All I Want For Christmas Is You - Penelope Ward Page 0,21
charming and passionate. At least he was. We dated for just over a year. I’m pretty sure you knew that.”
Reid frowned. “I knew you had a boyfriend at uni but no one said anything about him hurting you.”
“Because I told everyone that we broke up because he was going to back to Rome.”
“What really happened?”
“I let myself get wrapped up in him. He’s one of those guys who makes you feel beautiful because he genuinely finds women in all their forms gorgeous. Too much. But the sex was amazing,” I admitted, unable to look at Reid when I said it. “I think I let my hormones ignore all the warning signs. One day I was in the library and this girl came over, sat down beside me and told me that Luca had been cheating on me with her and gotten her pregnant. She thought I should know. And when I confronted him, he didn’t deny it. Told me people weren’t meant to be monogamists.” I finally met Reid’s angry gaze. “I argued that if that was how he felt then he shouldn’t have misled me into believing he loved me and that we were each other’s only one.”
“I’m sorry. He sounds like a fuckwad.”
“Oh, it got worse. I shared a flat with four other girls. My best friends. One of them confessed to me after the fact that she and Luca fucked a couple of times behind my back.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah.” I took a long swallow of whisky, remembering the betrayal. I coughed a little and wiped at my lips, placing the glass on the table. “There was a part of me terrified I’d never be able to trust people again.”
“And can you?”
“Yes,” I answered firmly. “Two people who don’t understand what loyalty entails will not make me bitter or distrustful. Luca wasn’t the right guy for me. I confused lust for love. I never felt truly comfortable around him. Looking back on it, we never talked about anything serious. Anything real. I think the right person is someone who makes you vibrate with awareness.” I grinned, thinking of how much Reid did that to me. “And distracted as hell. But also be the one person you can trust to talk to about anything. To be comfortable enough with to be who you really are. To say how you really feel. You haven’t met her yet, Reid. It doesn’t mean she’s not out there.”
“Says the twenty-two-year-old who has all the time in the world. I’m not getting any younger, Evan.”
I snorted. “You’re talking as if you’re ancient. You’re only thirty-five, Reid.”
“Men have ticking biological clocks, too, you know,” he teased, surprising me.
“No, they don’t,” I disagreed, laughing. “You have nothing to worry about in that regard. But maybe if you had fewer rules, you’d meet the right woman.”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “What rules?”
“Patrick said you have rules,” I explained. “No dating women who’ll nag about your schedule, no dating women who don’t understand the store comes first, and no dating women younger than twenty-eight.” I tried not to emphasize the last.
“Your brother needs to keep his mouth shut,” Reid muttered.
“Are they true?”
He shrugged uncomfortably. “Aye. And, clearly, the reason I’m still alone. I need to let them go. Except for the last.” He refused to meet my gaze. “The last is a firm rule.”
Disappointment burned in my gut along with the whisky. “Why?”
Still not meeting my gaze, he shrugged again. “I’ve dated younger women. They’re too immature.” He cut me a look. “I was born older than my years, Evan. I don’t want to be with a woman who is disappointed I’m not interested in clubbing or going to music festivals or taking selfies together for social media.”
Feeling irritated by his assumptions, I griped, “Not all twenty-somethings are into clubbing and music festivals and social media.”
He raised a querulous eyebrow.
“They’re not. Some of us are more mature than that.”
“Maybe you are,” he conceded. “But I haven’t met many others who are. Plus, I’m not screwing around. Contrary to what people think, I’m looking for someone to start a family with. Women my age are ready for that.” He sighed, closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not that I can seem to slow down enough for it to matter.”
“You’ll find her,” I promised him. It’s me, you fool! “One day you’ll find her, Reid.”
He opened his eyes, looking at me through a low-lidded gaze. “You think so?”