talking about,” he called back. “And Taylor is the first woman she’s seen you with in a very long time.”
Yeah, I knew my little sister, and that’s exactly what worried me.
Taylor
I liked Riley Sinclair almost immediately.
Yeah, she was gorgeous, but there didn’t appear to be a snobby bone in her body, and she had a beautiful, genuine smile.
She looked at me as we walked down the beach, unable to hide the very real concern in her eyes as she asked, “Are you really okay after everything you’ve been through? The kidnapping must have been traumatic.”
I smiled at her. “It’s going to take some time to get back into the physical shape I was in before it happened, and I still have nightmares sometimes, but honestly, I’m doing fine, otherwise. I’m actually just grateful I’m alive most of the time.”
“Are you comfortable at Hudson’s place?” she questioned hesitantly.
“How could I not be,” I said with a laugh. “He has a gorgeous home right on the beach, just like you do. It’s quiet, he has a lot of privacy, and the man can cook. What else could I ask for? Your brother has been incredibly supportive. I’m not quite sure what I would have done without him.”
“Well,” Riley said, stretching the word out. “Hudson can be a little…”
“Surly? Grumpy? Bossy? Yeah, I noticed, but he’s only that way on the surface. He has a good heart. Hudson is an amazing man. I’m just not sure he sees himself that way.”
Riley nodded. “He works too hard, sleeps too little, shoulders way too much responsibility, and you’re the first woman he’s ever brought over for one of my get-togethers. Ever.”
“Really,” I asked. “I wonder why.”
Riley let out a long breath. “Maybe this will sound a little weird, but it isn’t all that easy to be born into money, and have a last name that has a ton of expectations along with it. It makes it really hard to separate the people who really like you from the ones who just really want your money or your name. I think Hudson just gave up on dating after he’d been hurt a few times by women who didn’t give a damn about him. All they cared about was his money and his social status.”
“I’m not quite sure how any woman could fail to see what an amazing man Hudson is underneath all of his wealth and power. He’s actually incredibly humble, he’s brilliant, he’s witty, and genuinely kind. I think those qualities are a lot more important than his bank account,” I said a little indignantly.
It really bothered me that not a single female he’d dated had seen him.
“I completely agree,” Riley said firmly. “But in our world, it’s really hard to meet somebody who doesn’t give a damn about status and money.”
“You did,” I reminded her.
“Seth is…special,” Riley said in a voice that completely revealed how much she loved her husband. “He grew up poor and worked hard to take care of his family. He knew what his priorities were, and what was really important before he inherited a fortune. Seth grew up in a house full of love, even though they didn’t have much money. We…didn’t. Our parents didn’t give a damn about any of us. They were abusive, and completely superficial. Because my brothers were all mentally gifted, they were shipped off to a boarding school when they were very young, and were expected to act like adults.”
“So none of you really had a childhood,” I said sadly.
“No,” she answered solemnly. “My father molested me as a child, which made my entire childhood traumatic, and the boys were shipped off to a place that didn’t care about anything except academic achievement.”
“Oh, God, Riley,” I said in a horrified tone. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”
“Don’t be,” she requested. “It doesn’t matter anymore. My father has been dead for a long time, and my mother might as well be because none of us speak to her after we found out that she knew what my father was doing, but ignored it so it wouldn’t sully the Montgomery name. I only told you so you’d understand what a screwed-up family we had.”
We walked silently for a few moments before I said, “I can kind of understand. I grew up in foster care after my parents both died in a homicide-suicide incident when I was four. I was shipped from foster home to foster home until I finally found a permanent home when I