Page 348 of His Virgin Romance Series

“Hold on,” Mom said, rubbing my back soothingly. “We don’t know the whole story. Maybe he has a good reason for keeping this from you—”

“For this long?” I demanded. “He had months and months to come clean with me. He had plenty of opportunities to tell me the truth. But he never did and—”

I heard the key turn in the lock, and I realized with a start that Miles had just arrived. Seth jumped to his feet and turned in the direction of the door, and Mom and I both froze in place. Miles walked in and stopped short as he caught sight of all of us. Then his eyes fell on Seth, and he paled visibly.

I got to my feet slowly, and I looked at him with accusing eyes. “Do you know how stupid I feel right now?” I asked him. “For having believed you all this time.”

Miles took a step towards me. “Gabby—”

“I wanted to introduce you to my mother and brother,” I said, raising my voice above his. “But I think my brother knows you better than I do.”

Miles sighed, and I saw his gaze turn to Seth’s. “I know how this looks,” he said, with a shaky voice.

Seth shook his head at Miles. “I thought you were a good guy.”

“I am,” Miles insisted. “I just… I’m so sorry… I made a mistake.”

“You’re a piece of—”

“Seth!” I said, interrupting him and stepping in between Miles and Seth. “Please… Miles and I need to talk. Can we do this another day, please?”

Mom got up and grabbed Seth by the arm. “Come on.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about leaving you alone with him,” Seth said.

“I can take care of myself, Seth,” I said. “If I need you, I’ll call.”

Seth looked at me for a moment and then nodded. “Okay…”

The moment the door shut on Mom and Seth, Miles turned to me with pleading eyes. “Please, Gabby… just let me explain.”

“Good, because that’s exactly what I want,” I said. “An explanation.”

Miles sighed. “The day you came to the station… you were this beautiful, bright, amazing woman who I wanted to impress. I was too ashamed to tell you about my past so… when you just assumed I was a fireman, I went along with it… and I shouldn’t have, I know that. It was completely wrong, but I just kept making excuses for myself.

“Then you showed up at my door asking to be my roommate and again I should have told you the truth but again… I was just so desperate to impress you that I held my tongue. I told myself that I would become the man you deserved and then I would tell you everything. I told myself I would get a real job; I would clean up my act, I would… be better than I was… and then I could come to you, the new me and show you that everything I was telling you was a part of my past.

“I was going to tell you everything tonight—”

“Bullshit,” I snapped immediately. “You honestly expect me to believe that after all this time you were going to tell me the truth tonight?”

“I told you I wanted to talk—”

“That could have been about anything.”

“It was about this,” Miles insisted. “I wanted you to know everything before my parents’ party tomorrow night. I didn’t want either one of them telling you inadvertently. I wanted you to hear it from me.”

He came forward and took my hand, and even though I tried to flinch away, I didn’t fight him too hard. “I never wanted to hurt you or deceive you, Gabby,” Miles said, with desperate eyes. “I’m just… I’m so in love with you, and I wanted to be better before I told you about my past. I thought that if I presented you with the new and improved version of me you’d have a better reason to stay.”

I shook my head at him and pulled my hand out of his grasp. “I can’t believe you.”

“You’re the one that told me not long ago that people have their stories… their own baggage and that everyone deserves a second chance… right?”

“Ugh,” I said, walking away from him. “That’s low… using my own words against me.”

“I love you, Gabby, and I want you to understand where I was coming from when I made my mistakes,” Miles insisted. “I started selling drugs because my parents cut me off and I needed to support my work. Selling pot was the only thing that gave me a degree of autonomy and flexibility. I could support myself, and I could focus on my art. I’m not saying it was a smart choice… but it was the only option I had available to me. I didn’t think giving up on my dream was an option.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling strangely off balance.

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