Page 47 of Fierce-Zander

“I still shake my head over it. Anyway, I went on with life as best I could.”

“Trying to find answers you weren’t getting?” he asked. Some of this made sense now.

“Yes. And before you get all analytical on me, I will admit I went into my field of study in part for that reason. Not that I wanted answers for what my parents did because there are no answers. Or none they will ever say. They both remarried people exactly like each other. Kyle is almost a clone of my father and Lori is a clone of my mother. It’s freaky on top of it.”

“Jesus,” he said. “In looks and personality?”

“Yes,” she said. “Not like twins, but the same hair color and eyes. Close to height and build. Kyle doesn’t have kids, Lori had two daughters from a previous marriage and they are married little Stepford wives.”

She burst out laughing when she said that.

“A joke or not?”

“A joke,” she said. “I barely have any communication with my stepsisters and their families and don’t even consider them such. But they seem nice enough. Both married and have good stable jobs and two kids apiece.”

“The American dream,” he said.

“There you go. Moving on. I have to say I’m shocked I’m saying as much as I am, but again, just going with it. I went into this field of study to help others. Believing that you don’t just give up and not try, you search and see if you can help yourself. Some people need guidance to do that.”

So her parents didn’t try to fix what their problem was. Or wasn’t. He had no idea because it seemed neither did Regan.

“Makes sense. I’m assuming you talked to your parents about their divorce after you were done with your education?”

“No,” she said. “No reason to. I’d done it enough for years prior and all it did was frustrate me. But I was there for Kellen. He got into some trouble as a teen. Hung out with kids who didn’t put school first. He got caught drinking a handful of times. Did pot a bit and got caught too. My parents caught him, not the school. It wasn’t like he was suspended or expelled.”

“But they wouldn’t have appreciated that?” he asked.

“No. He got his shit together. At least I felt he did. He went off to college and made a whole new group of friends. He did well and graduated on time, which is saying a lot for most college kids. He drank and tried the occasional drug like a lot of young adults do.”

“Did you?” he asked.

She laughed. “I shocked my father when I told him I drank before I was twenty-one. You’d think he was just convinced that the world was flat rather than round.”

“He honestly didn’t think you drank before twenty-one? Were you that good of a girl?”

“No,” she said. “I wasn’t that good of a girl. Please don’t make me out to be as dull as them. But I didn’t like to get in trouble and did follow the rules most times. I wasn’t like Kellen who rebelled, but I tried to experience life too. Not as much as I should have and I do regret that.”

“Am I an experience for you?” he asked.

She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows when he looked over at her. “I’d like you to be but not in the way you’re thinking.”

Yeah, all the blood rushed to his cock.

No way she was this perfect little good girl and he was damn glad of it. Or more so that he got to witness it.

“So we’ve established why you went into your career path and a little about your parents. Something had to have occurred with this call.”

“Kellen got a new job and is moving soon out of the area. I’m happy for him. He’s a Business Analyst. Which is funny and my parents don’t see that.”

“That’s a pretty serious job. One where you have to pay attention to details and focus.”

“Exactly,” she said. “He’s grown up and is independent. He’s thirty and lives on his own with a great job. This is the sameposition but a new company making a lot more with a ton of room for growth. He’s looking at his future. My father is worried he might lapse again.”

“Lapse?”

“There is nothing to lapse. Because he smoked some pot in high school and college and maybe popped a pill a time or two of something to try, they feel like he’s some drug addict. I believe him when he says he hasn’t touched any of it other than alcohol since he graduated. Even then, I don’t know the last time he made a comment about being drunk and rarely having more than one or two beers when I’m with him. If he was going to get drunk, he’d do it at family dinners to just get through. Sometimes I drink more wine than him with beer.”

“It all sounds kind of silly if you ask me.”

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