Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Right back at you, heifer.
Honestly, I got the feeling that the real reason she’d so easily left without incident was that she wanted out of here so she could escape being questioned over what she’d said about Gracie. She’d startled herself by blurting that out. Panic had rippled across her face.
Also guilt.
But was she playing Dax? If Gracie had done something that would hurt him, wouldn’t Mimi have told him about it in an effort to make him let her sister go?
He hadn’t reacted to her comment. Hadn’t so much as batted an eyelid. He’d been more bothered by her threat to talk to the press. Which said he either trusted Gracie so implicitly that he wouldn’t believe she’d done anything to wrong him, or he simply thought Mimi was attempting to dick with him.
Once I heard the apartment front door close, I puffed out a breath. “That was rough. Are you okay, Raven?”
“Yeah.” Her shoulders drooped. “It’s just sad that things are the way they are, you know? It isn’t the first time she’s showed up here moaning about how much she wishes she could stop feeling anything for Dax. But it was different this time. She’s bitter. Resentful. I expected it, because it was inevitable that she’d be pissed that he’s married. But I didn’t expect her to say she was considering selling her own story to the tabloids.”
Anger once more sparking in my gut at the mere thought of it, I looked at Dax, whose jaw was hard. “Do you think she’d really do it? Or do you think she’s just blowing off steam?”
“It’s hard to say.” He paused, twisting his lips. “She’s not a cruel person, but neither were my previous girlfriends who sold their stories. You don’t need to be a shitty person to do something shitty; you just need to feel motivated to do it.”
“And just maybe you being married is giving Mimi that motivation,” I mused, following his train of thought.
He inclined his head. “Maybe.”
One thing was for certain: If the woman dared pull that stunt, I would make her life even more miserable than it already was.
I turned to Raven. “Come on, let’s get whatever mess she created cleaned up.”
After we’d all trashed the broken glasses, righted the upturned coffee table, and cleaned the wine-spill from the living room hardwood floor—which now had a noticeable dent, courtesy of Mimi “playfully” stabbing it with the fireplace poker—Dax and I said our goodbyes to his sister and left the complex. In silence, we returned to his car and fastened our seatbelts.
It wasn’t until we were halfway home that I broke the silence and said, “I felt a little bad for Mimi right up until she made noises about talking to the press.”
He spared me a quick glance. “Felt bad for her?”
“A little,” I repeated, emphatic. “I obviously am pissed that she won’t respect your wishes but, well, we don’t choose who we fall for. It just happens. She doesn’t want to love you—that’s more than obvious. She’d change it if she could.”
“She doesn’t love me, Addison,” he upheld, his tone the verbal equivalent of a hand flick. “Not really.”
I felt my brows dip. “Why do you think that?”
“I don’t think it. I’m certain of it.”
“What makes you so sure, then?”
“You can’t love someone you don’t know. You can think you do, because you have all that room to imagine they have traits they don’t have; that they’ll make the perfect partner. But you only really love the impression of them that exists in your mind.”
I cocked my head. “And you feel that Mimi doesn’t really know you?”
“For years she’s been holding out hope that she could eventually make me succumb to her advances. She’s Gracie’s sister—I’d never go there. Not even in my mind. If Mimi truly knew me, she’d be well-aware of that; she wouldn’t have wasted her time or energy.”
I dipped my chin. “Yeah, that is a good point. But sometimes, we can fool ourselves into believing what brings us most comfort. She needs to believe she has a chance with you, even as she hates herself for wanting that chance. Or needed to believe. It should be past tense now. You marrying me forced her to face the reality of the situation.”
“Is she really facing reality, though? It didn’t seem that way. She may not like that we’re married, but she’s not taking my commitment to you seriously.”
“True,” I realized, thinking on it. “In her mind, you can’t possibly love me, so I’m someone to be pitied and ridiculed. But while she doesn’t buy that you’re committed to me, she can’t shrug it off or ignore it. Because the fact remains that you married someone, whatever your reason, and that ‘someone’ wasn’t Mimi—that in and of itself says you don’t want her.”