Page 72 of Miss Belief

“I would get a hotel since I know you’re staying with your sister. Don’t worry. I thought perhaps I’d go see Aiden, and maybe we could go out with him and Chloe, but I’m not crashing your vacation. Promise.”

I wanted him to come with me. Meet my sister. Meet my niece. But then he’d see the not-so-great apartment and neighborhood where I’d grown up. “Yeah. No. I want you to go.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, no. You’re very convincing.”

Dammit, words. Why were you failing me? There was so much I wanted to say. Especially since this was an important step. A possible relationshippy step. But unfortunately, we were interrupted by another round of his phone buzzing.

“Let me check this real quick.” He jumped out of bed while I lay there and admired his impressive backside.

“Ugh. It’s my mother. She’s called twice and is now texting to say she’s leaving tonight and wants to apologize before she goes.” He took a seat on the bed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “She doesn’t often say she’s sorry.”

“Then you should go. I’ll be right here keeping the bed warm.” Frankly, I’d use the time to gather my thoughts and figure out how to tell him I was excited about the idea of him accompanying me to LA tomorrow. Maybe I could start by sharing some of my fears with him. Hopefully, he could give me some confidence about the direction we were heading.

“You certain you don’t mind?” He started gathering his clothes from the floor.

“I don’t although don’t be surprised if you get roped into more pictures.”

He cursed under his breath. “I’m leaving the jacket and tie in the room to ensure they won’t grab me for more pics. How many does the bride need?”

“I have no clue. I swear by all that’s holy that when I get married I will not be burdening my bridal party with three photographers and a drone.”

“Good to know.” He winked before disappearing into the bathroom with his clothes.

Face palm. Why? Why would I go and mention a wedding? I was the worst at this.

Reid came out four minutes later wearing his slacks and dress shirt. His hair was mussed from my fingers yanking on it earlier, making me wish he was climbing back in bed with me instead of leaving.

“I won’t be long.” He dropped a kiss on my lips before walking out the door.

After two minutes of mentally beating myself up for the inept way I’d handled his offer to come with me to LA, I went and took a quick shower. Afterward, I put on my favorite T-shirt, captioned, “I licked it first. It’s mine.”

Deciding not to waste the time, I started packing my suitcase since we were leaving early the next morning. My task was interrupted, however, by a knock on the door. When I looked through the peephole, I was shocked to see Chance on the other side. Opening the door a crack, I told him, “Reid isn’t here. He’s with your mom.”

“I know. I saw him in the lobby. I came to talk to you.”

“If you think I’m inviting you into our room, you are sadly mistaken.”

“Would you rather talk about your job at the Scarlett Letter in the hallway?”

My stomach dropped. How the hell had he discovered my secret from thousands of miles away? I opened the door to let him in and turned around so he wouldn’t be able to see my reaction.

“It was the connection to Chloe that clued me in. I knew what kind of lengths Aiden went to in order to get her out of a certain auction.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Chloe had entered an auction for her virginity in order to pay off a dangerous loan shark. Aiden had found out about it by reading messages she’d mistakenly thought were private, and the rest was wrapped up in a happy ending for the two of them. Evidently, the same wasn’t going to be said about me.

“What do you want?” I turned to face him, crossing my arms over my chest and refusing to be bullied. “Because from where I stand, it looks like it’s for your brother to be miserable.”

Irritation showed in his eyes. “Of course I don’t want to see him miserable. But are you going to stand there and tell me you’ve been honest with him?”

“That’s rich coming from you. You want to talk about honesty when you would go behind his back and cheat—”

“I didn’t cheat. Jesus, that wasn’t the point. The point was to show him the truth about Vanessa. She’d drop to her knees for me or for any other man she thought might elevate her position. And since he didn’t believe me when I told him she’d hit on me, I proved it. I’m here to protect him, even from himself.”

“Must be a thankless job. But you can rest easy. I’ll tell Reid about the Scarlett Letter tonight.” I had no choice.

“And what? Let’s play this scenario out, shall we? My brother is a good guy, and I’m sure you’ll tell him you work there because you need the money. Might even be a good sob story.”