Page 91 of Angel
She focused on closing up the coffee bag with the tab at its top. “Uh huh?” She didn’t look at me.
“I need to talk to you… about us.”
I swallowed hard.That sounded stupid… About us? What are we, dating?
She turned to look at me, her face hard. “Okay.”
I cleared my throat. “I heard you talking to Dominic. I know you think I’m into Angelo for his money.”
Her eyes fell into tiny slits. “You were spying on us?”
“No! You were in the foyer. I was just walking down the hall. I was...”
There was no use. Lia looked for a reason to be mad at me. It would be hard convincing her I was innocent of anything.
“Here’s the thing,” I said. “I love Angelo. That’s the truth. Plus, the idea of me being a gold digger doesn’t really fly anyway. I have...”
“You have your own money,” she snapped, a hand on her hip. “I’ve heard that excuse already. But here’smything. Angelo doesn’t have a lot of experience with… long term relationships. Got that? He doesn’t know what he’s in for with you. I don’t think that you having your own millions makes much of a difference. I grew up in a world of money, Paige. I know what people are like. Once you get a little, you need more. It never stops.”
“I’m not like that,” I sincerely said. “I haven’t even spent any of the money I inherited. Hell, I never evenaskedfor it. Do you think I wanted anything from Moretti?”
Realizing my voice kept rising in volume, I paused and took in a shaky breath. No sense making a scene.
Lia’s lips pursed. She sighed and tossed her hair over her shoulder, looking away.
“I would never hurt Angelo,” I said. “He’s done so much for me. He saved me. He’s there for me… Always.” Tears sprang into my eyes as I spoke about the man I had come to love more than life itself. “I’d be a total mess if it weren’t for him.” I smiled ruefully. “Hell, who am I kidding? I am a mess. But at least I’m not in a mental institute somewhere… and that’s thanks to him.”
Lia looked back at me, her expression unreadable.
“I know how close your family is,” I said. “I get that you’re doing your job and watching out for him… I just hope that you and I can at least get along.”
Lia huffed and looked down at the floor. Over her shoulder a little boy walked by with his mom, a baby doll clutched firmly in one hand.
A picture hit me, fast as lightning and as real as the present moment. My mom. Me.
It was a Christmas morning. I don’t know how old I was, but I could still sit comfortably in her lap. We snuggled together on the couch, the small Christmas tree twinkling away next to us. The radio played in the kitchen, and underneath it Sophia’s and Dad’s voices.
I had a new doll. It came to me that morning, hidden in a box swathed in blue wrapping paper with snowflakes on it. She had red hair and brown eyes. When you tilted her backwards, her eyelids closed and opened.
I named her Emily.
With that doll in my hands and my Mom’s arm wrapped around me, the smell of cookies baking in the kitchen, I knew for sure that it was the happiest I’d ever been.
Maybe, I thought contently, the happiest I would ever be.
I snapped to, being yanked back to the present moment as if by a long rope tied to my waist.
The little boy’s mom looked down at him and smiled. He giggled and jumped up and down.
Air. I needed air.
I needed to get out of there.
I flew across the wooden floor and out the front door, throwing myself along the sidewalk and into the side of Lia’s car. I dug in my purse for a quick puff.
After taking a hit, my breathing steadied. I closed my eyes and turned around to rest my back against the car.
What just happened?
