Page 61 of The Reading

Stubbornness crossed her beautiful features as she said, “Look, either you forgive me or not. I’m not going to…put on a show, Taylor. I’m sorry. I really am. Still, I’m adult enough to know that I can’t force you to believe me, so…all I can do is apologize-which I have-and move the hell on.”

“Are you seriously here to apologize, or are you worried that I’m going to remove my mother from your care?”

Her next words had my heart tripping over itself. “You remove your mother from my care out of revenge, and I’ll gut you.”

Something else was quickly replacing my anger at her. “Well, then I guess I accept your apology.”

Rachel turned to leave, but I quickly reached out, grabbed her arm, stopping her. “One second.”

“Uh, okay,” she muttered, glancing at where I had a hold of her arm.

Letting go of her arm, I turned and went back into the house, leaving the door opened. Rushing towards the bedroom, I grabbed the empty toilet paper roll, then went back to the front door. Again, I’d never been one to be insecure about my dick, but I’d been curious. It had been the most ridiculous test that I’d ever heard of, but I’d been curious, nonetheless.

“Here,” I said as I reached out to hand her the empty roll.

Her eyes widened with shock as she wordlessly grabbed the empty roll. “Is this…is…is this what I think it is?”

“I know it’s ripped to hell, but it is,” I answered, a smirk on my face.

Rachel turned the roll around in her hand, examining its remains. “It…” Her brown eyes looked back up at me. “You’re not supposed toforceit in,” she explained. “Just…you’re just supposed to line it up and see if it goes in.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure of the directions, so that’s what happened.”

She eyed me, then the roll, then me again. “So…you just shoved your erect penis through it, destroying it?”

I took a couple of steps forward until I was towering over her. “Baby, mysoftdick did that.”

Rachel gasped, let out a choked laugh, and I just winked at her as I shut the door in her face. We weren’t friends yet, but I was pretty sure that we weren’t enemies anymore, and she deserved to suffer with images of how big my dick was. It was a fair tradeoff for how many times I jacked off to thoughts of her and that luscious body of hers.

As I walked into the kitchen to grab a beer, I realized that there was one crucial piece of information that I needed to find out. If we were going to play this game, then I needed to make sure that she was single. I needed to hear it from her lips and not from a third-party. I didn’t do cheating, and now that things were…different between me and Rachel, I needed to get all my ducks in a row before I finally made my move.

Chapter 4

Taylor~

The activities center was decorated nicely for the holiday, and people were everywhere, making their customary holiday visit. I chuckled softly when I realized that I was doing exactly what I had accused Rachel of doing. I had no idea what these people’s lives consisted of, but I was judging them for only showing up on the holidays.

As soon as I saw my mother walking into the dining hall, I headed straight towards her. Crystal Gardens was built like a huge apartment complex with amenities. I paid extra for my mother to have a two-bedroom suite, so that she could use the extra room for her puzzles. The woman liked puzzles.

“Hey, Mom,” I greeted, kissing her on the cheek. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Happy Thanksgiving,” she greeted back. Escorting her towards our table, she said, “You know, you didn’t have to come here. I know you’re working a full day today.”

“It’s okay,” I told her as I pulled her chair out for her. “Everyone knows that I’m taking a long lunch. If there’s an emergency, someone will call.”

Sitting down, we waited patiently for the staff to serve the Thanksgiving plates, and the spread looked better than whatever I could have come up with at home. Whatever Crystal Gardens did with their money, they weren’t stingy when it came to their residents.

“So, how upset are you that I gave Rachel your address?” she asked, never one to avoid the elephant in the room.

I just grinned at her. “I could never be upset with you,” I semi-lied. “Besides, if she’s going to be in your life, then it was something that we had to work through anyway.”

“For what it’s worth, she feels really bad that she misjudged you, Taylor,” she said, and this wasn’t anything that I wanted my mother worrying about.

“Mom, we’re fine,” I semi-lied again. “We talked, and…I think we’re finally on the same page.”

I could see her shoulders visibly relax. “Oh, good,” she rushed out. “I…I really like her, and she really is a good person.” We both leaned back as our Thanksgiving lunches were placed in front of us. “All she needs is a good man to make her life complete.”

“Mom, a woman is perfectly capable of living a fulfilling lifewithouta man in it,” I reminded her. “Marriage and kids aren’t the expected expectation anymore. There’s more to life for a female than just being a wife and mother.”

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