Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
And that boyfriend’s parents weren’t real keen on me. It was clear they thought me strange, removed, too reserved and not easy to be around.
Rix had experience with women. He’d been engaged. I suspected his parents met a lot more girlfriends than just Peri.
And now I’d seen Peri.
Sports Illustrated supermodel she was.
One hundred percent.
I didn’t know why I didn’t want to share any of this with Rix.
I just didn’t.
So I lied, “Nothing.”
Rix made no reply at first.
Then he said, “We never talked about it.”
I turned to look at him. “Talked about what?”
“That thing with Peri the other night.”
“Rix—”
“You told me to go, but were you okay with me going?”
I was confused. “Going?”
“Out to talk to her.”
I was still confused.
“Well, yeah. Like you said, I told you to go.”
“Baby, I don’t want you to think on that, let it fester, get the wrong idea. I didn’t go after her because of her. I went after her because Peri can be about drama, and drama behind a wheel is not a good thing. And because that had to be rough for her, and how she found out about us wasn’t cool. Though, most of it was because it isn’t her right to throw a drama. I don’t need to deal with her pitching one whenever she sees me or us, and you definitely don’t need to deal with it. She has to settle into the fact you and me are something, we’re going to run into each other, and that’s just what it is.”
You and me are something.
“But I wouldn’t have gone if you weren’t okay with it,” he finished.
“I was okay with it, Rix.”
“You should know, she wasn’t there as a coincidence.”
Oh God.
Did Chloe—?
“Erin, the ex of one of my buddies at the department saw us, she also probably saw that Elsa Cohen thing. I called Dylan, her old boyfriend, yesterday. And he admitted Erin phoned him and they hatched a plot to get word to Peri I was there, alone, looking like I needed company.”
Okay, I was not a Peri fan.
But that was harsh.
I mean, of course, I suspected Chloe of conniving much the same thing.
But the whole “looking like he needed company” was below the belt.
“Yikes,” I mumbled.
“Unh-hunh,” he agreed.
“Outside the fact she’s gorgeous, I really don’t have an issue with it, Rix. I haven’t actually even thought about it.”
“What does her being gorgeous have to do with it?”
I’d been looking at him.
Now I was staring at him.
Then I pointed out, “She’s really gorgeous.”
Another glance at me and then, “Yes, she’s a good-looking woman.”
“A very good-looking woman.”
Rix stared at the road.
I stared at the road.
When he spoke again, it was soft. “You know I thought you had a problem with me being disabled.”
I had no idea why he was bringing that up, but I confirmed, “Yes. I know.”
“It annoyed me.”
“I know that too.”
“Because of that, I didn’t see you.”
I said nothing.
“I see you now, sweetheart.”
I turned my head to look out the side window.
“Fuck, baby, look at me,” he growled.
I turned to him. “I know you’re into me, Rix.”
“Are you paying attention?” he asked.
“Yes, which is how I know you’re into me.”
“I went after Peri because she can be about drama.”
“You said.”
“And after I got back, I was shocked as shit, because you and your friends knew what that was, it wasn’t about me, or you, it was about Peri, and they just moved past it.”
“I was there, Rix,” I reminded him.
“Peri’s friends wouldn’t do that.”
“Okay.”
“Like attracts like.”
Oh.
I shut my mouth.
I’d caught his point, but he kept going.
“Another example, obviously that shit with me going after her isn’t festering for you. Peri let shit fester. I never knew when something I said or did or something that happened the week before or three months before would rear up and bite me in the ass.”
Ulk.
That had to be no fun.
“That stinks,” I muttered.
“Yeah. It was really no fun,” he agreed.
I had to say, I was beginning to feel a whole heck of a lot better about where Rix was at with Peri.
Rix wasn’t done.
“I’m willing to do the work to get you past whatever shit whoever in your life put in your head that you’re not all that. But you’re all that, Alexandra. I get that it’ll take time, this isn’t a telling thing, it’s a showing thing. But you gotta pay attention as that goes down and let it sink in. Straight up, there isn’t a soul on this planet who is beautiful outside who isn’t beautiful inside. You can’t be truly beautiful unless you got that in you. But you are both.”
“Okay, honey,” I whispered, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Okay,” he grunted.
“It wasn’t that,” I told him.
“What?”
“You’re tuned to me. You knew something was on my mind. And it isn’t Peri. It’s that I’m nervous about meeting your parents.”