Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“And so you then had to tell her our whole sordid family history.”
“Leon!” I gasp. His tone is frigid, but Kitty just rolls her eyes at him. I guess she’s used to whatever this is. I thought we were good when he went into the shower, but I’m not sure what’s going on now.
“I couldn’t bloody tell her that you knocked yourself out a few times playing rugby.”
“Why not? It worked with everyone else.”
Kitty crosses her arms. Her clothes are rumpled, and she looks like she’d desperately enjoy a shower and a cup of coffee, but she’s also not shrinking away from doing this with her brother first. “Because she’s your wife.”
“My wife fancies that she cares about me now. Are you going to take responsibility for putting a monumental wrench into our plans of a fake marriage as well?”
My mouth drops open, and something that feels an awful lot like betrayal accosts my heart. Where is the tender, sweet man from the beach who looked at me for all the world like he needed my reassurance and to hear me say the things I did to make them true for him? Was he freaking playing me?
“You shouldn’t say rude things like that in a kitchen,” Kitty advises. She’s so patient. Not at all rattled. I don’t know how she can stand here and be that way. Then again, Leon didn’t just mock her when she poured her heart out. “Haven’t you heard of frying-pan-related deaths and injuries?”
Leon’s eyes flick to my face for just a fraction of a second, but it’s enough to stop my heart. He’s hidden a lot over the past year that I’ve known him, but he can’t hide the naked, overwhelming emotion within them. It flitters there—brutal as a storm—before he turns back to Kitty. The undisguised emotion is enough to tell me that he doesn’t mean what he’s saying.
I think Kitty knows the same thing. “Do you remember when I was five, and I peed my pants on the playground? We were there after school because we didn’t want to go home. You stayed out there with me even though you were ten and way beyond playgrounds. You hung out with me because it was better than being at home and because I wanted you to. I didn’t want to leave, even though I had to pee. I didn’t even want to go and find a bathroom anywhere, so I peed my pants. And then I had to walk home in peed-in pants, which were cold and horrible and disgusting. Why do you think I did that?”
Leon’s jaw ticks, and he won’t look in my direction. “Because you were a child.”
“No. It was because I was a stubborn asshole. Do you think, brother dearest, that we might have that in common sometimes?” Kitty angles a glance at me, and when she thinks Leon can’t see her, she winks at me. “Don’t be a jerk because something good happened to you and you’re scared, so you’d rather mess it up than take a chance. God knows you deserve something good in your life. It would sweeten you up, and you could use a mega-dose of sugar. You’re as bitter as the bottom end of an unripe lemon, and that’s on a good day.”
“Kitty…” Leon grinds out in warning.
She just shakes her head at him. “Don’t Kitty me. I’m right, and you know it. Our childhood was shit. And yours was worse. Way, way worse. But that’s over now, and even though we’re both probably fucked up from it for life, you don’t have to punish yourself. It wasn’t your fault. Nothing that happened was your fault. Not once. Not ever. This is a chance for something good. If Darby says she cares about you, whether she knows what that means or not, I’d be thanking my lucky stars instead of trying to stamp it out. Because that doesn’t make you a self-sacrificing saint. It just makes you a butt face. You’ve never let anyone in, barely even me, but you need to start. You need to, or life is just going to keep being this big black hole that sucks all the joy from you.”
“You don’t know what you’re—”
“I don’t know what I’m talking about?” Kitty scoffs. “Please. Just no. Don’t even go there. Turn around and look at Darby. You hurt her feelings. She held it together for you all of last night, and you’re surly about all of it, feeling all exposed and naked, and you think that makes it okay to be a jerk because you’re not supposed to be that way, but there isn’t any fixing it. You’re just going to have to face it. All of it. It’s going to suck, but we’re here. Don’t try and push away the few people you have in your corner. I’m not going to leave you alone. Not ever. But Darby’s here out of the goodness of her heart. I could really use a friend in this, so just freaking be nice. I’m not going to tell you again.”