Page 29 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

I didn’t know how long I stared, only that when I finally snapped out of it and looked up at his face, he was smirking.

And just like that, anger bubbled up inside me.

“You’ve turned into an asshole. You know that?” I spat out. I wasn’t the sort to swear, but his attitude was getting on my nerves.

Rather than look offended, his smirk widened. “Have I?”

“Yes, you have,” I bit out. “And I can’t figure out why. Why would you kiss me yesterday and be a complete jerk to me today?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Why would you agree to go on a date with me and then completely blow me off after?”

He didn’t say it like he was particularly hurt at the thought, just curious. But I sensed that he might be more hurt than he put on.

“I’m sorry. I just—”

“Nice to know that I’m still good enough to desire, even though I’m not good enough to date.”

He walked away then, and it took a while for the full magnitude of his words to sink in.

Wait, what does that mean?

It sounded like he was accusing me of something, but I didn’t understand. I ran the words through my mind again.

Not good enough to date?

Why wouldn’t he be good enough to date?

Then I remembered the first time he’d said something similar to me a long time ago.

“I can’t offer you anything you deserve, Allie,” he’d said, his eyes numb. “I’m a thirty-year-old man caught in a dead-end job, and I’ll probably be here for the rest of my life. I’m not even done paying off my father’s debt yet, and there are my mother’s medical bills. I don’t have anything left for you.”

At the time, I insisted none of it mattered, but he didn’t care.

Slowly, the meaning unfolded. I stormed after him, enraged.

“Did you just call me a gold digger?”

TWELVE

MARCUS

Allie’s eyes flashed with fury, and I nearly smiled despite myself.

“You just called me a gold digger,” she said through tight lips. “Didn’t you?”

“Calm down,” I said, but it had the opposite effect as it fired her up even more.

“You just insulted my character. And I’m supposed to remain calm about that?” She sounded so outraged, so incensed by the very idea, that it was nearly impossible not to believe her.

I cocked my eyebrow at her, challenging and maybe just enjoying needling her a little bit. “Don’t sound so offended by it. It’s a part of nature. Most women don’t want to date a man who can’t afford much.”

“Unbelievable,” she snapped, barking out a burst of harsh laughter. “Youleftme! You were the one who didn’t want to date me. I asked you out more than once, and you always gave all sorts of excuses that you were too old for me or you didn’t deserve me and whatnot. NowI’mthe gold digger?”

Well, it sounded unfair when she put it like that.

“And I still don’t deserve you,” I finally admitted as I watched her eyes flash with incense. Her reaction was too visceral to be anything but honest.

It proved to me what I already knew. That Allie Beston hadn’t changed. She was still the same genuine girl who wore her heart on her sleeve.

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