Page 26 of A Lesson for Laurel

He picked his beer up again. “So they both left?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “They were still around but not caring for me. Social services got called in more than once. The school was concerned, lots of things. I didn’t live in town, but my Uncle Kurt had enough. He came to my house, packed me up and said I was moving in with them. I can’t tell you the relief I felt.”

“Your parents didn’t fight it? Or your father at least?”

“No,” he said. “My father signed over guardianship easily enough and then went after my mother. I’m not sure where they are right now and don’t care. I haven’t had any contact with them in fifteen years. I doubt my father even knows his brother died.”

“That’s sad,” she said.

“It is, but it’s life. I don’t let it bring me down.”

“That’s what I like. It’s what I said earlier. I don’t like focusing on the negative.”

“So back to your type,” he said. “Hard working, table manners, someone who can take care of himself and doesn’t need a maid.”

He had lifted his eyebrows at her when he said that. “I didn’t say that. You did. I don’t need someone that doesn’t want an equal partner. I don’t need to be taken care of and don’t want to take care of that person. I want a partner. I’d say I don’t think it’s that hard to find, but it obviously is for me.”

“I could say the same,” he said.

“Have you had any serious relationships?” she asked.

“I have,” he said. “One ended not that long ago. About six months. We were together for about four years. She got engaged to someone else last month.”

“Ouch,” she said. “Can I ask what happened?”

“I wasn’t what she needed even when I gave her what she wanted.”

Her head went back and forth. “My guess is you didn’t give her what she wanted or she didn’t know herself what it was.”

He frowned at her. “I’m not sure if that is an insult or not.”

“Nope, don’t take it as such. I meant it as if you gave her what she wanted she might have stayed, so you didn’t do it. Maybe what she wanted you just didn’t have to give her and that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I look at it like Philip. Even if he hadn’t cheated on me, he didn’t have what I wanted. He couldn’t be someone I always wanted. He was too much like his fancy suit-wearing flashy lawyer father. He couldn’t change who he was any more than I could. I couldn’t be what he wanted, which was exactly what he was. Men in suits are a big no-no for me. I can’t trust them any more than I can a lawyer.”

He snorted and she wasn’t sure why. “Not everyone is like that,” he said. “That sounds pretty judgmental to me and I didn’t think you’d be like that.”

She took a deep breath in and let it out. “You’re right. I shouldn’t judge everyone like that. Or everyone in a suit or in the legal profession. Maybe I’m just raw, but when I see that now, I just see smooth talkers. Suit or not, lawyers are all about gettingtheir way and making sure they win. And though Philip wasn’t one, it was his dream to be, if he could have just passed the bar.”

Easton laughed and she wasn’t sure what he found so funny. “Sounds like a dick wannabe to me.”

“Good assessment,” she said. “That is exactly what it was and will always be. Even down to knocking on my door last weekend trying to get me back. I’m sure he doesn’t want me in his life.”

“What he wants is to save face,” he guessed. “Make Mommy happy to get her money back on the wedding?”

“That is never happening. I’m so glad my father didn’t pay for the wedding. He wanted to. He planned on it, but then Philip’s mother had to have it at their country club. The one where I put his ring back on his plate in front of people who knew who we were. There was applause when I did it.”

He started to laugh. “Good for you.”

“My buttons can get pushed fast and then I react. I try not to, but have too much of my father in me. But truthfully, I wouldn’t put it past Philip to try to win me back and then he’d be the one to drop me.”

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yeah. That’s his way. He has to win too and he came out the loser on this. I think I remember him saying before no one ever broke up with him. He was the one who ended all his relationships. I find that funny since he most likely cheated on everyone he dated.”

“Cheaters never win in the end.”

“Nope, and neither do liars,” she said. “I like those that are upfront and honest. I don’t like secrets. I don’t like being taken by surprise for anything.”

“Can I get you another drink?” the server asked when she came over to set down their dinners and took away their appetizers. They’d been chatting right along and finished them off without even realizing it

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