Damaged Love - Jaxson Kidman Page 0,50

know.”

“Oh, yes I do.”

“Uh… well… your mother is kind of talented.”

“Okay…? You mean like singing? Writing? Painting?”

“My talents are best in the bedroom.”

“Oh,” I said. “Then… what…”

She smiled.

“Do I really want to know?” I asked.

“My ten second friend from last night into this morning just sent me a picture of what he wants me to have for breakfast.”

My face turned red again.

“Let me guess…”

“I better go freshen up.”

“You’re leaving?” I asked.

My mother shrugged her shoulders. “At least I know what to expect now. Why not, right?”

“Sure,” I said.

She moved from the counter and stopped. “Wait. Are you leaving today?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Make sure you have your phone,” she said. “And text me if anything happens. I mean it, Winter. If you need help. You need a ride. I’ll call in something fake to break up the ball and get you out of there. Whatever it takes.”

“Really?”

“Believe it or not, I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she said. “I know I’m years too late, and that’s fine, but when I got the call about your accident, it hurt me. It ripped right through me like nothing had ever done before. You don’t want to get into it, which is fine, but when I left your father, my thinking was that it was all for the better. For all of us. Nobody was happy. Did I use him for his money? Damn right I did. Did I get a baby out of him for that same reason? Yeah. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love that baby. But there came a time when…”

Her phone buzzed in her hand.

She looked at the screen and smiled.

“I better go,” she said. She looked at me. “Be safe. I know what you’re doing here isn’t safe, but I hope you’re as safe as you can be. Don’t let them win, Winter. Don’t fall for their eyes, muscles or words. Trust me.”

She waved her phone.

“So don’t do what you’re doing right now?” I asked with a smile.

“See? Don’t ever say I didn’t do anything for you.”

My mother hurried out of the kitchen.

I lifted my coffee mug and took a deep breath.

I had no idea what to think of her.

Crazy, lunatic bitch.

Hiding her pain and regret by fooling around with men.

Yet, she was my mother.

I wasn’t sure if I loved her.

But I really wanted her to love me.

The rest of the day was as busy as I expected it to be.

The lonely coffee and breakfast was the quietest part of the day.

I luckily didn’t hear from Talon at all.

My only hope there was to not hear from him until I got back from the ball thing. By then my stupid text messages would hopefully be old news. And even if they weren’t to him, I could just wave it off as old news.

Simple.

The last thing I did was supposed to be the first thing.

Which was packing.

I stood at my dresser with Gia next to me.

She hooked her finger around a pair of panties and lifted them up.

“These?” she asked with a grin.

“Can you not?” I asked. “I don’t need you touching my clothes. Not with that smile on your face.”

“Sorry,” she said.

Gia was in a really good mood today. Which I kind of greedily needed her to be.

She backed away from the dresser and sat down on the edge of my bed.

“I’m just making sure I have everything. Just in case.”

“What could go wrong?” Gia asked.

“Too much,” I said.

I walked a handful of clothes to my bag and dropped them down.

I was packed like I was going away for a month.

But, seriously, I had no idea what to expect.

And with all these rich people, I didn’t want to be caught off guard. I wasn’t sure what was going to be fancy or casual or in between. Even my bathing suit… I had to pack three. Just to be safe. I didn’t want to be seen swimming and then have the same bathing suit seen again later or the next day.

Like it mattered, right?

But it did matter.

These were rich and powerful people.

Their opinions didn’t matter to me as much as making Noah, Easton, and Xavier think that I cared so they would get closer to me. That was always the goal.

Get close but not too close.

I walked to my closet and let out a sigh.

I shut my eyes and just grabbed clothes.

I walked them to the bed and dropped them in a bag and half zipped it up.

“Done,” I said

“Winter…”

“I know,” I said. “I’ll organize it.”

I hurried into the