been told to stay away from public places.”
