Page 49 of Tempt Me

“And what would Audrey say if she knew you’d kissed me?”

I snorted. “You know Mother. She only thinks I’m worth anything when I’m playing the perfect little socialite. She’s given up on me finding a career and wants me to settle down and give her more grandkids. The PR work I’m doing for you is the only thing keeping her from pushing some rich guy at me. Maybe a rich woman would be just as good?” I peeked at her out of the side of my eye.

She laughed, loud and brash. “Maybe. Though they’re harder to come by. Fucking patriarchy. I’m not into long-term. Sorry, baby.”

Of course she wasn’t into forever and certainly not with me. She saw me as some ridiculous girl with stars in her eyes. I should get my purse and go before I humiliated myself more than I’d already done.

“Tell me about the experience you mentioned earlier. You only date guys, but…” She raised her eyebrows.

My cheeks flamed. “I, uh. I had some study dates in college, with girls. We kissed and touched a little.”

“Got off?” she demanded.

“Sometimes. Then, after—”

“When you were in fashion school, or when you had the florist shop?”

“I didn’t know you’d followed my career so closely.” I chuckled. “Neither. When I worked that internship at the event-planning company.”

“You hooked up with a bridesmaid?” Her eyes went wide.

“No. Guests were off-limits.”

“And you always follow the rules.”

“Mostly.” Freeing Larry had been the exception. “Anyway, sometimes the team would go out after events, and a few times, I hooked up with someone I met at the bar. Sometimes a guy. Sometimes a girl. What about you? I’ve seen you date both men and women.” In fact, she’d gone to a lot of events with Cooper Fallon. That was before he’d gotten engaged to his former assistant.

“Yeah, I’ve always known I was bi. I dated more girls than guys in high school. I liked sex—a lot—but the last thing I wanted was to wind up pregnant and miss my chance of going to college. Girls were safer.”

“Were they?” I asked. She’d said it with unexpected bitterness.

“Well, except for my popularity. I was the lesbian nerd in high school. That was fun.”

I tried to imagine a nerdy Jamila in high school but failed. She was so confident, so elegant. I bit my lip. I’d gotten a taste of her history in Austin, then another one today. I wanted more.

“In Austin, you talked about living with your grandmother and your brothers. What was that like?”

She rubbed a hand over her face. “Thanks for putting up with my brothers, by the way. I know they can be a lot.”

I grinned. “They’re fun. And they idolize you.”Just like I do.

She snorted. “I don’t know about that, but we’ve always been close. Our daddy was a trucker, and he’d be gone for a week at a time. Mama worked part time, and she’d leave us with the neighbor who wasn’t too nice. I realize now that taking care of three rambunctious kids was a lot to ask, but it was kind of us against them, you know? I tried to keep the boys out of trouble, and I defended them when I couldn’t.”

She looked away. “Anyway, Daddy died when I was six and the twins were three.”

I laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

She shrugged. “It was a long, long time ago.” She faced the television, but I knew she wasn’t seeing Captain Picard.

“It was a lot for my mom,” she said. “I didn’t understand then, but I get it now. She became the sole earner for three young kids, two of them not yet old enough for school. She couldn’t afford the mortgage and daycare too. Not without support. Mama was estranged from her parents ever since she got pregnant with me in high school.”

When she paused, Quill.i.am started his nocturnal exercise on his squeaky wheel.

“They wanted bigger things for her, you know? I mean, she wanted them, too, but condoms fail. The U.S. might be the land of opportunity for many, but that doesn’t include girls who get knocked up when they’re seventeen.”

Now I understood Jamila’s high school girlfriends. I squeezed her shoulder.

“So we moved in with Daddy’s mother, Nana. She was of a similar opinion. She thought they should’ve gotten an abortion and gone off to college like they’d planned and made something of themselves. She was probably right. It was what I’d have done. But then I wouldn’t be here, so…” She shrugged.

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