Page 59 of Not So Happily Ever After (British Bad Boys)
“Hmm?” Maybe he wants to go back to his flat. I’m up for that. All I want to do right now is hold him tight and breathe in his sexy cologne.All I want is you.
“You know your mum would be proud of you whatever you do with your life. Don’t you?”
My hand slips from his chest to his thigh. I should’ve guessed he’d want to talk about this. He knew Mum for years, after all.
“I gave her my word.” I sigh heavily. Just because she never knew of my promise, doesn’t make it less binding.
“But you’re not happy, are you? She wouldn’t want that. You know it.”
I do know it, and I’m not sure how I feel about him throwing it in my face. Not when I’ve just opened my heart and laid the tangled mess of my guilt at his feet.
Except, deep inside, I knew he wouldn’t just let it go. Wasn’t I secretly hoping he’d tell me exactly this?
Yes.My problem is, I don’t know how to respond. “It’s complicated, Will.”
“Trust me, I know.”
If anyone else said that to me, I’d shrug it off as a meaningless cliché. But hedoesknow. Well, not exactly, but close enough.
“It’s not just that, though. I’ve got this bursary from Mum’s work, and the professors she knew personally at Uni are all invested in me.” The panic churns again, and I fight it back down. “And Dad would be upset if I didn’t go through with it. It was hard enough when Harry decided not to go to university, and Lucas was never interested in an academic career. I’m the only one left to, you know. See it through.”
He’s silent for so long, it’s like he’s decided this conversation is over. And it is. There’s nothing else to say. I’m glad I told him, even though it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Or maybe I just wanted him to know something about me that next to no one else does, the way I know about his Mum and why he hasn’t yet fully committed to Oakland.
“Yeah,” he says at last, as though he means the complete opposite. “Don’t get mad. But all those reasons? They suck. You only get one life, and you’re the one who’s got to live it. Don’t throw it away.”
I press my lips together. I’m not exactly mad with him, but I’m not thrilled with his comments. Not that I’m going to take issue with them, because he’s trying to help. And I love that he’s on my side. But I’ve made my choices.
And I have to live with them.
Chapter Seventeen
Mackenzie
“All right, I admit it. I thought you and Will would’ve either killed each other or split up by now.”
It’s Friday before Brooklyn and I see each other again, for a quick catch up over lunch at a little café down the markets. Can’t say I’m impressed by her remark, though.
“I don’t see why.”
She raises her eyebrows.“Interesting.”
I know exactly what she’s getting at, and don’t even know why it’s kind of annoying me. She’s already taken credit for Will and me getting together because she stuffed those condoms in my bag before we went to Wales. “We haven’t argued once. It’s been”—the best week of my life.I nearly choke on my tongue. No way can I saythat.And obviously, it’s not true. Well okay, so maybe it is, but I’m still not saying it out loud. We’d have to dissect every minute that Will and I have been together, and we don’t have time. I settle on a safe alternative. “Great.”
“Uh-huh.”
The very fact she isn’t immediately digging for more information makes me twitchy. “He even cooked dinner for us the other night. He’s not bad. Well, I didn’t get food poisoning.” And last night we watched a movie marathon, kicking off withThe Princess Bride, snuggled up on his sofa and eating popcorn. Just like that night soon after he first bought his flat, when I made him watch it for the very first time. Exceptthattime there were no snuggles.
“Oh-kaythen.” There’s a smirk on her face, but there’s nothing I can do about that, since if our positions were reversed, I’m sure I’d be doing the same thing to her. “It isn’tallabout the bonking, then?”
Hell, no.I press my lips together before I incriminate myself further. Not that it matters. My silence tells her everything.
I groan and rake my fingers through my hair. “It’s like the last two years never happened.”
“Has he apologized?”
I stare at her blankly, as I trawl through my mind for clues as to what she means. Since she doesn’t know he stood me up on Boxing Day, it’s not that. “What?”
“For being such a prick to you. I mean okay, so the sex isgreat, and his cooking isgreat, blah blah.” She does little quotes with her fingers each time she saysgreat. “But don’t forget what an arsehole he was after that Christmas hookup, Mac.”
