Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“Dawn and Arlo? Those are your parents?” Pippa inquired.
“Yeah, they don’t subscribe to traditional terms, so I’m not allowed to call them Mom and Dad.” I shrugged.
Rafe stiffened beside me.
Jen shared a glance with Greg, and I didn’t follow her gaze because I wasn’t sure I wanted to see his expression. She gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “How interesting.”
“You moved around a lot?” Gigi frowned.
I nodded. “Yeah. They moved us every four years or so.”
“That must have been hard on your education,” Hugo murmured dryly, as if he already knew about my background. He probably did.
“She graduated with a 3.8 GPA,” Rafe answered for me, giving his brother a hard look.
“Despite all the moving?” Jen’s smile returned. “Well, I knew you had to be very smart. Rafe has always liked smart girls.”
“Mom,” Rafe murmured with a scowl.
“What? It’s true. You know, he took the class valedictorian to prom, even though the prettiest girl in school asked him to go with her.”
“Looks aren’t everything,” I reminded her.
“Of course,” Jen hurried to say. “Exactly. It’s just . . . boys don’t tend to have that foresight, but my Rafe has always been wise.”
“A good thing too, Mom,” Gigi interjected. “The prettiest girl in Rafe’s year was Cheryl Wharton, and she’d drown her own sister if she thought it would help her get ahead in life.”
Rafe covered a laugh by coughing into his fist.
My lips twisted, but Jen spoke before I could. “Now, Georgina, the Whartons are friends of this family and we don’t speak ill of our friends.”
Gigi rolled her eyes. “Oh, let’s be real. They’re our frenemies.”
“What on earth are frenemies?”
“It’s ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’ put together,” I supplied helpfully.
“Oh.” She frowned at Gigi. But then she amended, “Okay, they’re our frenemies, but we still should be polite about them because of the friend part.”
I tried to hide a grin as I glanced up at Rafe to find him watching me. There was a gleam of amusement in his eyes that made my cheeks feel hot.
“What were we talking about?” Jen mused.
“Star,” Hugo reminded her. “College. Star didn’t go to college. Right, Star?”
At the disdainful and almost accusatory tone, Greg Whitman said Hugo’s name in sharp warning.
Like always, I ignored the indignation that kind of judgmental attitude inspired. “I was raised by parents who didn’t believe that you needed a college education to succeed. A lot of college graduates end up doing the kinds of jobs I’m doing now, anyway. Unless they specialize, a degree doesn’t mean what it used to mean.”
“That is very true,” Greg agreed, “but that is why grad school is important. Look at Rafe. Look at Gigi.”
Not Hugo, because he’d taken over his father’s company.
And Greg seemed proud of Rafe and Gigi for the paths they’d taken. I would have assumed it bothered him that his children didn’t want to join the family business, but I guess having his eldest take over was good enough.
“You didn’t want grad school? A career?” Jen probed.
I shook my head. “The thought of constraining myself to school for another four to eight years filled me with dread. I itched to get out there and live my own life. I decided against college.”
“College isn’t for everyone,” Gigi offered kindly, giving her mom a pointed look.
Jen smiled weakly. I wondered if my shine was fading as they got to know me. Familiar disappointment hung behind me like a shadow.
“Wasn’t moving around a lot difficult?” Pippa placed a hand on Charmaine’s head, and her daughter bussed into her touch like a kitten. Was there ever a time when Dawn offered me such natural, casual affection? “I couldn’t imagine dragging our daughter all over the country her entire childhood.”
“You know what, it made me grow up independent,” I replied a little too brightly. I could feel Rafe studying me as I continued, “I’m well traveled and I met lots of new kids. Dawn and Arlo would take off for weeks at a time to meet old friends in another state or sell their art, and it taught me to look after myself.”
Jen seemed outright horrified. “They left you alone? How old were you?”
There was that knot in my chest again. “Uh, I guess they started doing that when I was ten, eleven.”
“Oh dear,” I heard Pippa mutter.
Heat flared in my cheeks and I brushed off the strained atmosphere as they exchanged uneasy glances. “Hey, that’s nothing.” I laughed, though it sounded false even to my ears. “When I was a baby, they once put me in a sink in a bathroom supply store for a joke and then forgot about me. It made the newspaper. They kept the clipping.”
No one laughed.
Because I guess it wasn’t funny.
A knot tightened in my chest and I looked at Rafe, desperate for him to change the subject.