Page 29 of Loving You

I wrinkled my nose. “I guess it depends which side you’re on.”

He blinked at me, and I could tell he was silently pointing out the obvious. He was a Walker, and I was a Carrigan.

“Okay… so, it’s kinda shitty. I honestly don’t think it was good parenting for our mom to even tell us the story, but it’s been just us girls for a long time.”

He wiped his mouth with his napkin and nodded. “Yeah, since your dad left, right?”

I snorted. “He didn’t leave. He was booted the fuck out.”

Eric’s brows twitched together. “Why? What did he do?”

“Well… he was sort of…in love with your mom.” I bit my lip and leaned back slightly.

I wasn’t sure what I was bracing for, but the surprise and then fury in Eric’s eyes when he heard my words vanished when he saw the way I’d shrunken away from him.

He cleared his throat and dipped his head to catch my eye. “Hey, whatever you’re about to tell me is about our parents. It has nothing to do with you.”

“I know.”

“Which means there’s nothing for me to be upset withyouabout.”

“I know.”

He tilted his head like he didn’t believe me. “Okay. Just wanted to make that clear. I don’t know what you’re about to tell me, but you don’t need to be afraid of how I’ll react to it.”

“I’m not.”

His lips twitched, and he picked up a taco. “Proceed.”

I let out a breath and went on with the story as he ate. “So, they went to high school together. My parents and your mom. You probably knew that.”

He nodded in confirmation as he chewed.

“So in high school, my dad was pretty obsessed with your mom, but she only saw him as a friend.”

He held up a hand. “I stand by what I said about not being angry withyouabout any of this, but will this story make me want to hunt down your dad?”

“Uh, I guess that depends on how much of a psycho you are.”

At this, he chuckled. “Nottoomuch of one. Will’s a lot worse.”

I managed a short laugh at that, but that was nowhere near as impressive as managing to ignore the heat that shot through me when he punctuated his joke with a sexy-as-fuck wink.

Which was—dammit, April—super inappropriate considering I was currently being hunted, or at the very least fucked with, by an actual psycho.

Okay, not anactualpsycho. An abusive asshole. But still.

Why am I like this?

“Anyway,” I continued, remembering that not everything was about me and he’d asked a question, “so my dad was into Jenna, and my mom was secretly in love with him, but he only sawheras a friend.”

“Ouch.”

“Yep. Then, their senior year, along comes bad boy William Walker—the first. Well, before he was the first, obviously.”

“Obviously.” He leaned in. “But just so you know, Will isn’t the second. They have different middle names because our dad didn’t like the thought of calling him ‘junior.’”

“Why not?”

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