Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
There was a part of her waiting for Marian Havery to walk in, followed by Quaid, and “catch” them in the act of not yet eating lunch. Jayna rather thought Quaid would see through that plan, but she could be wrong.
“Why would I do that?” Paul asked.
She could think of a hundred reasons they might give it a try, but she went with the most obvious. “So I can’t get my poor grubby hands on the Havery fortune. To save your mother the embarrassment of having her son date trailer trash.”
That insult had been thrown around when she’d first married Todd.
Her heart ached at the thought because Quaid had made her deal with the real truth of her marriage. She’d thought she’d been in love with Todd, and over the years as the marriage had disintegrated, she’d allowed that young, naive girl to morph into a mature, hardened woman who couldn’t acknowledge the girl’s heart.
It was weird. Accepting the truth hadn’t made her angrier. It had the opposite effect. It made her softer, more tolerant of her own past mistakes.
“Oh, she probably does think that way,” Paul agreed. “I love my mother, but she’s an unconscionable snob at times. I think you’re going to be good for Quaid. He needs someone who’ll challenge him. Also, I think you might be far more reasonable than he is about certain things, so I am going to be incredibly nice to you so you’ll put a good word in for me.”
“I’m not doing that. I’m walking away from this table and immediately telling your brother everything that happened here.” She was still suspicious. She wasn’t about to let Paul drive a wedge between them.
“You can tell him anything you like,” Paul agreed. “But I want you to hear me out. You owe me that.”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
A smirk hit Paul’s face. “Sure you do. If I wasn’t here, Quaid would be living at home and then he wouldn’t have been at the office the night it rained, and you would have left town after your momma kicked you out because you’re trying to lead Sienna . . . I’m not clear on where you’re leading Sienna and why that’s wrong. Also, Sienna looks damn good. Did I hear she’s single?”
“Oh, you stay away from my sister.” She did not need an extra niece, and that was what happened when Sienna got involved with an attractive douchebag. “How do you know my mom kicked me out?”
“Everyone knows because your mom told Darlene Denis, who told the whole story to her sister who works at the Back Porch, and she was telling it to everyone last night,” Paul explained with obvious relish. “You came off as very full of yourself and elitist.”
“Says the guy who had his Porsche stolen,” she pointed out.
Paul shrugged that off. “Fine. That isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about anyway. I simply wanted you to understand that my mother can be on the judgmental side, and while I adore her, I do not carry the same prejudices as she does. Like I said, I think you’re good for Quaid. He seems happy.”
“How would you know?” From what she knew, the brothers hadn’t seen each other in at least a week. They certainly weren’t hanging out and talking about their love lives.
“Oh, I’m excellent at following people, and I watch him quite often.”
“You’re stalking your brother?” Now she was starting to understand why Quaid found the man annoying.
“I like to think of it as keeping up with a man who doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“You know I’m going to tell him you’re watching him, right?”
“Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. How else am I supposed to figure out how to make amends with him? You won’t let me in the office. He won’t talk to me unless he’s picking me up from jail, and then it’s all one long lecture. It’s all ‘you can’t do that, Paul’ and ‘why don’t you get a real job, Paul?’ He does not understand my artistic nature,” Paul complained.
“Your brother is very artistic. He’s creative and smart, but he understands that he has work to do as well. He has a whole town depending on him, and he isn’t going to let them down.” She’d been thinking about how much weight had been placed on Quaid’s shoulders at a young age. His father should have been around for years to take on part of that weight, but he’d died far too soon, and Quaid had been left to handle everything. From what Sienna had told her, Paul had moved to California years before and Quaid had been left to take care of his mother and keep the law firm going.
“He used to be. You know when we were kids, he would tell the best stories. Sometimes when it stormed, I would sneak into his room because I was scared and Quaid would tell me stories about how the storm was nothing more than the clouds playing games up in the sky.” For the first time, Paul seemed serious. “He was my hero when we were kids.”