“Noted,” I interject, because Becca is the last person I want to talk about. Especially with her.
She peers up at me. “It hurt like hell, Preston.”
Both her confession and the vulnerability in her expression thaws the ice around my cold, black heart.
“My intention wasn’t to hurt you.” The next words out of my mouth should be difficult, but they come out with ease. Because anything that hurts her…hurts me too. “But if me hooking up with other women bothers you this much…I’ll stop.”
She parts her plump pink lips in shock. “Seriously?” Her nose scrunches. “Are you sure? Because you have needs and that isn’t really fair to you—”
A growl of frustration escapes me. “For fuck’s sake. Make up your damn mind. You either don’t care if I hook up with other women, or you do. You can’t have it both ways.”
Especially if it’s going to result in her having a mental breakdown over it.
“I don’t want you hooking up with other women,” she says in defeat, as if she’s lost a silent war within herself.
That makes two of us.
“Deal.” I run my fingers down her spine. “See how easy that was?”
Her eyes narrow. “Asshole.”
I start to smirk until I shift and something digs into my back. Reaching underneath me, I pull out what appears to be a headless stuffed animal.
“What the hell is this?”
Her eyes light up. “That’s Eddy the teddy.” She pouts her lips as she pets his stump. “Or rather, he was until he had an unfortunate humping incident with the neighbor’s dog and I had to rename him, Shreddy the teddy.”
I can’t help but laugh. “That sucks.”
“Yeah.” She yawns. “I was a wreck when I found him, but my mom was able to salvage what she could and sewed him up for me. She offered to get me a new one, but I didn’t feel right about replacing him. Just because he was damaged didn’t mean he was unlovable.”
Something sharp and abstruse rolls in my chest with those words.
She yawns again. “It’s been such a long day. I’m beat.”
I want to kick myself because I almost forgot about her getting attacked today.
“What the fuck happened in the parking garage?”
She opens one eye. “Hmm?”
“The parking garage,” I repeat with edge. “What. The. Fuck. Happened?”
“I’m not really sure. Someone hit me over the head with something while I was walking to my car, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in an ambulance.” She yawns. “I’m pretty sure it was a mugger.”
She says it like it’s no big deal, but it is.
“Why didn’t you call me when you woke up?”
She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know. We were fighting and I guess…” Her sentence trails off and she shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
The hell it doesn’t. “You guess what?”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t care.” Her gaze snaps to mine and the pain lingering there steals my breath. “That I’d lost you.”
She couldn’t be more wrong.
My fingertips brush the nape of her neck and I tug the poker chip she wears on a necklace out of her shirt. “You can’t lose something that belongs to you, remember?”
“I know.” Sadness twists her features. “But I felt you slipping away.” Closing her eyes, she nuzzles my chest. “I’m so tired.”
“Want me to take you upstairs to your bedroom?”
“No.”
I look around the bright pink room filled with various toys and stuffed animals. The fact she came here instead of going upstairs when she broke down stirs something inside me.
Her next words are so faint, I almost don’t hear them.
“It’s ironic that I caught you in the living room…because I felt like I died in there.”
Her statement is a sucker punch to the gut. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not sure what it means,” she whispers. “And I know you deserve more than that, I just…”
I don’t deserve anything from her, but I’ll gladly take whatever parts she’s willing to give me.
Because I’m a selfish bastard.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything.” Hell, our relationship has always been complicated and difficult to decipher, why put a label on it now? “You’re Kit and I’m Preston. That’s all that fucking matters.”
Her lips curve as I get off the bed. “You make it sound like we’re some kind of dynamic duo.”
I stroke the edge of her jaw with my thumb. “That’s because we are.”
I’m about to walk away, but she reaches for my hand. “Stay.” Her teeth dig into her lower lip and she bats her eyelashes. “And snuggle.”
“I don’t—” I clamp my mouth shut because it’s a losing battle.
But at least it ends with her in my arms.
Suppressing a sigh, I slip back into bed and wrap my arms around her tiny frame.
Because I’d do anything in the world for this girl.
Except tell her the truth.
Chapter 14
Preston
“Can you grab my luggage from my car and bring in the mail?” Kit calls out from the kitchen where she’s scrambling—or rather, burning—eggs.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. And so our newfound married life begins.
Next thing I know, she’ll be asking me to go to couples yoga and pick out curtains.
Gritting my teeth, I trek over to the front door and yank it open.
A shiny gift-wrapped box with a big bow on it snags my attention.
“You didn’t have to get me a present,” I tell her as I bend down to pick it up.
A rush of anger surges through me when I read the tag and see ‘Happy birthday, asshole’ scrawled in Asher’s sloppy handwriting.
I’m about to walk over to the trash bin and dump it, but curiosity gets the better of me, and I unwrap the box.
A very expensive and very gaudy diamond Rolex stares back at me.
Not only is it flashy and hideous, it’s not my style.
However, it’s very much his. Nausea turns my stomach and I have to fight the urge to punch a hole through the wall. And our father’s.
As if sensing I’m about to spin out, Kit enters the foyer. “I didn’t get you a present.” She whistles when she catches sight of the watch. “Wow. That is…”
“Tacky as fuck?”
“Not you.” Her face scrunches. “Who’s it from?”
“The scumbag next door.”
A sound of frustration leaves her and she looks up at the ceiling. “You mean your brother?”
“My name suits him a lot better.”
She peers inside the box. “There’s something else in there.”
I dig out the fabric on the bottom and unfold it.
I let out a grunt of annoyance as I take in the T-shirt with Picasso’s mug on it. Directly underneath the lab’s wagging tongue, the words—Number One Uncle are printed in big, bold font.