Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“It doesn’t,” I heard myself say. Despite promising myself that it wouldn’t matter what Lex said, I was completely caught up in wanting to know more about him and why he’d reacted the way he had.
“When the money started coming in, people began taking notice. All of a sudden I was giving interviews in magazines and getting fan mail and stuff. People would send me letters telling me all about their lives and how badly they needed money. Some of them would even use their kids to try and get a handout. They’d tell me how sick their kid was and how if he didn’t get an operation… well, you get the idea,” Lex murmured.
Yeah, I did. Money did strange things to people and if Lex had as much as he said he did, he would have had a target painted on his back for all sorts of con artists.
“I always wanted to be able to do good things with my money because I had more than I’d ever need, but I had to learn how to do it in a way that it would actually do some good. Sorry, I know you’re probably wondering what this has to do with how I acted yesterday…”
I opened my mouth to tell him not to apologize, that I wanted to know as much as he was willing to tell me, but then I realized how strange that would sound, especially considering I was supposed to be pissed at him.
And I was still pissed at him.
Admittedly, though, maybe it was a little less now than it had been.
Which made no sense because he still hadn’t explained why he’d turned on me. I should have told him that we were just a minute from his cabin, so his time was running out, but instead, I found myself easing up on the gas pedal. I glanced at Lex and saw that he was staring at his hands, which he was rubbing together like he was trying to soothe himself. I actually started to reach out to cover his hands with one of mine before I remembered myself.
“I became this overnight success story… foster kid turned self-made millionaire,” Lex said softly. “People started wanting to be around me. They wanted to be my best friend or confidante or whatever. Some wanted more…”
I realized he was talking about romantic partners. The near-violent streak of jealousy that went through me was so surprising, I actually ended up jerking the steering wheel a bit.
“What happened?” Lex asked in surprise as his body hit the door.
I glanced over my shoulder to the bed of the truck to make sure Brewer was okay. The big dog was lying up against the cab, so he likely hadn’t been affected by my momentary lapse in driving skills.
Since I didn’t want to lie to him and I couldn’t really tell him the truth, I settled on saying, “Um, let’s just say there was a squirrel and leave it at that.’”
“Uh, okay,” Lex responded in confusion but thankfully he didn’t press me on the issue.
The driveway for Lex’s cabin came into view. I drove right past it.
On purpose.
Jesus, what was wrong with me?
“So you were saying about people wanting more from you?” I prodded.
“Yeah, so my love life basically went from nonexistent to having someone new on my arm every night. I guess… I guess I enjoyed it in the beginning,” Lex said sheepishly.
The idea of him fucking a new woman every night irritated me beyond belief and I found myself gripping the steering wheel hard.
“It took me a really long time to realize that they weren’t with me because… because they wanted to be. I mean, they did want to be with me, but not for the right reasons.”
Lex sounded embarrassed and hurt. “People are assholes,” I ground out.
There was a long beat of silence, which had me glancing in Lex’s direction. He was looking out the window. “Yeah,” he finally said.
“So there wasn’t anyone special?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how I’d gone from wanting to know why he’d accused me of something I hadn’t done to wanting to know more about his love life.
“I’m gay, Gideon,” Lex said.
The statement caught me off guard and it was all I could do not to run the damn truck off the road. As it was, I took my foot off the gas even more than it already was. We were going so slow at that point that the truck might as well have been moving backwards.
Lex must have taken my silence as a bad thing because he said, “I just wanted to get that out there because… because it’s not something I try and hide. If that’s a problem for you—”
“No,” I practically shouted before I remembered to use my indoor voice. My throat felt tight as I added, “No, it’s not a problem.”