The World According to Vince - Jane Harvey-Berrick Page 0,53

opened up to me at last, and it explained a lot. I wanted to hold her and protect her and tell her she was fookin’ perfect as she was. So I did.

I took her hand across the table and looked into her warm brown eyes. “I think you’re fookin’ perfect.”

She gave a quiet laugh and tried to pull her hand free.

“I mean it,” I said, still holding tight. “You’re kind and clever and hotter than two camels shagging in the desert.”

She snorted into her cappuccino and even that seemed cute to me. She tugged her hand free and blew her nose, her cheeks a rosy pink. Gorgeous. Making her laugh was the best part of being the clown prince.

“Anyway,” I said, “I get that you want to plan ahead ‘cause being out of work isn’t fun. What do you want to do?”

“Well,” she said, almost shyly, “I thought I’d like to be an events planner … because I really loved working on the fashion show and I love being involved in that level of detail.”

I beamed at her. “And you were fookin’ awesome at that. I know you’ll be amazing. I’ll write you a great reference.”

She laughed. “Perfect! And can you sign with a paw print?”

“Yeah, that can be arranged.”

She smiled, leaning back in her chair and stroking Tap who gazed up at her adoringly.

“So, what’s your story, Vince? Why did you give up the catwalk life? I know it’s not as glamorous as it seems after recent experience, but still … I looked you up. You were the face of some huge campaigns, I had no idea!”

I shrugged lightly. “I burned out. I was traveling all the time, never in my apartment, a different city every week. It stopped being fun.” I looked at her seriously. “Life’s too short not to enjoy what you do for the day job, doncha think?”

She sipped her coffee slowly before she replied.

“In theory, yes. But we can’t all be superstar models and just decide to quit. Most people have college loans, credit cards, rent or mortgages to pay, families counting on us, responsibilities. Quitting isn’t that easy.”

“Sometimes you’ve just got to walk away when things aren’t working if your health and sanity are paying the price.”

Gracie eyed me carefully. “Are we still talking about jobs?”

“Yes. Mostly.”

“Relationships?”

“Toxic ones, definitely.”

I could have kicked myself for walking down this stinking back alley of memory lane.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

No, I fookin’ didn’t. Not. Ever. But…

I pulled a face. “Woman I was dating was a nutter, a complete psycho. She was a model, too, but wasn’t getting a lot of work. Basically, she was jealous and accused me of cheating on her. Which I didn’t, but I couldn’t take it anymore and moved out.”

“You were living together?”

“Sort of. She couldn’t make the rent on her apartment so she moved in with me. It was supposed to be short term but ended up being for over a year. I was a way a lot. Thank fook.”

“Sounds pretty bad.”

“Yeah, she could get violent, too.”

Gracie’s eyes widened and then her eyebrows pinched together in a frown. “She hit you?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, the shame and humiliation as cutting today as it had been five years ago. “I know it sounds ridiculous, a big bloke like me, but she was vicious. I’d walk in the door and she’d throw a bottle at my head or a vase or a drawer of cutlery, then start slapping and kicking me. I never hit her back, not ever. I’m a trained kickboxer—if I’d hit back, well, I just wouldn’t. I couldn’t.”

Grace looked shocked. Not a lot of people knew about Olivia. Rick was one of the few.

“Did you report her?”

“No, who would have believed me. She was half my size—weighed less than a hundred pounds. And I thought it was my fault because I was away so much and she hated being alone. But in the end I realized that was just an excuse to take out her anger on me. So I walked. But I promise you, I never laid a finger on her. Never.”

Grace touched the back of my hand. “That’s because you’re a good person. I’m glad you managed to get away from a bad situation.”

I nodded, half wishing I hadn’t brought it up, but found that I really wanted Gracie to know all about me.

“Anyway, after Liv, I promised myself I’d never do serious again.” Gracie gave me the hairy eyeball. “Until I met you,