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But there were subtle changes that only so every line of her body and every nuance of her expressions would pick up on For instance, that creareen to it The way she was picking at thethe herbal tea I’d ordered for her, nancy where nausea was her constant coly her than usual Kallie wasn’t the type to throw her hair up in a ponytail and head out, but today her silky waves were piled up in a topknot that looked like it hadn’t been brushed or styled She was also wearing sneakers In the nearly nine years that we’d known each other, I’d never seen the woner footwear that cost alh the shop

They weren’t huge differences but they were enough that itto spend the rest of er She seee in the dynamic between us For the hter than a string around her little finger I was so scared of losing her, of losing her family and the only sense of security and normalcy I’d ever known, that I’d let her lead me around by ether I never argued with her, never pushed back, and that meant she always had the upper hand It wasn’t a smart move on my part She was already spoiled as the baby in the Carmichael household and she had some serious princess tendencies that I’d always secretly hoped she would grow out of As it turned out, having me at her beck and call only intensified her sense of entitlement I’d literally created ahed and rubbed a hand over ht between satisfaction and guilt at the artful way I’dto spend ti her into a situation she’d obviously wanted to say no to, but I couldn’t I wanted to be around her and I wanted her to get used to being aroundover very dangerous ground, but I couldn’t stay away She was hiding and I was seeking

"I told you I was going to be here for you and the baby, Kallie" I picked upto be happy about it"

She htened on the s are between us" She looked up at ized a ive ravated breath "Have you told your parents why I called the wedding off yet?"

She flinched and as her gaze shifted away I caught a gliuilt in her eyes She didn’t need to answer my question when her actions answered for her

I snorted and leaned back in my seat so that I could put as much physical distance between the two of us as possible "So your , that I kicked you out of the house that I bought for you, for no reason?" I wanted to screarow the hell up, to shake some sense into her Instead, all I did was shake my head in disappointh you’re havingThey were the only real parents I’d ever known They took ht me home I fell in love with her family almost as quickly as I fell in love with her The way they’d had no proble the worst abouther go Dixie had offered no less than a hundred times to intervene She hated the way her parents had turned on ht, but I refused to let her get involved I was used to being let down by the people that were supposed to love me, so if they wanted to think the worst, I was inclined to let them Plus, it was practically impossible to co all the secrets Kallie wasn’t ready to share out on the table Toothe one that protected her ain her parents’ favor

She exhaled slowly and lifted her sky colored eyes up to ht ti hurt and then deciding to move to Mississippi I don’t want to put any more on them at the moment"

It was an excuse She didn’t want to pull the curtain back on the real reason for our split She wasn’t protecting anyone but herself "What does Roni think about all of this?"

Roni was the wo an affair with, while she was still involved with me She was the woman that Kallie realized she wanted to be with more than the man she had spent the majority of her youth with Kallie loved me, but she was supposed to be with Roni more

At least that’s what she told me when I confronted her after her older sister let the cat out of the bag by accident Dixie would never have shared such a personal secret but I’d aht after Kallie tolda whole lot of yelling and confusion, ht the reason I was upset was because of Roni when she thought I was talking about Kallie’s affair instead of the baby Dixie felt horrible for spilling her sister’s deepest secrets but I wasn’t sure Kallie would have ever coain and she chomped down on her lower lip "She isn’t happy Since I’ve been staying with my parents, there hasn’t been much time to see her or to talk to her She wants me to tell them the truth too, but neither one of you kno hard it is for me" She shifted in her seat "I’m already a runaway bride and an unwed mother I feel like that’s plenty of disappointhed and leaned forward into be disappointed in you because you fell in love with a wo to be disappointed you lied and hurt people that love you and care about you while trying to hide who you really are and who you really love" I shook ht now They think I hurt you"