“Hey,” her groggy voice greets me.
Just as I imagined it would sound. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t, but another ten minutes and you might have.” She laughs. “Everything okay?”
She’s so damn sweet. Not just the taste of her skin—the little I’ve had the pleasure of sampling, anyway—but her heart. She truly cares. She’s so different from the girls I’ve dated in the past.
She’s the first I’ve pursued like this. Yes, I’m pursuing her. I can admit that much. I want what I told the guys to be true. I want her to be mine.
“Yeah, just a lot to do. Bath time, packing for tomorrow, laundry, dishwasher, bedtime bottle.” I ramble on about what all I’ve done since I last talked to her.
“Babies are a lot of work.”
“Yeah, they are. So, how was the rest of your night?” I change the subject, not wanting to be that guy, the one who whines and gets the girl. I want to know about her—everything there is to know.
“Good. I just chilled, read a book.”
“You read too? Reagan seems to always have a book in her hand.”
“I do. I love it.”
“What else do you do? How do you spend your free time?”
“You don’t really want to hear how boring my life is.”
“I do. I want to know everything about you.” Shit! My mouth just keeps spewing words at her. She’s going to think I’m a stalker.
“Dawn and I are roommates. We work together, so we do a lot together. Shopping mostly, plus she reads too, so we talk about our book boyfriends.”
Fictional, but I don’t like it. “What else?”
“We spend a lot of time at my parents’ place. I moved back six months ago, and Dawn came with me. I’ve been gone since I left for college, so it’s nice to be able to spend time with them. I guess I’m trying to catch up on all the time we lost.”
“Sounds like you’re close to them?”
“Yeah, I missed them when I was gone. It made the decision to move back home even easier.”
“What are you leaving out?”
“Nothing really, I was just ready for a change.”
I won’t push her to tell me. Not yet. I need to learn more about her, let her see that I’m not rebounding. I’m devastated that Melissa lost her life, and heartbroken that my son will never know his mother, but I’m not rebounding from her.
“So, other than these book boyfriends you speak of, do I have any other competition?” Might as well let her know where I want this to go. I don’t like to play games. My thoughts travel to Stephanie. That entire clusterfuck was a game, one I hated and vow to never play again. I don’t care what the dare is; if those are the stakes, I’m out. Never again.
“Not anymore.”
Good. Not that it would matter, since he would have to prove to me that he was the better man before I backed away from her. She consumes me. “Care to share?”
She hesitates.
Come on, sweetheart, open up to me.
“Cal and I dated for about two years. He was great at first, nice, sweet, and attentive. You know, everything a girl wants.” She laughs humorlessly. “Until he wasn’t.”
My heart stops a few beats at her words. If he laid his hands on her, I’ll kill him. “Elaborate,” I urge, trying to keep myself calm, my tone controlled.
“He got into the wrong crowd. He started a new job in a factory, and the guys he hung out with were into drugs pretty heavily. Looking back, I don’t know how they all kept their jobs. Anyway, he changed. The drugs changed him. I didn’t know that’s what it was at first, but when I found out, I ended it. Well, I tried to, anyway. He was mean and angry that I left him. To make matters worse, he lived in the apartment across the hall. It was like I couldn’t get away from him and his anger.”
I clench my jaw. “Did he put his hands on you?”
“No, not really. I mean, he pushed me a few times, but it was nothing. He never hit me, really.” She stops and sighs heavily into the phone. “You don’t want to hear all this. I can’t believe I’m even telling you.”
“Keep talking,” I blurt out.
“Excuse me?”
“I need to know, Kendall. So help me, if you don’t finish telling me, my ass will be on your doorstep in however the hell long it takes me to get to you and you will tell me.”
“Ridge.” She sounds shocked.
“Kendall,” I give it right back to her.
“I don’t see how this is any of your business. I should go.”
“Let me tell you something—you are my business. I want you, Kendall. There is something between us, and I want to be able to see what it means. Anytime you’re near me, I gravitate toward you.” I take a deep breath and soften my tone. “I won’t be able to sleep until I know.”
“Once. He hit me once. That was the last time. He left that next weekend to go out of town, and Dawn and I packed up and moved here. He’s called a few times, but I’ve avoided him. It was more of a slap, but that was the last straw for me. I knew I needed to get away before things got worse. Dawn’s not close with her family and she said she had nothing holding her there, so she moved with me. We stayed with my parents’ for a few weeks until we found a house to rent. We were lucky enough to both find jobs at the same place. We’ve just been settling in ever since.”
He fucking hit her! I focus on my breathing to keep myself calm. Red-hot rage roars through me like I’ve never felt before. “If he comes around, if he bothers you, you tell me. No exceptions, no excuses—you come to me. Got it?”