Page 73 of Trust Me
“She can’t be a child forever. I was in the Townsend offices at that age.”
Riley frowns up at me. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. It was the best training ground for my career.”
She rolls her eyes. “You were a child. You should’ve gotten to have childhood experiences.”
“I did. Make no mistake. It was my choice to be there. It’s still my choice to make my family proud.”
She pauses and looks at me with sincerity. “I don’t want her to worry about adult things until she needs to. She’s already halfway across the country from me.” Her frown deepens. “I miss her.”
“How long has she been at Bowen?”
“Two years. Feels like longer, even though she comes home for the summers and school breaks of course.” Sadness infiltrates her voice.
I move behind her again and run my hands up and down the length of her arms. Though she’s barely wearing any clothing and she looks hot as fuck, my movements are more for comfort than for pleasure.
“What happened to her parents?”
Riley stiffens at my question. I realize right away it’s a sensitive topic. But I’m greedy and I want to know more about Riley’s life. What makes her tick? She obviously has a deep love for her niece.
“Her mom died soon after she was born. She had a rare heart condition. The pregnancy exacerbated that. That’s what my brother told me. And he …” She trails off. “Well, he took after our father. When I saw that, I couldn’t sit by and let her be subject to that. I convinced him that she would get a more stable life with me.”
She snorts.
“The irony. I had only moved into an apartment from the homeless shelter two months before that. But I knew I could give her more than what my brother was willing to give her.”
“Family’s important to you?” I ask.
“Ladybug’s the only family I really have.”
She lowers the lid of the waffle maker before turning to face me. Our fronts brush up against one another. I bracket her in place with my hands on either side of her body against the counter.
“I already know family’s important to you. Tell me about your siblings.”
A smile crests on my lips. “Kennedy and I are the oldest.”
“Twins, right?”
I nod. “Then Andreas and Thiers. Also twins.”
“Wait,” she spins to me with a spatula in her hand. “Your mother had two sets of twins?” Her eyes bulge when I chuckle and nod.
“That’s insane.”
“Then there’s the baby of the bunch, Stasi.”
“What are they like?”
“Kennedy’s headstrong.”
Riley snorts. “She’s not the only one. Ouch!” She yelps when I smack her ass.
“I’m not headstrong.”
“Stubborn is more like it. Keep going.”
“She’s early in her career as an investigative reporter. Because of it, she’s out of town a lot. Plus, she likes travel. She got really into it when we went on an around-the-world trip as teenagers.”