Read Online Flash Burned by Calista Fox - Free Book Online Page B

for everything, every year. Even when she wasn’t feeling well because of the cancer. Apparently, my mother had been big on decorating the mansion and helping the kitchen staff with the meals, so Aunt Lara stepped into the role—and claimed she adored it. I had no basis of comparison, of course, but I thought she did an exceptional job.”
    â€œShe must have loved you a lot. To raise you and make sure all of the family traditions stayed intact, were passed along to you. It couldn’t have been easy. She must have given up some of her own dreams.”
    â€œShe once told me she’d never intended to have children. My parents had planned a big family, and Aunt Lara had offered to serve as nanny. She liked kids. She just wasn’t interested in having her own brood. Primarily, I think, because she’d had some not so healthy relationships with men when she was young. But then, later on…” He grinned coyly. “She found the right one.”
    I regarded him suspiciously. “Oh? You never mentioned she married.”
    â€œShe didn’t. They tried to keep it covert. But I found out about it.”
    A twinkle in his eye had me dying of curiosity. “Who?” And then it hit me. “Oh, my God. Amano!”
    With a nod, Dane said, “I think they were very happy together. More than just wanting to stay on to protect me and the estate, I’m pretty sure he kept his job in the mansion to be close to her.”
    â€œWow. That’s so romantic. Oh, but … tragic, too.” Considering Dane’s aunt had passed a few years ago.
    â€œYes, it is. But I’m happy they’d found each other.”
    I couldn’t help but think, once again, of Dane’s neighbor and friend. “Did Mikaela spend holidays with you all?”
    â€œYes, she did. Her mother sometimes, too, when she wasn’t otherwise engaged.”
    I eyed him curiously. “So, while Dad was away being an ambassador, her mom was…?”
    â€œThey had an open marriage.”
    I stared at Dane. “How does that work, exactly?” I shook my head. “I mean, I grasp the concept, but … What’s the point in even getting married? If you’re not committed to each other, want outside relationships, want to sleep with other people, then why bother?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he told me with a pointed look. “It’s not anything I’d ever be interested in or would ever agree to. I’d never let another man touch you.” He said this with grave conviction.
    The very reason he was so fixated on Kyle’s attraction to me, and precisely why I constantly reiterated with my friend where he really stood.
    â€œI suppose,” Dane ventured, “it had a lot to do with the fact that Ambassador Madsen was rarely in the country and his wife and Mikaela didn’t travel or live with him, as I’ve mentioned previously. It’s not quite like your parents’ situation.”
    â€œThat was just plain screwed up,” I lamented. “He gave her everything . Those tournaments were meant to provide her with all the material things she wanted—thought she deserved—as much as they were to appease his passion for golf.”
    â€œAri,” Dane said. “Baby, you can’t think that every marriage is destined for that sort of betrayal, whether the cheating is consciously discussed and agreed upon or done behind someone’s back.”
    I knew he spoke the truth. But it was an extremely sensitive subject for me. I’d witnessed—lived through—the devastation of that sort of deception. For me, that was a red flag with relationships. One of the biggest issues that had precluded me from actually having any … until I’d met Dane.
    â€œHey,” he said. “Don’t get mired in other people’s drama, baby. Focus on what we have.”
    I smiled up at him. “Right.” He was