Page 55 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

I can’t keep the humorless laugh inside. “I wouldn’t know, but I doubt it.”

That throws her. “Wait, is there more?”

I nod, needing a moment to catch myself before I go on. I feel Maeve’s hand move, but it’s only so she can take mine in hers.

“Take your time, Logan. I’m not going anywhere.”

When I look over to her, all I want to do is bring her into my arms. I know she’s talking about not going anywhere now, but I don’t want her to go anywhere. Ever.

“It just escalated, and it never stopped. Mum started drinking. Dad was drinking more. Callum and I are fairly certain that both were having affairs. It was just a horrible environment to grow up in. And no matter what Callum and I did, no matter the grades we got or the championships we won or the accolades that came from our teachers and coaches, nothing we did could make them stop fighting.”

“I hate that for you. And also, please tell me you know now it’s not a child’s responsibility to fix their parents.”

“I do now,” I say. “Though Kat often tells me that’s why I’m a people pleaser. My therapist concurs.”

She shrugs. “My therapist talks to me often about my control issues and my need to want to fix everything. Which, I should have you know, the fact that I can’t fly to England right now and smack both of your parents and tell them to get their shit together, is making me very twitchy.”

“I appreciate it,” I say. “But it’s in the past. Callum and I, wanting nothing to do with the family we came from, both changed our names the day he turned eighteen. We wanted to stay a unit, but separate from them.”

“I think that’s admirable,” Maeve says. “And a good way for a new beginning.”

“That was our thought,” I say. “They made their choices. We made ours.”

“Wow,” Maeve says. “That’s really brave, Logan.”

“Thanks. Though I wonder sometimes where that brave guy went. The one who started over. Who started a company from nowhere. Because I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Where did that come from? The story was over. I could’ve switched the conversation back to Maeve and whatever she wanted to talk about. But no, apparently me being vulnerable for the first time in years is opening a floodgate.

“What do you mean?”

Luckily, my word vomit doesn’t seem to scare her away. “I know you don’t read magazines, but I have a feeling from a few conversations we’ve had that you know about the different women I’ve been seen with.”

Maeve’s cheeks blush as she nods. “My sister has shown me.”

“It’s okay. If we didn’t want people to see me with them, I wouldn’t have done it.”

She wasn’t expecting that answer. “What do you mean?”

I let out a sigh. “Every woman you have seen me pictured with, or rumored to be dating, or anything of the sort, over the past six months, is nothing more than a fabrication. They were fake dates and relationships.”

Maeve shakes her head, but not in a way that I feel ashamed. In fact, I think she’s laughing a bit? “I don’t know whether or not I want to tell my sister that she was right. She clocked them as fake immediately.”

“She’s good, then, because not one person calls us out on it. Which is strange. People had to have known. I was having a horrible time, and no one can fake being happy when you’re out with women you have nothing in common with.”

“I gave up dating,” Maeve says. “And that was part of the reason. I didn’t have time, and I’m not about to waste what little time I do have pretending to have fun.”

“Exactly,” I say. “Now, when you’re with someone who intrigues you? That’s a smile you can’t wipe off your face.”

I let the statement hang there for a second before I continue, hoping Maeve gets my meaning. If she does, she doesn’t say anything about it before asking her next question.

“Can I ask why? You’re a billionaire. You’ve created a game that’s a worldwide sensation. What was the need for it?”

Telling her this might be harder than telling her about my parents.

“In a simple word—distraction. We were actively creating smoke in mirrors.”

“I’m now even more confused.”

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