Page 37 of Lace 'em Up

Right.

I know that tone—soft and gentle and sweet.

And I don’t want to think about it now, don’t want to think about a woman being soft and gentle and sweet…and in love with me.

And then…not.

“The pages are numbered,” I blurt.

She rocks slightly, brows drawing together. “What?”

“It’s not a big deal that the pages fell out,” I whisper. “They’re numbered.”

Still. So still. Then she seems to process my words. “Oh,” she says, glancing at the bottom corner of the page in her hand, where there is indeed a number. “Right.” She reaches for the binder, starts organizing the sheets then glances up at me. “But I’m still sorry.”

I shrug. “It’s fine.”

“I—”

But I ignore her, just grab a handful of papers, start organizing them and pass the stack over.

She takes them, but doesn’t move for a long moment, long enough that I look up and meet her gaze again. “I don’t make plans,” she tells me quietly. “Because they always go to hell.”

I’m frozen, the glimpse of heartbreak in her eyes slicing nearly as deep as the memories in my mind had. I open my mouth and ask, some perverse piece of me needing to know, “What do you mean?”

She’s silent for a long moment.

Then sighs.

“Well, obviously you know about the cancelled wedding.”

Fucking asshole Phillip. “Yeah,” I bite out.

She touches my hand. “I’m okay.”

Maybe.

But I still want to murder the asshole.

“But before that—” She presses her mouth flat, releases it on an exhale. “For my whole life I’ve had to be flexible, had to adapt.”

“What do you mean?”

A hesitation and then?—

“My mom died giving birth to me.”

Shit.

I turn my hand over, gently capture hers. “I’m sorry, princess.”

She exhales. “It’s hard to miss what I never knew.” A shake of her head. “Okay, that’s not precisely right. I did miss it, miss what I never knew. But my dad was great?—”

She stops.

Probably because I went stiff at the word was.

“He died when I was twelve,” she says, giving a shrug that belies the serious words. “Then it was just my stepmom and stepsisters and…me.”

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