Page 27 of Crying Shame
Oh, he had no idea how he hot he was when he stood up for me.
Charlie smiled. “Sorry. I’m putting my foot in my mouth a lot today. I mean it would be great to have you in the family, Clarissa. I missed your sisterly way of steering me away from the wrong women.”
I laughed. It was impossible to be angry with him for long. “I don’t believe you ever stayed away from any of them.”
He put his hands in his pockets. “But it turned out you were usually right, and then you were just gone, leaving me to fend for myself.”
“I’m sure you were fine,” I said.
Sam tugged my arm. “What did you do, Mom?”
Charlie answered for me. “She tried to remind me I was a good person, though she picked the quietest of us.”
Elon was pretty much the hottest man I’d ever met and the only one who had never tried to shape me into something I wasn’t.
“Elon wasn’t quiet," I said. "He was reserved. Now he’s a responsible doctor.”
“Who wants a wife and children,” Charlie said.
My entire body felt drained. “What?”
Elon’s face turned bright red. “It’s true I want to get married and have children—one day. Maman raised us to value family.”
“Sam is your family,” I snapped, and then my stomach knotted.
No one said anything. Heat rose in my body.
Charlie finished his wine. “Well, someone show me to my room, so we can all hit the pool.”
It was left unspoken that Elon could have whatever he wanted. It was his birthright, after all. I sipped from my glass.
Elon said, “Take any room on the right side, second floor.”
Sam gazed at me. “I’ll change for swimming too.”
I nodded. “We’re all going.”
Charlie and Sam ran out of the room, like both of them were kids.
Elon put down his full glass of wine. “Don’t let what Charlie said bother you.”
My soul had always been drawn to Elon’s calm reserve. It was one of his best characteristics and why I should have called him years ago to tell him about Sam.
He was the best man I’d ever met. I put down my still-full glass. “Oh, I remember how Charlie never had a filter. Don’t worry. I am curious, though.”
Elon waited until we were walking up the stairs to our bedrooms to ask, “Curious about what?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. I hated gossiping, but what Charlie had said seemed improbable. I swallowed. “Curious about Warren. Your brother is super considerate and goes out of his way to be kind. I can’t imagine him ever doing anything wrong. What would a blogger have on him?”
“He fell in love with a woman getting a divorce, and you know how the tabloids like to write about rich people as destroyers of marriages. It was a big deal spun out of nothing.”
“Whoever she is, she must be special.” I kept my opinion about Warren having high morals to myself.
We made it to the top of the stairs. Elon's lips thinned. “Don’t make me jealous again, Clarissa.”
I laughed again. “You’re the only Norouzi I've ever kissed, and I’d never want a guy who was perfect all the time. Meet you out there.”
I ducked into my room. Elon wasn’t mine. I’d never again be the teenager who'd been in love with him. It was dangerous to forget that. Ensuring that Sam and Elon bonded as a tight team was my mission. I knew for a fact that Norouzis protect their own.
