Page 91 of Driven Daddy

I held a hand up at him and stalked away to pace. The backyard was lit with Edison bulbs hung around the fence line that had slowly glowed to life once the sun had set. The lawn was littered with children’s toys and a swing set in the corner, but there was plenty of room for me to pace.

“Rita?”

“God, has she actuallyneverbeen my friend? All this time?”

He tried to slow me down, but the anger crackled under my skin like fire ants on attack mode. “I didn’t mean to convey that she wasn’t your friend.”

“I don’t even know if she was. Would Larsen cut you off for four million dollars?”

“What?” Penn’s face was mostly in shadow with the string lights highlighting his sharp features. His eyebrows snapped down over his glittering eyes. “Fourmillion?”

I laughed, but it sounded hysterical to my own ears, and I couldn’t temper it. I bent at the waist for a second as the lights seemed to be far too shiny right then. “My best friend came to me on New Year’s Eve and told me she wanted to sever ties. Came right to my house.” I stood and strode toward him. “Can you even imagine? On the day before the new year where we had come up with so many plans, she came to me and said, “I don’t think things are working, Rhi.” I laughed. “She called me Rhi in her effortlessly crisp voice. Never my full name. Always Rhi this and Rhi that. Oh, Rhi, we will make so much money!”

I turned away from him and fisted my hair. “When we went viral forDate with Disaster,she practically crowed about how much of a genius she was. She was always looking for money. Jenelle Matthews who had never had to work a day in her life. Her parents gave her everything. Covered her apartment and cars so that whatever we made on our books was simply play money to her. It wasn’t to me. Every dime was to get meintoa place for the first time since I’d turned sixteen.”

“Rita.” Penn’s voice was hoarse.

“Oh, yeah. Want to know the real truth about Rita Savage? Foster kid who bounced around from home to home—never knowing how long I’d get to stay. Yep. Until I was sixteen and just couldn’t stand the thought of getting placed one more time. I took off. Lived on the streets and worked whatever under thetable jobs I could manage. You know, because I didn’t have an address to put on an application.”

Slowly, Penn walked toward me. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

“But the street wasn’t so bad most of the time. I found places that were safe, and I was small and fast for the times they weren’t. So many had it worse than me.”

He cupped my face. “Don’t diminish it. You’re amazing for coming out of that and making something of yourself—all on your own.”

I gripped his hands. “I thought I’d made it. Thought I‘d found an amazing friend after all the years I had no one.” My voice was wobbly, and I hated it. “But she threw me away just like everyone else.”

He hauled me into his arms, his hand at the back of my head, holding me tight to him.

I sagged against him. “She threw me away. Threw our career away. And now I have to do this all on my own. I’m so tired of being on my own.”

To my horror, the tears came in a flood. There was no stopping them.

He didn’t shush me.

He didn’t say it would be okay.

He just held on—so tightly.

I looped my arms around his back and let myself hold on. I knew the embarrassment would come, but right now, I just didn’t care. When the storm was over and my head ached, I tried to pull free.

“Nope. You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m a mess. God, your shirt is a mess.”

“What the washer is for.” He eased me back a bit but moved his hands down to link at the small of my back. “I’m sorry Jenelle was a piece of shit. Maybe she didn’t start out that way, but she certainly showed her true colors at the end.”

I sighed. “I’m sure you figured out that my agent called me with those details today.”

“Surmised.”

I dug my nails into his back. “Ass.”

He chuckled. “So, she got a huge deal forDate with Disaster. Isn’t that your book too?”

“One of the reasons I came to stay in Crescent Cove was partly because of the photoshoot your brother did with Bridget. I came early—right after the court date that was the dissolution of our partnership.”

“Yes, but you still wrote the books together.”

---