Page 47 of Anyone But You
I chuckled when Victoria’s eyes bulged from her head in shock.
“I’m sorry… what?”
I snatched off her bonnet that I was wearing just to fuck with her and motioned for her to join me on the other side of the fire. Seconds later, I held my island wife in my arms and buried my face in her neck.
“Her name was Naomi Lereaux.”
“Damn, Knox. She had one of those soap opera names. That should’ve told you everything you needed to know,” she said, pushing my face away.
“It should’ve,” I muttered. “But as you said, I was young, dumb, and in love.”
“How old were you?”
“Thirty-four.”
Victoria snorted. “You were old enough to know better.”
I shrugged. “I heard that men’s brains don’t fully develop until age 35.”
“It’s 25, and you know it.”
“I tried.”
“You did,” she replied, patting me sympathetically on the back of the hand.
“Her real name was Lucy McGill, and she originally hailed from some butt fuck town in Louisiana but claimed she was from New Orleans.”
“How did you two meet?”
I sighed. “My mother.”
“Oops. That explains why you keep your mother at arm’s length. It’s not her fault, Knox. Or was it? Was she in on the plan?”
I shook my head. “No, she wasn’t in on Naomi’s plan.” I sighed again.
“You don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to,” Victoria said reassuringly, picking up on how difficult it was for me to get the words out.
“No, I’m fine. Naomi targeted me specifically. I was a young, rich bachelor making a splash in the industry at the time. I was on the cover ofForbesandEntrepreneurfor the successful launch of our company. I was giving interview after interview on various talk shows—my face was everywhere.”
“Oh, my God,” Victoria moaned, covering her face with her hands.
“What?”
“I was nine then, and now I remember seeing you on the news.”
“Fate is so fickle. You were a child and didn’t know you were watching your future husband on TV.”
“I don’t care what you say, Naomi’s innocent. You set her up.”
I laughed. “Would it kill you to be on my side for just once?”
“I’m always on your side, Knox. I’ve done shit for you that you don’t even know about.”
“Like what?” I pressed.
“Hmmmm. Do you recall that board meeting when Mr. Forsythe was chewing your ass out and had to call an end to the meeting early?”
“I had a migraine for two days because of that spiteful bastard,” I hissed.
