Page 123 of Indescribable
“You don’t want for anything that money can buy. But there are plenty of more important things in life that money has no part of.”
“Right.” He’s absolutely right. Clothes, cars, homes, vacations… I’ve never been denied anything. Anything but the right to make my own choices, that is. Prep school, college at University of Chicago because that’s where my parents graduated from. Where Trotter’s parents graduated from. And where all our grandparents graduated from. Trotter says we’reU of Chicago royaltybecause he’s a pompous ass and thinks he’s better than everyone. My status at the school is why I was able to leave school for a long weekend and miss classes.
“Probably makes it a little worse,” he murmurs.
“True,” I concede. He doesn’t know that I’m engaged to a man who gave me the engagement ring with less enthusiasm than one has after being told they have to have a root canal. It was more like ‘hey, we’re supposed to get married, I guess, so…’ and I stared at him blankly as he yanked my hand closer, shoved a five-carat diamond ring on my finger and then proceeded to get raging drunk. It was so romantic. And that was sarcasm if you weren’t aware.
I don’t know why I said yes. Maybe it was because for as long as I can remember, the plan was always for me to one day marry Trotter. We were friends, best friends for a while, and it never really bothered me. Until the ring was on my finger. And I started to have panic attacks regularly, cried myself to sleep at night, and had no one who would listen to me when I explained that I wasn’t in love with Trotter and didn’t want to marry him. My mom scoffed and said that love wasn’t part of marriage in the real world. That I would grow to love Trotter and if I didn’t, I could take aside pieceand keep him quiet.
She said those exact words to me, telling me that’s what her and my father did and it made life so much easier. Oh, and she reminded me that I would have to use condoms with theothersso that my babies would be Trotter’s. That was a fun conversation. Not that I was surprised to hear that my parents weren’t faithful to each other. It was obvious they weren’t in love, but hearing her talk so openly about it wasn’t all that enjoyable.
We continue to eat and fortunately he drops the subject of me growing up in one of the wealthiest families in Chicago. Not that he knows anything other than I’m a rich kid, but he seems to get the gist of it, anyway.
“What’s your name?”
“Didn’t I…”
“Go with it.”
I press my lips together and look away, thinking for a second, then saying the first name that comes to my mind. “Sandra.”
He grins. “That’s what you came up with?”
I shrug and maintain eye contact with theunbelievablyhandsome Cash. My word, I’m not sure what they do to the boys in Tennessee, but raising them gorgeous is definitely something they excel at. The termgood ol’ boyscomes to mind. The guys who are great friends, strong, country, and down home. Cash seems this way.
“Does that make me Danny?”
I laugh to cover the flutter that him knowing the cast of “Grease” gives me. “Obviously.”
He grins. It’s one that has the power to suck me in and never let go.Dannyis so good looking it almost makes me uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable in a way that I feel unsafe in his presence. No. This is a type of uncomfortable that makes me want to shimmy in my seat to relieve the ache just being around him brings me.
“Don’t expect me to sing like Danny.”
“But you’ll dance?”
“I’m a southern boy, my mama taught all of us boys to dance.”
Mama. Southern boy.His slight twang is so sexy.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“Hmm. What do you want to know?
He shrugs a shoulder. “Whatever you want to tell me.”
Nothing, is my first reaction. I don’t want him to know that because I’m too much of a coward to go against my family’s plans for me, I’ll be in a loveless marriage starting this summer. I don’t want him to get a better understanding of how much money my family really has, because it makes me feel like a spoiled brat when people outside of my circle know.
“Okay, how about I tell you about myself? I’m the second oldest of four. Older sister. Two younger brothers. They’re still in high school. My sister is only a year older than me. My parents must have needed a bit more time to try for more kids after I entered the world.” He chuckles at himself. “My dad cheated on my mom, they got a divorce, mom got remarried a few months ago to a great guy. We don’t have much of a relationship with my dad anymore.”
“Wow. That’s…”
“A lot? Maybe I spilled a little too much. I’m an honest guy, though.”
“I’m an only child. A few cousins that I’m close with, but no siblings.”
“Did you ever wish you had a sister or brother?”
“Yeah. All the time. My parents are busy so I was alone a lot.”