Page 55 of King of Justice

“I know you more than you know yourself, Sophie. You’re young, and you made some young-people mistakes. Who doesn’t do those?”

“Maybe someone who’s in love?”

A victorious smile took over her face. “Your words, not mine.”

“How do I even know?”

“You woke me up in the middle of the night crying your eyes out? Saying you don’t want to lose him? I would call it love. Fresh love, but still… l'amour.”

As a way to pull me out of the pit of sadness in which she saw me, my mom spent the next twenty minutes updating me on her family and neighbors. She then yawned, and I felt guilty. “I feel better now. Please go back to sleep.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Before anything, I need to make sure that none of my relationships are toxic or misguided enough to put me in this position again.”

“Good strategy.” She nodded in approval.

“And then I need to figure out how I’m going to let my actions speak for me.”

“What did you tell me his name was?”

“Did I? I don’t know. It’s Nathan.”

“Well.” She tilted her head and smiled ever so tenderly. “Nathan would be a very lucky man to have you by his side.”

Feeling like a little girl, I forced a grin at first, but then it felt natural. “You think?”

“You’re my daughter. We make very good women in this family.”

Laughing, I thought about all the times my mom had said that to me over the years. Travis’ idiocy shouldn’t shake the way I view myself. I was worthy of real love, and if Nathan had it for me, then I was going to find it.

eighteen

February

Nathan

One of the worst feelings in the world was not being able to talk to anyone about your hurt pride. There was a fine line between being used to getting a certain amount of respect and being an egotistical prick, and the last thing I wanted was to be mistaken for the latter.

When February rolled round, I made it a point to pretend to embrace the ridiculous holiday—in my opinion—in a less conventional manner. Still aching from the sight of Sophie and her boyfriend kissing right before my eyes, I decided to throw a single-only party at my place. Naturally, the hedonistic theme I’d suggested instantly prompted Chad to strike off all of his ideas and join in the planning of mine.

Before we got together to brainstorm the points, we were going to brief the party planner, Chad called me on his way over.

“Dean’s in town,” he said with excitement.

“The more, the merrier.”

“He’s with me in the car. I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Hey, man! Perfect timing.”

He chuckled. “So I heard.”

“Still single, I hope?”

“Free as a bird,” he confirmed.

“Awesome. Put your thinking hat on, because I’m briefing the planners in the morning.”

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