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“I . . . I don’t need anything else.”
“Then you want this?”
She stared at the food as if she’d never seen anything like it before. “I . . . I . . .”
Fuck. He hated seeing her like this. She seemed so deflated. As though there was little of the old Lilac left.
He wanted to know how that had been beaten out of her . . . and how he could fix it all.
“I have trouble eating,” she whispered.
This wasn’t the place for this conversation, but he wasn’t telling her that. If she needed to talk to him, then he was here for her. Always.
“Why, baby?” Was it a body dysmorphia thing? Did he need to get her a therapist?
“It . . . I . . . I was never allowed to eat whatever I wanted. There was a strict diet I had to follow when I was growing up. I didn’t eat sweets or bad fats and few carbs. Everything was a bad or good food.”
Fuck.
Even he knew that wasn’t a good thing. And no way for a child to be raised.
“Your parents decided that?”
“Um. Not exactly. My mom died giving birth to me and my dad, well, he had a lot going on, so I was raised by a very strict woman. I called her Mrs. Jansen.”
“You had to call someone who raised you by their last name?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “She really was an awful woman. Well, to me. She loved my brother. She constantly praised him. He was handsome, smart, well-mannered. I was chubby, ill-kept, and ill-mannered.”
“That bitch!”
She startled, then looked around her. “I need to get back to work.”
“You’re on a break, remember?”
“I can’t . . . I don’t think I can eat this.”
“Would it help if we went out the back?” he asked.
She gave him a surprised look. “Um, yeah, it probably would.”
“Hey, I can have good ideas sometimes,” he told her.
Lilac’s eyes grew wide as he picked up her food and then held out a hand to help her down.
“I didn’t mean . . . I wasn’t trying to imply . . .”
He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as she stumbled over her words.
“You’re a rat, Tanner Malone.”
“A rat, huh? No, I think I’m more of a puma. Lying in wait, watching, ready to attack. All sleek, sexy, and beautiful.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You need to be careful or you’ll need a neck brace.”
“For what?” he asked in confusion.
“To help carry around that huge head of yours,” she commented.
