Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
I inhale deeply through my nose, breathing in the clean, floral scent of her perfume. “Thank you for that.”
“But I really do like your sister, and I don’t want her to hate me when this is all over.”
Under the table, I find her hand and thread my fingers with hers. I love holding her hand. Love when she lets me. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”
“I don’t want you to hate me either,” she whispers, and it kills me to hear how small her voice sounds admitting it.
“I don’t think I could, Savannah.”
She lifts her gaze to mine and holds it for a long time, like she’s trying to communicate her darkest secrets through eye contact alone. It’s only broken when the server appears with our drinks.
“Thanks,” Savvy says, and the server just nods and steps back into the darkness.
She takes the first sip of hers and flicks her tongue over the melted chocolate smeared across her lips. “Oh my. That’s not a drink; it’s an experience.”
I chuckle. “So I hear.”
Sighing, she settles back into the booth. “So, Rose lives with you?”
“In a manner of speaking. We live in my late grandmother’s house.”
“Oh. That explains why . . .” She drops her gaze to her untouched drink. I hate that the low lights make it difficult to read her expression.
“Why what?”
She clears her throat. “Why you said you’d see her at home.”
“By technicality, it belongs to Rose as much as it belongs to me, but she’ll move in with Jared when they get married.”
“Not living together before the wedding, huh? Rose didn’t strike me as the old-fashioned type.”
“She’s not, really. It was a stipulation of my father’s estate that she not live with her future husband before the wedding.” I shrug. “Once Rose and Jared got serious, she moved in with me rather than signing a new lease on an apartment of her own. She knew she’d spend most nights with Jared and wanted to save the money.”
“The loophole,” Savvy says, grinning.
I huff out a laugh and smile at her. “Yeah. And no one really cares because it was obvious Dad was doing his regular controlling bullshit from beyond the grave. She’ll get her inheritance by technicality, and that’s good enough.”
“Any other family ever live there with you?”
“Not since Mom remarried.”
“And before?”
“It’s where we grew up, so we all lived there at one point—even Oliver for about a year and a half. But he hated it there as much as Mom hated him being there.”
She cocks her head to the side. “Why did he live there, then?”
My sharp breath is audible even over the low drone of the club around us.
Savvy cringes. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to pry.”
“Don’t be. I want to share with you.” I drag a hand through my hair. “The whole thing with Oliver was complicated. It was so embarrassing when my family found out about him, but when he came to town, he was so fucking cocky. Like he was proud of it. Proud of the damage he’d done to my family when the truth came out.”
She scans my face, as if she’s trying to see my past through every little detail there. I love how close she is. How intimate this setting feels. I’m not ashamed to admit it was a calculated choice on my part.
“And what’s the truth?” she asks.
“Before I was born, Mom and Dad were separated for a while, and that’s when my brother happened.” I sigh. “Mom and Dad reconciled when she got pregnant with me, but instead of telling anyone he had gotten his mistress pregnant while he was living in New York, Dad just sent Oliver’s mom money. For years. Then Oliver’s mom died and Dad was like, ‘So you have a brother and he’s coming to live with us.’ I swear, I’d never seen my mom lose her temper more times in my whole life than she did in those eighteen months Oliver lived with us.”
“But if you think about it, that must have been really awful for him. I mean, he lost his mom—his only family—and then suddenly he was thrown in with this family that didn’t want him.”
“Trust me, he didn’t do anything to win us over. The opposite, in fact.”
She winces. “I mean, it just seems like there might’ve been a reason he was a difficult kid.”
“It’s not that I don’t feel for him.” I take one sip of my bourbon. Then another. “He was awful, Savvy. To me. To my mother. Defied my father at every turn. I think Rose was the only one he gave a shit about. My father would pit us against each other—like he thought the only way either of us would be successful was to spite the other.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I just want you to understand that I’m not some asshole who hated his brother for the fun of it.”