Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“And you’re all living happily ever after?” she asked.
“Nothing so fairy tale–like, but yeah, we’ve become a solid unit.”
“You’re so lucky,” she whispered.
Dare was uncomfortable, his arm falling asleep. He readjusted his position on the bed, helping Liza settle into the pillows beside him. Then he propped himself up on his other arm and met her heavy-lidded gaze.
“You need sleep.” The pain pill had obviously kicked in.
“Soon but not yet.” Her brown eyes studied him earnestly. “I like talking to you.”
Dare smiled. “I do too.” In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d bared his soul to anyone about his childhood, but he couldn’t regret having done it with Liza. “Your turn, though.”
He knew the medication had lowered her inhibitions, but that didn’t mean he minded getting whatever information she wanted to give.
She yawned, and he thought that would be the end of their sharing.
“My parents should never have had kids.”
He was wrong, and he couldn’t be more pleased she was opening up to him.
“But they had me, and then they had Brian. I don’t know why, but I was always in the way. Brian was the golden child, the boy who made Dad proud just by being born. But even with that, my parents couldn’t really be bothered with us. They were rarely there. Even when they were present, they weren’t there.”
Her eyes had glazed over with the memories, and Dare hesitated to interrupt. Her voice was slurred a bit, and he knew she didn’t have much more talking left in her.
“So Brian started acting out early on. He ran with a rough crowd, my parents never knew where he was, and he’d always come home drunk or high.”
She frowned, which wrinkled her nose, and it was all Dare could do not to lean over and kiss her right then and there.
“And then there was that party…” She shook her head.
That she didn’t groan in pain told him the pills were definitely working. And knowing where she was headed next, Dare almost wished he could take one of those pills too.
“I was supposed to be home that night keeping an eye on him because my parents had grounded him and taken his car keys. But I’d just started going out with this older guy, and he kept begging me to go out with him that night.” She exhaled hard. “I agreed. I figured since Brian couldn’t take the car, I could leave for a couple of hours and come back home after.”
Dare didn’t ask what happened next. He already knew.
“What I didn’t know was that Brian had told Jesse—that’s the guy I was seeing—that as long as he brought him a keg of beer, he wouldn’t tell my parents I ditched babysitting.”
“So that’s where the alcohol came from.”
“I felt so guilty,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Hey, you did a normal teenage thing. You weren’t the one who bought alcohol for minors.”
“But I brought Jesse into Brian’s orbit and bailed on my responsibility. Stuart Rossman would still be alive if it weren’t for me.”
Apparently, Dare wasn’t the only one who suffered major guilt from that one night. He wondered if the only one who didn’t was the man who threw the deadly punch.
“Baby, there’s a lot of blame to go around,” he assured her.
“You called me baby again.” Her eyes lit up at the endearment that slipped so easily off his tongue. “I like it,” she admitted.
He liked her. Reminding himself she was injured and in pain, he curled his fingers into fists, preventing him from reaching for her. In time, he promised himself.
Right now, she needed something different. “I don’t think you’re in any way close to being responsible,” he assured her.
“Too bad my parents didn’t agree with you,” she said in a small voice. The sparkle disappeared from her eyes. “Brian was my responsibility, and I failed him. He never would be as bad as he is now if that night hadn’t happened.”
She sounded like she was repeating words that had been ingrained in her over the years. Words that were untrue and absolved the wrong person of guilt, and Dare’s anger at Brian returned.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Is that why you keep bailing him out?” Dare asked.
“It’s part of it,” she said over another yawn.
One more question, he thought, and then he’d shut up and let her sleep. “What’s the other part?” he asked.
Sleepy brown eyes met his. “Brian was there for me when I needed him. When nobody else would have bothered,” she murmured, her eyes closing, her words trailing off.
“Liza?” he asked softly.
No answer.
Well, he wouldn’t be learning any more about her tonight, but he’d already discovered so much about who she was and what made her tick.
What a number her parents had done on her, Dare thought, and blew out a frustrated breath.
No wonder she kept bailing Brian out and making excuses for his behavior. It was all she’d been taught, all she knew how to do.