Page 23 of The Way You Hurt Me

I shrug. "Cam must have given it to him. You know how they stress out about me being alone in New York, even though the Campbells are close by if I need anything. They saddled Dimitri with my protection back when I first moved to the city years ago."

"Does he send breakfast often?" Lucy pushes.

"This is a first."I don't really want to get into the whole history between Dimitri and I, given how fucking embarrassing it is. "I think he mostly wanted to tell me off some more about not spending enough time with my sister."

I frown, thinking back to the note. I'm not about to ask him not to attend Christmas at the Hunts’. He's been part of that family for longer than I've been alive, from what I've learned. He's Adrian Hunt's honorary little brother, Cam's honorary big brother, and Valentina adores him.

But if he's right, if my absence has really been an issue—which I assumed it wasn't…sure, Morgan asks me, but no one really cares if I'm there or not, right?—maybe I can go next year. I survived one evening in the periphery of Dimitri without anything mortifying occurring. What's another?

“I see,” Lucy replies, sounding like she doesn’t really see anything.

Welcome to the club.

“But you’re seeing your sister this weekend, right?”

I grin. “Yeah, I fly out tonight. It’s gonna be fun. I haven’t seen them since summer.”

We eat until we can’t swallow another morsel, set aside the rest for lunch, then I head out to shop some more.

There’s always a post-Christmas discount, so because I wasn’t seeing any of my family before the 25th, it made sense to wait to shop. My flight isn’t until seven, so I have plenty of time.

Buying Christmas presents for the wife of a man richer than Midas is a nightmare. Anything Morgan stares at for a second too long, Cam buys for her before she can even open her mouth to protest she doesn’t need it.

I ended up walking into a handmade pottery studio and making a wonky flower pot that I painted green and purple a few days ago. It’s seriously not nearly as nice as something I could have bought from the home decor section of Saks, but I know Morgan will value it a lot more. Today it’s fired and dry, I can pick it up.

Cameron is delighted by just about anything, and Cam, surprisingly, is much easier to buy for than my sister. The guy loves socks. I get an extra pair for his father, too, while I’m in the shop. Spotting a burgundy red pair, I can’t help getting a flash of the color of the pocket square in Dimitri’s jacket pocket the other night. It was the exact same red, wasn’t it?

Before I can question myself, I add it to my pile of items. Next Christmas is in a whole year, but at least, if I decide to go, I’ll have a present for one of the guests.

If I haven’t talked myself out of it in the next twelve months.

10

WILLOW

When I was little, I couldn’t even imagine life outside Thorn Falls. The rest of the world was just a fantasy, as far away as the world ofStar WarsandLord of the Rings. Unattainable.

Then when I was fourteen, I was shipped away to New York, of all places. Another dimension. Leaving my bubble changed me, opening me to the rest of the world. All of a sudden, I could dream of one day making it to another country. Seeing London with my own eyes rather than through a screen or the words of a book.

Thomas Wolfe said, you can never go home again, and he was right. I’m so different now, Thorn Falls feels nothing like my home. I’m visiting. Or maybe it’s because I’m no longer coming home to a trailer shared with an addict and a violent man, but instead to a gated mansion in the richer part of the city, on the hill.

Camden and Morgan bought their own house, at the bottom of the hill, far smaller than the Hunt mansion, but still way too large for two people and an eighteen-month-old. Not that it’s often just the two of them. They used to live in a house Cam bought with his cousin and best friends right off the campus of Rothford, the local fancy college, but with a baby in tow, they wanted their own space. Rhys, his wife Vi, and Roman are almost always around though, so I don’t know why they bothered.

Today, it’s packed solid, with all of my sister’s and brother-in-law’s friends—which means half the twenty-somethings in town. No one invited wants to miss the Hunt bash, especially since they’re away most of the time.

I only recognize a tenth of the people around me, though I do like most of them. At least, until I spot a dark-haired, red-lipped girl I positively adore.

“Erica!”

I practically run to hug my old friend.

She’s one of Morgan’s, technically, but given the fact that I’ve known her for just as long, I’ll claim her as my own too.

Erica used to live in the trailer park with us and, just like Morgan, now has a house right here on this hill; in her case, it’s her mother’s job that brought her here. Initially, that is. Now, she has her own multi-millionaire boyfriend.

“God, Willow, where did those tits come from?” she gasps, eyes on the front of my dress.

I can only laugh. I haven’t seen her in a year or so, and while I didn’t change much otherwise, I did go from a D to an E somehow.

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