Page 70 of On the Wild Side
I’d like to send Mrs. Pitkin a hundred thousand dollars and kiss her on the mouth.
“If it wasn’t for Nate and Mrs. Pitkin, I honestly don’t know what would have happened to me.” Her voice has quieted again. “I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s true. I’ve never been one to try drugs, but I can see why people do. Because for those few minutes or hours, you can forget how fucked-up your life is. You can just escape it all. That small amount of help from those two wasn’t so small to me, and it gave me the edge I needed to try tomake something of myself. Then, Nate and I got pregnant, and like I told you before, he wanted to marry me. Wanted to do the right thing. He didn’t care that I’d been used and hurt or that I came from absolutely nothing. He just likedme.He loved me. We were kindred spirits and got along so well. We had a lot in common. His mom, however, hated me.”
She frowns down at her fingers and then shrugs again.
“But that’s a story for another time. I don’t think I was ever touched in a kind way, sexually I mean, until Nate and I got together that night at his college party.”
“You were a virgin.”
She scoffs and shakes her head, but I take her hand.
“Abs, you were a virgin in every way that matters. What was done to you before…that wasn’t sex; it was violence. It wasrape.That’s not the same thing, and you know it.”
Her lip quivers, and then she nods. “I guess you’re right. I never really thought about it like that. I was surprised, actually, that it felt good, and that we had fun while doing it. We laughed, and it was…nice.It wasn’t passion. It wasn’t an all-consuming burn that I suddenly couldn’t live without, but it was nice. And I love knowing that Daisy came from that.”
“Me, too,” I whisper.
“Nate was not the love of my life,” she admits with a whisper, “but he was my best friend, and he was so kind andgood.He was really, really good.”
It doesn’t make me jealous to hear her talk about him. I’m grateful to him for taking care of her when no one else would, and I hate that he’s not here for me to thank him.
“I’m glad you had him, Abs.”
“Yeah.” She nods and smiles, wiping her eyes again. “You would have liked him. Anyway, tonight’s nightmare was a bit of all of that mixed together, and it always scares the shit out of me.”
“You woke up screaming for Daisy, as if someone had her, and you couldn’t reach her.”
Something dark moves behind her eyes. “That happens sometimes, too. It’s just more mind games. More fear. Because if something ever happened to her?—”
She lets out a hiccupping sob, and I immediately reach for her, pulling her against me. “Nothingwill happen to her,” I promise as I bury my face in her hair and kiss her head. “Nothing. She’s safe, baby. She’s tucked away on the ranch right now, and she’s perfectly safe. I won’t ever let anyone hurt either of you.”
“I know.” She sighs into me, obviously exhausted, and I lean us both back so we’re lounging and laid out on the couch, with Abbi’s head on my chest. “It’s just one of the reasons that I love you, Brady Wild.”
“What are some of the other reasons?”
That makes her laugh the way I wanted it to. “I’m not going to inflate your ego.”
“Come on. Give me three things.”
“No.”
“Fine. I’ll go first. One, I love your cooking. Seriously, you’redamngood in the kitchen, and I don’t mean that to sound misogynistic.”
She smirks, grinning up at me like a loon. “So noted.”
“Two, when you come on my cock, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
She barks out a laugh. “Glad I can oblige. What’s the third one?”
“You’re the best mommy, Abs.”
Now her eyes fill with tears again.
“Whoa, no more leaking. Come on, what are my three?”
“Okay.” She sniffs and blinks rapidly, fighting back the waterworks. “One, I really love your ranch, and I don’t mean that in a gold-digger way.”
I bust up laughing at that one. “Okay.”