Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
His easy acceptance and forgiveness only make me feel worse. It’s not just stuff. It was a beautiful, thoughtful gift that he put so much time and effort into.
My throat’s too tight to form any more words, though. Instead my body shakes with more sobs.
He hums a soothing noise that rumbles deep in his chest. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. If I’d known. Really understood, I would’ve burned down that whole fucking house to come back to you.”
Sincerity rings in his voice. I lift my head and sniffle. “You worked so hard. Finding the car. Fixing it. I’m so sorry I did that.”
No matter what Griff says, I don’t think I’ll ever live down the shame that I was so destructive. Would I have done it if he’d been home? Probably not. I would’ve confronted him or hidden in my bedroom until the end of time.
Besides my shame about the car, there’s the shame of knowing he talked about me with someone else.
Another woman who wanted to fuck him.
Maybe that’s why he’s so willing to forgive me about the car? I pull away from him and grab a napkin to dab my eyes and cheeks. I quickly glance around the bar. No one’s paying attention to us.
“It’s not just that.” This is so mortifying. But I can’t go on letting him think I don’t know.
“Tell me. What else?” He rests his hand on my leg. “Tell me so I can fix whatever it is.”
This is humiliating. Heat burns my cheeks, but I push ahead. “Did you…tell anyone about me? About us?”
I might be willing to accept that Griff didn’t sleep with Kiki but what if they formed some sort of emotional connection in the house? How else would she know such personal stuff about me?
“I tried not to talk about you too much to anyone.” He frowns and hurries to add, “Not because I don’t love you or I’m not proud you’re my girlfriend.” He stops as if he’s daring me to correct him.
When I say nothing, he continues. “I wanted to protect you.” He shakes his head. “I know that sounds weak after what happened, but I didn’t realize—”
“No, I mean, more intimate details about me. Or about us?”
Confusion wrinkles his forehead. “What do you mean? Like what?”
“The day after…everything…I received a text from your burner phone.”
His forehead slashes into a scowl. “They took my burner after I talked to Remy and confronted the head producer.”
“You confronted the producer?”
“Fuck yes, I did. When Remy told me what happened. What they were saying about you…I know it sounds weak as fuck, Molly, and I didn’t understand how bad it was, but I tried to fix what I could.”
I nod slowly. Everyone had told me the show never mentioned me again. I’d always wondered if they were only saying it to make me feel better. “At least that was something,” I mutter. “Thanks.”
“After I came home,” he closes his eyes briefly, “I found a text from you on the burner phone but everything else, all of our prior messages, had been wiped clean. So I didn’t know what you were responding to.” His mouth turns down. “I figured it wasn’t anything good.”
That sounds awfully convenient. “Really?”
He nods. “What’d the text say?”
I close my eyes, concentrating on the memory I’ve tried hard to bury. “Something about how virgins are only fun for a little while and you couldn’t be interested in me for long. Signed Kiki.” I finish her name in a snotty singsong tone. “I was hurt you’d…tell someone that about me.”
Griff slow-blinks like he’s staring at a crash at the racetrack. “What. The. Fuck,” he breathes out. “Molly, I never said…I would never talk about you like that to anyone. Ever. And definitely not with some woman I barely know.”
“Well, how else would she know something like that?”
He presses his lips tight like he’s afraid I might not like his answer. “I’m sure she guessed. Or the show did. And then they just ran with it.”
They had made a big deal about my age and that I still hadn’t graduated from high school at the time. “Okay, but how’d Kiki know about your burner phone? Did you let her use it or something?”
“Of course not. If I was going to let anyone borrow it, it would’ve been Venom. But I wouldn’t even loan it to him to call his wife, because I was worried he’d turn me in.” He takes a breath. “I doubt it was even Kiki who sent the text.”
Apparently, he didn’t watch many of Kiki’s private chats on the show. “Are you defending her?”
“What? No.” Frustration roughens his voice. “Molly, I barely spoke to her or any of the girls.”
Does he think I’m an idiot? “You were all stuck in a house together.”
“It’s a big house,” he insists. “I trained and did whatever else the show wanted us to do. The ring girls were off doing their own thing in another part of the house. Or they were lounging around the pool and hot tub. I didn’t go out there much.” He scowls. “Saw too many of the guys get drunk and piss in the pool to ever want to swim in it.”