Page 180 of The Grand Duel
“No,” he says, following me out. “Christ, no.”
“Then why take the card?” As we walk past the restaurant, I see the woman peering over her shoulder, watching us leave.
I’m not sure what possesses me to do it, but I smile at her and walk the entire length of the window with my middle finger held up at her.
“I’m going to pretend you’ve not just done that.” Charles snakes an arm around my neck and pulls me into his side, directing me to the passenger-side door and into the warmth of the car.
He looks over at me once he’s inside and shakes his head, laughing.
“Is this more you?”
I sink into the booth at Macca’s and pull him in beside me. “It is actually. And you won’t have to re-mortgage your home to get dessert either.”
He pulls the jacket he placed over my shoulders tighter and tucks a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. “True. The usual?”
I nod, and he slides out of the booth and goes to the counter.
I can’t help but watch him.
He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever been with. Without question. And he’s becoming someone I feel for deeply.
I don’t like to admit that fact, and hell to saying it out loud, but there’s something about him that I can’t explain. A feeling in my gut that soars whenever I’m with him.
Like maybe he’s the best man I’ve ever met.
My phone vibrates in my bag, and with Charles only a few feet away from me, I know it’s one of three people.
My mum, Jovie, or Ed.
Jovie
We need to talk. I’m so sorry Lissie
I smile sadly down at her message, wondering why she needed so long to send that message.
When Charles slides back into the bench seat beside me, I thank him for the ice cream and drop my phone back in my bag.
“Everything okay?” he asks, his frown quizzing.
“My sister is currently hosting my parents.” I look up at him. “I don’t know how long for.”
“In Australia.”
I nod.
He reaches for his spoon and scoops up a chunk of his triple chocolate. “So, your sister has contact with them?”
I shake my head, moving my gaze to my ice cream. “Can I ask for some advice, Charles? I’ve been thinking it over for days now, and I don’t know who else to ask.”
“Anything.”
The word triggers a memory, and we both look up at one another at the same time.
I bite my bottom lip, knowing my cheeks are pinking. “Fiend.”
He shrugs, and I smile.
“So, when my sister got pregnant, our parents thought it was the end of the world. Like I told you, they wanted us to take over the company eventually as they had. The fact Jovie was sixteen was the icing on the non-existent birthday cake, and they basically told her she was going to have to have an abortion.” I sigh as the pain I felt back then comes right back to the surface, prickling my skin. “At the time, Jove didn’t want that, and I…I couldn’t understand how they could ever, in any right mind, think it was okay to demand it in that way. Not after what we went through in the few years leading up to that point, anyway.” I swallow the burn in my throat and blink over and over before rushing on and past the memories that flash. “I can support Jovie and Willow now, I know I can. And I’m saving to buy the house I always dreamed we’d own…” I sigh, the same question plaguing me as it has for the last few days. “I’m just…I don’t know if what I want…or what we…”