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“Lyla, you need to know something about men,” Manny drawled, spreading his bejeweled hand over his chest. “We don’t like being told no.”
“I didn’t tell him no. I’m letting him do whatever he wants. I want him to follow his natural instinct and leave me alone—” Lyla stopped because Manny was laughing hysterically. “Seriously, Manny, what’s so funny?”
“Baby girl,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes, “Gavin has been looking for you for three years.”
“I know that.”
“And why do you think he’s done so?” Manny asked curiously.
“He’s doing it for you,” Lyla said accusingly.
Manny blinked. “Me?”
“He craves your approval. You practically demanded he marry me on our first date.”
Manny cocked his head to the side. “And you think that Gavin would date a woman he didn’t like because I told him to?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
“I told him to marry you many times.”
“I know,” she said.
“If he wanted my approval, why didn’t he marry you to please me?”
“Because he doesn’t want to tie himself to mepermanently. He was just... indulging you.”
“Gavin wants my approval and he loves me,” Manny conceded, “but Gavin wouldn’t fuck one woman for four years to please me.”
“He didn’t fuck one woman, he fucked many,” Lyla said crisply.
Manny’s face softened. He reached out and ran a hand down her hair, which hung loose around her shoulders. “That wrecked you, didn’t it?”
Lyla wasn’t sure where the tears came from, but she valiantly shoved them back into the darkness where they belonged. “Finding out that it wasn’t a one time thing, that he’d been cheating from the beginning destroyed me. The only thing that makes sense is that he kept me for your sake. He had no intention of marrying me or really committing himself to me.” Lyla blew out a breath and was relieved to feel the tears recede. “I want a man who loves me more than anything, especially other women. Gavin made me feel like nothing.” And he wouldn’t get the chance to make her feel like that again.
Manny shook his head. “Boy screwed up.”
“No, it was meant to be. It woke me up. I got to see the world a bit and I found a great guy.” She ignored Manny’s derisive look. “Jonathan's really sweet.”
“I’m biased, mi amor.”
“Of course you are,” she grumbled. “I just want normal, Manny.”
“But you aren’t normal.”
She straightened in her chair, offended. “Yes, I am.”
“If you were normal, you wouldn’t be here.”
She didn’t know how to challenge that statement and didn’t have the chance to since he rose.
“Eat and we’ll go shopping,” he said and left her at the table, staring after him.
Of course she was normal. If she hadn’t gained Manny’s attention as a teenager, her life would have been extremely ordinary. Maybe she would have followed her father into accounting or gotten married to some joe schmo and been a stay at home mom. She wasn’t Carmen—adventurous and sexy with a personality that electrified the room. Lyla was definitely normal. Everyonearoundher wasn’t normal. It was why she clung to Jonathan. He was safe and ordinary. Gavin’s words came back to haunt her.If you were in love with that boring fuck you were living with, you wouldn’t respond to me.Of course she loved Jonathan. The fact that she responded to Gavin was... It was...
“You ready, Lyla?” Manny asked.
He was dressed in jeans with a gold chain around his neck, a gold cane and gold framed sunglasses.
