Page 72 of Getting Down to Business

“I promise I’ll tell you every gory detail.” She shook his extended hand to finalize their agreement, then he began his story. She was expecting him to fall asleep at some point before she needed to tell him anything.

“I fell in love in twelfth grade. Her name was Mandy. She stayed back home and went to college there.”

“Where is that? Home.”

“Connecticut.” They both paused for a moment. Probably trying to figure out why he’d never mentioned it before. Then he went on. “I wanted to go away to school. She promised me we would be able to stay together for the four years we would be apart. Then she screwed my best friend.”

“Ouch.”

“What made it worse was she started screwing him the minute I left and I didn’t find out about it until I was a junior. He even told me he was doing this hot girl who had a boyfriend, throwing it in my face without using names.”

“Rude.”

“I know. It makes it difficult to trust people.”

“Including yourself?”

“Yes. Definitely. I always wonder, am I good enough to keep a woman’s interest or will she go off with some other guy?” They both nodded. “Same thing happen to you?”

“Not exactly.” She frowned. Her distraction technique hadn’t worked this time, and he seemed far from sleep.

“You promised. It will be okay, Liss.”

She couldn’t believe she was going to do this. Her mother was the only person in her life that knew her story, and they never spoke of it. Somehow she knew Grayson wouldn’t judge her, or try to pity her.

While Kenley was officially her best friend, she’d never felt comfortable discussing it. For some reason, speaking to Gray felt more natural. She let out a breath and decided to go for it.

“You know where I grew up.” He already knew so much about her, maybe this wouldn’t be bad. Maybe it would even feel better to talk about it.

“Trailer park,” he said.

“Right. I worked my ass off to get scholarships so I could go to college and make more of myself than a struggling single mother, like my own mom.”

“And you did it,” he said. “I’m proud of you, for whatever that’s worth.” He shrugged it off.

“I was on the pill before I ever even planned to have sex, just in case. And I was going to find a great guy who would want to marry me.”

“I think most girls have that on their agendas at that age.”

“Well, I found a great guy who wanted to marry me.” She took a deep breath. “But now he’s in prison.”