Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
I was peeling off layer by layer.
He was doing the same with me.
I checked the time on my phone. Almost ten PM; hot damn, we’d been here nearly two hours already. So this wasn’t entirely awesome. Ten PM was a reasonable hour to wrap up our first dinner date, and if there was one thing I was learning about Wyatt, it was his traditionalist way of dating. He didn’t strike me as the type who would suggest we move this date back to his place at this hour.
Dammit.
I was right. He was taking me home.
Tonight was the first time I got to experience him behind the wheel of his own car, a nice silver Aston Martin with a black interior, and it was easy to see he enjoyed driving. And nobody liked driving in LA… I liked it even less when he had Culver City and my address plugged into the GPS.
Why had I given it to him?
I wondered if there was a way to lure him up to my place instead. My sister’s name might be on the mailbox next to mine, but she was never there anymore. Our parents had helped us take out a loan for the condo when Nana couldn’t handle walking up the stairs any longer. So she’d left Culver City for a retirement community in Thousand Oaks where her sisters already lived. Now it was just me in the tiny two-bedroom. My sister’s room was all but empty.
The day she moved in with her boyfriend officially, I was going to buy her out. ’Cause there’d been plans to install elevators in the old building forever, which would make the condo worth a whole lot more. After that…who knew? Unlike her, I wasn’t sure I saw myself living in LA forever.
“You’re thinking about devouring your dessert as soon as you get home, aren’t you?”
Ha! For once, he was dead wrong. “Almost. I’m thinking about real estate.”
He lifted his brow but didn’t take his eyes off the road. “That’s…different. Is real estate another hobby?”
I shook my head and smiled a little. “Not specifically real estate, but I like a good investment.”
Real estate tended to be a good one.
Wyatt was still showing surprise. He hadn’t expected that from me. “I can’t wait to get to know you better, Parker. You’ve entered my life like a breath of fresh air.”
I smiled, and as the urge struck, I leaned over and kissed his cheek.
He smiled back and grabbed my hand. “I very much enjoy what we’re doing. Just tell me straightaway if something is wrong—and that includes if I do something wrong. It’s been so long since I dated that I feel like I’m flying blind at times.”
I’d sort of figured that out. And to be honest, it was reassuring. Even the most polished man had to fumble in the dark every now and then.
“Can I ask what went wrong between you and your ex-husband?” I wondered. “I’ve noticed you’re very open with me, and you said something about empty promises.”
He inclined his head and checked the rearview before switching lanes. “Even before we got married, we had problems—partly because he didn’t want to leave Rome, and I had no desire to leave my family here. But we’d agreed to cut down on work so we could see each other more often. And I did. I tried to rekindle what we used to have in the beginning of our relationship…” He trailed off, and his brow furrowed. “Deep down, I suppose I always knew we weren’t a great match, but I was willing to work to get to a better place.”
He scratched his jaw, seemingly deep in thought.
Right now, I couldn’t believe I’d ever viewed him as devoid of emotion and closed off. He was a completely different person.
“After one too many missed dinner reservations, he knew I was all but done,” he went on. “At that point, I was doubting my feelings too. I’d lost the energy to fight. But Tom got paid to plead his case. By day in a courtroom, by night in our relationship—and he proposed marriage to me.”
I couldn’t help but stick out my tongue, as if Tom were here in the car with us.
Wyatt grinned faintly and threaded our fingers together. “You’re right. I am open with you, Parker. I’m hoping to avoid another failed relationship in which we try to be someone we’re not. I was never meant to be with him long-term, and he’s not meant to be with anyone long-term. And once I admitted that to myself, I filed for divorce. I was angry with him, with myself, for wasting all those years trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”
I couldn’t imagine fighting for something for that long if it didn’t feel 100% right. At the same time, I admired any man who kept his word and did his best to uphold a vow.