Now’s the time.
I feel good about us. Well, kinda. But we need to discuss everything, especially her family.
“Roxy.” All I can get out is her name.
“I know what you’re going to ask, and I’ve told you before, Felicity. I don’t mind sharing. Ezra holds a huge chunk of your heart and I know you’re not ready to let go of him. Call me an optimist. I fully believe he’s going to come to his senses and beg you to take him back. I want you, too. All I ask is that you save a piece of that heart for me.”
“You’d share me?”
She just nods her head as she beams a hundred-watt smile at me.
“Duh. Of course. You’d have your relationship with him. I just ask for one for myself. I don’t know about us all being in the same bed, naked during sex. Not without an EpiPen close by. You know my aversion to real dick. But I’d be willing to suffer through it for you.”
Roxy reaches out with her free arm, running her fingers through my hair before turning my face to hers and kissing me.
“I’d like that. But right now, I don’t have that same optimism. And I already know he wouldn’t share,” I say sullenly.
“You don't know that. People will do things you’d never expect for love.”
I just nod my head, biting on my lip as I prepare to broach the next topic. I’m not sure how she will react to my questions.
“There’s something else I want to talk to you about.” I shift my gaze away from her, looking at anything but her.
“My dad and the brother that I want to disappear,” she says bluntly.
My head whips back to her, my gaze locking on hers.
“How did you know?”
“Because I know them. My dad is harmless enough. He can get a little handsy and his eyes linger a tad too long on a woman’s finer attributes.” My body stiffens, and she pauses. My mom married a fucking asshole. “I can tell you he loves your mom. I’ve never seen him act like he does with any other woman. Not even my own mom. I don’t see him straying, even if he is still checking out the menu. And I saw him checking you out. I cornered him later that night and had a few words about that.”
“And your brother?” I ask, soaking in what she said about her dad.
“He’s a fucking asshole. And not my brother.” She emphasizes the not part. “He’s a sleaze, and I’d keep very far away from him if I were you. Make sure you’re never alone with him.”
I have no intentions of being alone with either of them.
“Is my mom okay with him being there?”
I hate that I even have to wonder if she’s safe around him. But knowing what I know now…I do.
“Yeah. He has a specific taste in women and she’s none of them.” She looks more critically at me, swallowing before speaking again. “In fact, we have similar taste in women, and you’re exactly what he goes after.”
Her words hit me like a brick. Suddenly, I’m more grateful than ever that I never moved into that house.
Chapter 24
Felicity
Thelasttwodayshave been pure bliss.
Bliss.
Fitting that I chose that for my screen name for Behind the Lens.
Tonight was our first official date, and we went to the movies. Of course, we had popcorn and nacho cheese and she found out the taste got even better with the movie theater butter kind. Afterward, we got coffee and came home. It’s been a perfect night.
One that I’ll always remember.
