Page 51 of Beautifully Used
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I’d slept like a baby that night and most every night since. After that night four weeks ago, Brodie and I now shared his larger room. I’d moved all my clothes and stuff into his closet. He had the master bedroom of the house, and it was twice as large as the one I’d been staying in so it had been a no-brainer. I loved sleeping in Brodie’s arms. He always made me feel sexy and special at the same time. Never once with him had I ever had thoughts of not being good enough, or that I might be tainted because of what had happened when I was a child. He loved me and everything he did showed me. Even the tiniest things like bringing me coffee in the morning or letting me pick which movie we watched. Of course, every other movie I picked would be a guy one anyway; I loved those just as much as the chick flicks.
The news about Brodie and I spread like wildfire around the bar and the town thanks to Jackson and Lena. Everyone was shocked at first, knowing the way Brodie had been over the past couple of years. I’m sure there were a lot of unhappy women around town that I didn’t want to get anywhere near. Though, I was surprised that none ever bothered to call. I asked Brodie about that one day, and he told me that they’d probably never called him because he’d never given his number out. Smart man. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for some of them, but he assured me that they had used him just as much as he’d used them. I wasn’t sure if it bothered me that my boyfriend’s body was well known by almost every woman in the town of Turtle Lake and beyond. I decided not to think about it, since that Brodie no longer existed.
Chapter 41
Brodie
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“Hey, babe, which movie do you want?” I asked over the top of a glass of cold beer.
“I don’t care. Something we both haven’t seen before would be nice,” Gabrielle suggested, and I had to agree. The last few we’d watched were ones either she’d seen already and I hadn’t or vice versa.
I nodded as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, holding my hand up at her to stay put. I couldn’t imagine who would be knocking at eight o’clock in the evening on a week-night.
I opened the door to find a woman, well dressed in a tailored blue sheath dress and high heels with a huge black bag hanging from her arm. Looking past her at the curb, I saw a limousine—complete with chauffeur—standing by. “Can I help you?” I asked, completely baffled as to who she was.
“Yes, I’m looking for Gabrielle Demeres.”
Gabrielle must have heard her because she was at the door before I could even answer, shoving me aside. “Mom!” I gave Gabrielle a bemused glance then looked back at the woman. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’ve come to see where my daughter has run off to, leaving her much-needed education and future behind her. May I come in?”
“Yes. Absolutely, come in,” I said.
Gabrielle gave me a death stare that I thought just might be capable of actually killing me, and realized she hadn’t wanted to let her in, though relented and opened the door all the way, allowing her mother to enter. Her mother stared at me and cleared her throat. “Mom, this is Brodie, my… uh… the guy I rent from.”
The guy she rents from? That’s all I was? What the fuck?
“Nice to meet you, Brodie.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you, too.” I gave Gabrielle an even greater discombobulated look.
Her mother came in, looked thoughtfully around, wrinkled her nose and coughed.
“Would you like to sit down?”
“Yes, thank you. Brodie, is it?”
“Yes, ma’am. Brodie Beaumont.” I gestured to one of the nicer chairs and she sat.
The room grew silent, and they both looked at me expectantly. Priding myself on being no dummy, I said. “Well, I’ll let you two chat. I’ll be back later.” I grabbed my keys and walked out of my house, leaving my girlfriend, the love of my life, alone with her rich mother. A mother that Gabrielle didn’t want to know about me, or at least about our relationship for some reason. Why would she introduce me as the guy she rents from and not as her boyfriend? What was I, an embarrassment? Anger boiled in my veins as I drove to the bar. Okay, so her mom was wealthy. A little tidbit of information she’d neglected to mention. I wasn’t the richest son-of-a-bitch to roam this God forsaken world, but I wasn’t the poorest either. What the fuck had just happened?
Chapter 42
Gabrielle
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“I’d offer you something to drink, but I don’t think you’ll be here long enough. Why are you here?” I demanded.
“I told you. I wanted to see where you were living. You’re my daughter.”
“Well, you made it very clear that if I left school and moved away, you would have nothing to do with me.” My mother didn’t like the idea of me leaving school, and when I did, she cut me out of her life, refusing to see reason. Everything had to be her way or no way.
“Oh, Gabby, people say things all the time.”
