Read Online His Favorite Mistake (Baby Its Cold Out) by Mary Eason - Free Book Online Page A

him. It was too soon.
                  So instead of pushing, he listened while she told him about her childhood, growing up with her grandmother.
                  “Cade mentioned something about your parents dying when you were just a child. That must have been hard. Growing up without them in your life.”
                  Although she still smiled, her expression held a sad wistfulness.
                  “I was only five when they were both killed in a car accident. I didn’t really understand why they never came back to me. Gran said I cried for weeks after, although I don’t really remember much about that time. I guess I blocked the hurt out somehow. I was so lucky I had Gran. She was so good to me.”
                  “You have a cousin, right? Living here in the city?” Brody saw her expression change. He’d gathered Reyna and her cousin weren’t all that close when Reyna didn’t mention her cousin as a possible solution to her homeless state. Not that Brody minded. He hated to admit it, but he’d been thrilled they weren’t close.
                  “Yes, but Jenna and I don’t have much in common and we’ve never really been all that close.”
                  “So you were happy living with your grandmother?”
                  “Yes, Gran was great. As tragic as it was to lose them both at one time, they wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. They were so much in love with each other. I think it would have been impossible for one to go on without the other.”
                  This surprised him. He would have thought a child five years old would never have noticed such a strong emotional love as what her parents clearly had felt for each other.
                  “Most parents tell their children fairy tales. My mother used to tell me stories of how she and my father met and fell in love. Mom knew it was love from the moment she saw him. They were so happy together.”
                  Brody watched her as she spoke about her parents and their happiness and wondered how someone who had endured so much tragedy in her own life could still hold onto the belief in fairy tale love stories as she so clearly did. He wondered what she would say if he told her the truth about her husband. Cade was certainly no prince charming at all. He’d made it a point of boasting about the women he’d slept with after being married for such a short time to Reyna.
                  It wasn’t his right to take her memories away. It wouldn’t make her love Cade any less. The very thought of his friend’s cruelty still had the power to anger him.
                  “You really believe in that fairy tale? Love at first sight? Even in this day and age? Is that what happened with you and Cade?”
                  Reyna didn’t look at him but she didn’t need to for him to see her reaction to those words. Brody hated himself for trying to make her see the truth. She needed to believe in those fairy tales to hold onto Cade.
                  “Yes, I do believe that. I have to.” Her answer, spoken so softly, was little more than a whisper. He had to strain to catch the words but he couldn’t mistake the appeal in her voice. She still hadn’t answered his question about Cade. She was deliberately avoiding it and he found himself pressing her once more, realizing there was something about her lack of answer right now that wasn’t quite right.
                  “Is that how you felt about Cade, Reyna? If that’s true, then for the rest of your life, are you planning on living in the past? You’re twenty-three years old. You have your whole life ahead of you. You shouldn’t give it up to live in the past. Sometimes, we imagine things we want to believe are true when, in reality, they’re just something we’ve created in our minds.