Read Online The Mind (The Reluctant Romantics #1.5) by Kate Stewart - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kate Stewart
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you home to my parents.”
“Foster is my last name. What else do you want to know, Rose Whitaker, with two siblings, and two living parents that have been married for almost thirty years? You’ll graduate with your doctorate in medicine in December.. You’ve only loved one guy and he cheated on you your first year of med school with—” he paused, making quotation marks with his hands “—‘that skank Marie Johnson,’ who he married and has two kids with. You hate soggy cereal and people who scrape their teeth against their fork. You need more sex in your life and you need me.”
I sat back in the float with what I was sure was a gaping mouth and a question in my eyes.
“Jennifer is all about cold hard cash.”
“Ask me ! Don’t go digging around in my personal life asking questions that no one has a right to know unless I want them to. Ask me.” I was furious, though I knew the main reason was because he brought up my ex. It wasn’t that it still bothered me about his cheating. It bothered me that Grant knew he cheated on me, but I wasn’t sure why.
“I’m sorry.” He passed his beer from one hand to the other looking down at it, refusing to meet my hostile eyes.
“You should be. Now you will answer everything I ask.”
“Fine, shoot.”
“Why is this thing between us so important to you?”
“When I saw you, I knew you were the only thing that could make life bearable again. I have no brothers or sisters, and all my friends are married with kids or are relentless bachelors. I don’t want that to be me. Not anymore. I can’t explain it any better. I knew I was just bullshitting with Rebecca and I—”
“What? Her name is Rebecca?”
“Yeah, why?”
I wanted to flee, but had nowhere to go. I was trapped on the pond with him and I was suddenly terrified. I knew better than to believe this was just a coincidence; my mother had been pointing signs out to me my whole life and my father wholeheartedly agreed with every single one. I had dismissed their belief in fate at times, as it was too unrealistic for me.
“What’s the matter, Rose? I’m sorry I talked about Rebecca. I told you—”
“Don’t. Don’t say that name.” Rebecca was the name of the woman that drove a wedge between my parents and the mother of my half-brother, Paul. My mother had fled Texas after my father had broken her heart badly and he had married Rebecca. My parents reconciled fourteen years after my mother left during a chance meeting at a motel she once owned. There were an incredible amount of signs that led them back to one another. The story, though I believed every bit of it, was unbelievable. Against all odds, they had found and kept their happiness for all these years.
I looked to Grant, who was eyeing me suspiciously. “You believe in it, too.”
“In what !” I was becoming hysterical with each passing second. Downing my beer, I got up to jump in the pond.
“Rose, don’t freak. It’s okay. Just talk it out with me.”
“It’s nothing but a huge coincidence, Grant.”
“What is?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I dove in and felt the cold water take away the heat from my limbs. When I surfaced, I exhaled and slowly let my good sense fall back into play. It was just a coincidence. Nothing could possibly ever be this cut and dry. “God, this feels unbelievable,” I murmured, sifting the water through my hands.
I heard the water splash next to me and felt his arms come around me as I cleared my eyes.
“I love it here, and you feel unbelievable.”
“Grant, this—you and me—it’s too fast, too much. Are you trying to scare me away?”
“I’m more scared of not saying how I feel, of not telling you I want you, of not taking the chance with you, and begging you for the same.”
“God, that’s some amazing line.”
“I want you,” he said as water cascaded around his perfect features. “I’ve had enough years of doing the wrong shit, and being with the wrong women.
“Foster is my last name. What else do you want to know, Rose Whitaker, with two siblings, and two living parents that have been married for almost thirty years? You’ll graduate with your doctorate in medicine in December.. You’ve only loved one guy and he cheated on you your first year of med school with—” he paused, making quotation marks with his hands “—‘that skank Marie Johnson,’ who he married and has two kids with. You hate soggy cereal and people who scrape their teeth against their fork. You need more sex in your life and you need me.”
I sat back in the float with what I was sure was a gaping mouth and a question in my eyes.
“Jennifer is all about cold hard cash.”
“Ask me ! Don’t go digging around in my personal life asking questions that no one has a right to know unless I want them to. Ask me.” I was furious, though I knew the main reason was because he brought up my ex. It wasn’t that it still bothered me about his cheating. It bothered me that Grant knew he cheated on me, but I wasn’t sure why.
“I’m sorry.” He passed his beer from one hand to the other looking down at it, refusing to meet my hostile eyes.
“You should be. Now you will answer everything I ask.”
“Fine, shoot.”
“Why is this thing between us so important to you?”
“When I saw you, I knew you were the only thing that could make life bearable again. I have no brothers or sisters, and all my friends are married with kids or are relentless bachelors. I don’t want that to be me. Not anymore. I can’t explain it any better. I knew I was just bullshitting with Rebecca and I—”
“What? Her name is Rebecca?”
“Yeah, why?”
I wanted to flee, but had nowhere to go. I was trapped on the pond with him and I was suddenly terrified. I knew better than to believe this was just a coincidence; my mother had been pointing signs out to me my whole life and my father wholeheartedly agreed with every single one. I had dismissed their belief in fate at times, as it was too unrealistic for me.
“What’s the matter, Rose? I’m sorry I talked about Rebecca. I told you—”
“Don’t. Don’t say that name.” Rebecca was the name of the woman that drove a wedge between my parents and the mother of my half-brother, Paul. My mother had fled Texas after my father had broken her heart badly and he had married Rebecca. My parents reconciled fourteen years after my mother left during a chance meeting at a motel she once owned. There were an incredible amount of signs that led them back to one another. The story, though I believed every bit of it, was unbelievable. Against all odds, they had found and kept their happiness for all these years.
I looked to Grant, who was eyeing me suspiciously. “You believe in it, too.”
“In what !” I was becoming hysterical with each passing second. Downing my beer, I got up to jump in the pond.
“Rose, don’t freak. It’s okay. Just talk it out with me.”
“It’s nothing but a huge coincidence, Grant.”
“What is?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I dove in and felt the cold water take away the heat from my limbs. When I surfaced, I exhaled and slowly let my good sense fall back into play. It was just a coincidence. Nothing could possibly ever be this cut and dry. “God, this feels unbelievable,” I murmured, sifting the water through my hands.
I heard the water splash next to me and felt his arms come around me as I cleared my eyes.
“I love it here, and you feel unbelievable.”
“Grant, this—you and me—it’s too fast, too much. Are you trying to scare me away?”
“I’m more scared of not saying how I feel, of not telling you I want you, of not taking the chance with you, and begging you for the same.”
“God, that’s some amazing line.”
“I want you,” he said as water cascaded around his perfect features. “I’ve had enough years of doing the wrong shit, and being with the wrong women.
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