Page 73 of With This Kiss
I shook my head. “I always got the feeling that she didn’t like me very much.”
She might have even hated me. She certainly didn’t do things like brush my hair as a child. Thankfully, I wasn’t completely neglected. There had been help—nannies and cooks and maids around the house who had taken pity on me, and then there was Gina.
She showed up at a time when things had been the darkest for me. Not that she’d known that. She started working for Dad the same year Mom left. And at that point, Mom was nothing more than a shell of herself.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he said.
“I didn’t tell you that for you to pity me.”
“It’s not pity.”
Sure it wasn’t. I didn’t bother arguing with him about it. I didn’t need it. It was something I came to accept a long time ago,and I didn’t need anyone, but especially him, to feel bad about it for me.
I didn’t know what had caused it, and I hadn’t cared that much, considering I was still a child then. Even now, I didn’t know where Mom had gone off to, or even if she was still alive.
I flinched when Reign got caught in a little tangle at the end of my hair. He leaned forward and kissed my head. “Sorry, baby. I’ll be gentle.”
“You already are,” I responded.
It didn’t take him long to finish brushing my hair. Before I knew it, we were settling ourselves into bed. Reign positioned himself behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle and pulling me in close to him.
I didn’t fight him.
I didn’t feel the need to.
I was getting used to his touch, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
We slept soundly allthrough the night.
I wouldn’t have woken up in time for work if my phone hadn’t vibrated on the nightstand from a call.
I blindly reached out for it, looking briefly at the screen to see Caine’s name on it.
Reign’s arms tightened around me from behind. “Who is it?” he asked, his voice surprisingly clear. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been awake for a while.
“My brother,” I said, answering the phone call. “Hello?”
Caine didn’t speak right away. “Are you still sleeping?”
“No. I just woke up,” I lied, looking over at the time. It was barely seven. “Did something happen?”
“No, I just wanted to ask about the text you sent me.”
“Oh, that.” I forgot about that text. I had forgotten that I hid at Dad’s bar, not wanting to go outside because I was afraid Tito might have been waiting for me. If Reign hadn’t come when he did, I would have called Caine to come and pick me up.
“Yes, that,” he said. I could feel Reign’s breath at the nape of my neck, reminding me of his presence there. It wasn’t like I could forget anyway.
I didn’t know how much of the phone call he could hear. I was hoping it wasn’t much, but I didn’t want to risk it.
“Can we meet for lunch?” I asked.
He paused. “Lunch?”
“Yeah,” I said, knowing why he was hesitant. It wasn’t like my brother and I hung out all that often. And when we did, there wasn’t much we could talk about. There wasn’t much we had in common. It was times like this that I wished we had a younger sibling to act as a buffer between us.
“Okay. I’ll pick you up around noon.”
“Sounds good,” I said, hanging up.
