Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,76
the same time every day in hopes of seeing him.
Kristen laughed. "I'm an observant person is all."
I sat down at the small table in our room. "Do you know anything about his past?"
"Who, James? Yeah, I know all about him. What do you want to know?"
Of course she did. "Did he used to have a drug problem?"
Kristen sighed. "That's like the one thing I don't know everything about. I think it's kind of buried. Rich people can do that I guess. All I know is that he has kind of a sad past and he never really talks about it in interviews. He's made it clear that he didn't love his first wife, though. He was depressed or something and his family pressured him into marrying her I think. I do know that he's been arrested a few times. But I don't know what the charges were. Did you know that he got fired from his first teaching job for punching the dean?"
"Seriously? And you knew all this and still liked him?"
"I like mysterious, dangerous guys."
"Do you? I feel like Tim isn't dangerous at all."
"Maybe. But he's very adventurous in bed."
"I don't see how that parallels with your obsession with James."
"If you don't think a guy that looks like James is good in bed, you're incredibly naive."
"If you say so." I'd have to take her word for it because I had never slept with someone that good looking before. "Do you think James still has those problems?"
Kristen shrugged. "He hasn't really been in the paper for anything bad since he stopped teaching. It was kind of messed up that Matt slipped him something given his history, though, right? But I really liked when James was mad at me. That was so hot, right?"
"It wasn't hot. He clearly needs help."
"He didn't take anything. He didn't even know what was going on."
"Maybe. But how bad could his past have been really? He's super wealthy. I'm sure things were handed to him his whole life."
Kristen frowned. "Why are you being so judgmental right now?"
"I'm not. I just think that if he used to be an addict, he still is. And everyone should stop taking it so lightly. You saw how angry he was last night. We're lucky he didn't get violent like he did with that dean."
"Wow. Just for the record, that dean was sleeping with his wife at the time. He totally deserved to get beat up. James' other charges were probably justified too. He's a stand up guy that has clearly been through some horrible stuff. Money doesn't fix everything, Daphne."
"I know that. I just think all those guys are bad news."
"Of course you do."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that last night you really liked Rob. And you woke up this morning and now hate him and his family and friends? You don't even really know them yet. And you don't know James, so stop..."
"Neither do you. Just because you stalked him doesn't mean you know him. It's a sickness. He needs help."
"Not everyone is your brother." Her words hung in the air.
I didn't need to feel any worse than I already did. I turned away from her. Don't start crying again.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
"It's okay."
"It's not okay." She got off the bed and hugged me. "Ew, why are you so wet?" She kept her arms wrapped around me anyway.
I laughed. "I got caught in the rain."
She didn't say anything, she just squeezed me even tighter. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me."
"It's fine, Kristen." She was right. I was projecting my own problems onto Rob and his brother. What was wrong with me? I was completely out of control. The Costa Rican heat was making me lose my mind. Rob was right to be mad at me. He wasn't me. And James wasn't Derek. Just because Derek never got better didn't mean James couldn't.
"Good." She pulled back. "Because I didn't want you to be upset when I did this."
She grabbed my wrist and clasped two bracelets to it before I even knew what was happening.
"Kristen!"
"Alina wanted you to wear her bracelet for the rest of the trip. I volunteered to make it happen."
I pressed my lips together. What the fuck was I going to do with two bracelets and no nice guy to remove them for me? Oh God, I'll probably end up having to give some random stranger head in the middle of the rainforest.