Page 94 of Restrained

Stop meddling.

She shakes her head. “Like I said, I don’t want love and commitment right now, and neither does he. He may never be ready for that.”

I take a deep breath and can’t fight the feeling of relief. And I think she notices it.

“You really don’t think Asher and I would be a good idea, do you?” She senses my hesitance. “I want to know.”

“No,” I say quietly, not wanting to influence her but feeling like she deserves an explanation. “You’re too much like my mother.”

She stiffens. “He said something like that. He thinks we would end up like your parents. And mine.”

I nod my head. “I’m worried you would.”

“You’re a lot like your mother too. Do you worry about that with Hayden?”

My eyes subconsciously look over my shoulder toward the door, searching for him even when I know he’s still in mybed. “No. He’s not like Asher. Or my father. He grew up very differently.”

She nods but quirks an eyebrow. “So you think two rich kids can never work out?”

I hadn’t really thought about that and shake my head, taking her hand in mine. “I don’t know about any of that, but you are so much like my mother and Asher?—”

“Is not your father,” she interrupts quickly.

“Not yet.”

She huffs, angry tears in her eyes. “That’s exactly what he thinks too, you know? That I'll somehow turn him into your father.”

She stands up, placing her coffee cup on the side table, and I look up at her, pleading, “Viv. Sit down. I want to tell you something.”

She crosses her arms and looks down at me, not moving. “I’ve heard it from him.”

I don’t think she has because I can almost guarantee Asher has never asked my mom what I have. “I asked my mother how she ended up with my father.”

Her arms drop. “When?”

“Right after he left her. I’d always wondered but never asked. I think we all wondered how such a sweet woman could end up with such a dickhead. I was fed up, and I asked it in pretty much those words.”

She sits next to me again, her back straight and ankles crossed. “And?”

“She swore to me he wasn’t like the man we all knew. Not at all.”

Viv sighs heavily. “Everyone is different at the beginning.”

“Maybe. But she told me he was fun and charming. He made her laugh.” That’s nothing like the man I knew. I don’tremember him ever laughing. “Anyway, I always assumed he thought she was weak and seduced her. Tricked her.”

“Not the case?”

I shake my head. “She was attracted to him. She thought he was handsome but also a good man. He was a player, sleeping with everything in high school.”

“So he was a man whore, and she was a good girl? That seems about right.”

“They became friends. She wouldn’t sleep with him because he was always with other women, but he fell in love with her and changed. For her.” She watches me intently. “She swears it was love. True love. Intense, but he was good to her.”

Something I can’t imagine. He was always such an asshole to her in my memories.

“So, what went wrong?”

“She doesn’t know. She thinks he just got bored. Sick of fidelity. And it made him angry and cold. He started working more and more, drinking more, started having affairs. And the more he acted out, the more perfect she tried to be. She blamed herself for trying to change him and thought she could make him love her again by making everything at home perfect.” She swallows and looks sick as she listens to me. “They were young when they got married. Only nineteen.”

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