Misadventures of a Rookie (Misadventures #11)(30)

I nodded. “Yeah, they’re young and sometimes treat me like a friend instead of their kid.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, but at the same time, I like it because they understand me, I guess.”

She thought that over. “Yeah, I can see that.”

I smiled. “But yeah, Dad knocked up Mom, and since his family was so well-off, old money—and I mean old—they sent him off to boarding school and tried to pay my mom off to get an abortion. She wouldn’t, which pissed my grandparents off, and they kicked her out. So she went to stay with my great-aunt and somehow raised me.”

She looked down at her feet. “Wow, she must be one hell of a woman.”

“She’s something,” I said with a grin. “But my dad came back when I was six-ish, maybe right around my sixth birthday. I don’t remember, but he bought me an Xbox, and I thought he was one cool dude. My mom hated him, for obvious reasons. He claimed he wanted to be in my life and hers, and she kicked him to the curb. That went on for about a year, but he was there for me. At every game, cheering me on, and he bought me whatever I needed for the ice and off the ice. He bought her things, helped fix up our trailer since she wouldn’t let him buy her a house. He was trying so damn hard, and I felt bad for him when she would reject him and slam the door in his face.”

A smile played on her face as I laughed.

“But finally, he somehow convinced her to give him a chance, and they got married the next week.”

She gasped. “The next week!”

“Yeah, I guess the sex was awesome ’cause I wasn’t allowed to leave my boy Jack’s house for a whole weekend.” I laughed at the memory. “But once they were married, it was awesome. We were a family, and my mom didn’t stress about money. She did her thing, she still worked, but she was happier. My dad takes credit for that, and I guess he should because I was happier too. She didn’t cry anymore, so that was nice.”

“Wow,” she said softly. “That’s amazing.” But as she said the words, it didn’t seem like she was thinking about them. It was like she was in her own world, her eyes glazing over as she looked down at her hands. She inhaled hard as she scraped the cheese off the crust. Letting it out slowly, she shook her head, and I wanted to know so bad what she was thinking. But I knew she wouldn’t tell me.

“Yeah, so while you want to believe I was some stuck-up rich kid, I was, but only from like eight and on,” I teased.

She laughed, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

“No silver spoon, I guess,” she muttered.

“Nope. I never got to use it, but my grandmom says I have one, which is cool. I’ve never seen it.”

She giggled, shaking her head. “I guess I owe you an apology.”

I scoffed. “Please, don’t. You didn’t know me.”

“I didn’t.” The words came out in a whisper. My fiery ice girl showing a soft side.

“And now that you do, please don’t rush to fall in love with me. Let’s go slow.”

That made her laugh out loud. I leaned back and threw the crust in the box as I watched her.

“You’re insufferable.”

“But hot,” I reminded her, though I didn’t think she needed the reminder.

She tossed her crust into the box before picking a slice of pepperoni off another piece.

“Your turn,” I pressed. “Tell me something, Bocephus, that no one else knows.”

The look of panic that filled her eyes as she glanced up at me was something I would never forget.

But then, I was finding that there were a lot of things about Bo that were hard to forget.





Chapter Seventeen





Bo





I swear the pepperoni I just threw in my mouth was lodged in my throat. Between the revelation about his parents that rattled my soul and the fact that it was becoming very hard to hate this guy, I felt like I was having a small panic attack. As I worked to dislodge it, I tried to come up with anything that would count as a deep dark secret—but not my real one. Though his family history wasn’t really a secret, I knew I couldn’t come out with something silly like I don’t like carrots! He’d call me on it within seconds. But I couldn’t tell him my real story.

I just couldn’t.

But even though I was nowhere near ready to trust him, I admit I felt like things were shifting for us. Even against my better judgment, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I liked the person I was getting to know. Would it last? No, he’d do something, or better yet, he’d be gone before I could ever utter the words that scared the living shit out of me. Not that I was thinking them, but it was hard to ignore the fact that I could actually feel those for him. Even if I was idiot for it—because, hello, I had a fucked-up history and had sworn off men—as I sat there looking at him, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something real could happen. That alone should have had me hightailing it out of there. He could find a ride home. His buddy, Maxy, could come.

But the thing was, I didn’t want him to.

I wanted to be the one to take Gus home.

Man… What the hell was I doing?

Exhaling hard after choking a bit more, I looked over at him and shrugged. “I have no secrets.”