“Is that assumption because your father wasn’t around?”
“Pretty much. I’ve never seen a guy step up daily. Or constantly. I try not to blame my mother too much. She worked a lot and Sandy was a handful, then caring for me.”
He sighed. “Don’t make excuses for your mother. And the sad truth is, I’ve never seen it either. I don’t have a lot of memories of my father. Even when he was around, he really wasn’t, but he was active with us as much as he could be. It all fell on my mother.”
He was positive West would be a great father since he’d all but raised seven siblings. His brother would know how to prioritize his work and life.
Rowan had to admit, he just wasn’t ready to do that now.
He was still getting his business off the ground and the time and responsibilities that it took were his priority.
“Exactly,” she said. “It did with my mother too. I think she resented it. I was the easy kid and then Sandy came along and she wiped her hands of it. In her eyes, it took less effort to give in.”
“And look at how well that turned out. Now your mother is raising three grandkids.”
“Her problem, not mine.” Saylor slid off his lap. “I should probably do my hair.”
He looked at his watch. They had to leave in an hour. It was less than ten minutes to West’s, but there were limos coming over to pick up family forty minutes prior and making several trips.
There was no reason to rent a car and they were just taking Ubers around for two days, but there was no way in hell one was taking them to his brother’s house.
“It won’t take me long to do it.”
“Guys don’t know how lucky they have it,” she shouted from the bathroom. “You just brush your hair.”
“That’s right. But Logan spends twenty minutes easily doing his. Looks the same when he gets out of the ocean and runs his hands through it.”
He heard the quiet giggle but nothing else.
Might as well get dressed. Not that he wanted to sit around in his suit, but he’d already learned that Saylor wasn’t someone who took hours to get ready.
Once his suit was on, the bathroom door shut and he assumed she was getting her dress on.
Her phone was vibrating on the counter and he stood up to see if her number was high or low, but noticed it was a text. From her sister.
He couldn’t read what it said, just the notification.
Odd timing considering they were just talking about Sandy not that long ago.
When the bathroom door opened five minutes later, her phone was buzzing even more, but he ignored it and kept his eyes right on her.
“Hooooolyyyy shit,” he said. His hand went to his heart. “You should have warned me.”
Her dress was navy blue and only covered one shoulder, the other bare as can be. Her upper body had gotten extremely toned with all the paddleboarding she did now.
He was thrilled she’d found something she enjoyed on the water.
The dress was fitted to her upper body, hell, fitted to her whole body but not snug enough to be slutty, then fell right to her knees.
Her feet were bare, he hadn’t seen what shoes she was wearing yet, but her hair was cascading down her back in big loose waves.
There wasn’t much makeup on her face, but it looked sharper than he was used to seeing, so he knew she’d done something.
“Not too much?” she asked.
“Turn for me. I need to see the back.”
She laughed and did a slow twirl. He saw her CGM on the back of her left arm. Her pod was on her thigh. She’d never wear a fitted dress that made it hard for her to move with her devices.
