Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“I’m good,” she said, probably to appease him, and followed that up with, “Do you know how lucky you are to have a family like this?”
“I do.” And he really did.
Growing up, he’d seen how many of his friends had come from fractured families in one way or another, and he’d always felt safe and secure in the stability his parents had provided, even when the death of Whitney could have torn them all apart.
“Good,” she said softly. “Don’t take it for granted.”
He tipped his head curiously. “Where is this all coming from?”
She shook her head and leaned her arm on the railing. “It’s just a comparison of your family versus mine, and really realizing how polar opposite they are. Your parents are so…accepting, and mine, well, especially my mother, have spent most of my life manipulating me into what they want me to be. Including setting me up with Elliott Eastman with the hopes that something more would come of it.”
For a moment, Drew felt as though someone had just punched him in the stomach, and he couldn’t breathe. He’d known the night of the banquet that something was going on between Georgia and Elliott, but had dismissed his gut feeling when she’d told him Elliott wasn’t her boyfriend. He believed her, even now, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t seeing him, especially when Drew hadn’t discussed them being exclusive. She would have had every right to go out with another man…which, shockingly, had him rethinking their “casual” dating status. The thought of any guy encroaching on what he was beginning to think of as his made him want to make a claim on Georgia, here and now.
He shook off those possessive, jealous feelings and forced himself to ask the question foremost in his mind. “What do you mean, setting you up with Elliott? Are you dating him?”
She looked at him with a horrified expression. “Oh, my God, no,” she said adamantly, and his relief was immense. “Elliott’s been pursuing me, even though I haven’t been receptive to any of his attempts, and I’ve tried nicely to turn him down. Since being nice wasn’t working, with him or with my parents, when they invited him to my family birthday dinner, I pulled him aside and was more direct. I left no doubt there was nothing between us and never would be.” She drew a deep breath. “But now, I need to make it clear to my parents that it’s over…”
Now that he knew she wasn’t dating the man, Drew thought he’d relax, but he was still tense, knowing her parents wanted another man in her life. He didn’t have time to focus on his own proprietary feelings for Georgia because the flash of anxiety he saw in her eyes told him things weren’t that simple.
Recalling how difficult she’d found it to take her own college and career path, he thought he understood. “You’re worried about upsetting them again?” he guessed.
She glanced out across the yard for a moment, exhaled a deep breath, then met his gaze again. “If only it were that simple,” she murmured. “I told you I put my foot down and didn’t go to law school. What I didn’t tell you was that shortly after I made that announcement and changed my major, my father had a heart attack and triple bypass, which my mother insisted was brought on by stress, meaning me defying their wishes and making my father worry about what would happen to the firm when he retired. She told me that if I hadn’t been so selfish, it never would have happened.”
Anger boiled through Drew’s veins on Georgia’s behalf, and it took effort not to say some choice words about her mother’s emotional blackmail. Instead, he grabbed Georgia’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “You’re not responsible for your father having a heart attack.”
“Logically, I know that,” she assured him, and sighed. “But I’ve always been the good girl in the family. The daughter who fell in line and my parents could count on. And the one time I really defied them for something that meant everything to me, it was like my rebellion came back to haunt me. So, now my parents are focused on Elliott, insisting that we’d be a perfect match and how great would it be if we ended up together and the law firm could stay in the family, like they’d hoped.”
“You’d never be happy with a man like Elliott,” Drew said, his tone harsher than he’d intended. He wasn’t making the claim out of petty jealousy because of his own tumultuous past with the man, but because he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Georgia would wither away with someone as self-centered as Elliott, not flourish like she was meant to.
“Trust me, I knew that the first time I met Elliott. The man’s ego is enormous.” She shook her head in distaste. “I’m not sure why my parents don’t see that side of him.”