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Marly’s smile dropped. “You felt bad that maybe she didn’t feel she could come to you, didn’t you?”
And that right there was why he was taking this slow. Because she understood what he was feeling deep down even over the embarrassment, over the insecurities, and over the lack of control around his life.
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her that? I bet you did.”
“Of course I did. She didn’t harp on it, and I tried not to. I think I’ve got a good read on her. She said it and then dropped the bomb of what she wanted to do on Saturday afternoon.”
“What was that?”
“The mall.”
“Oh, the horror,” she said, her eyes wide, her smile matching it.
“Tell me about it. Bella didn’t think it was funny when I strapped my gun on my ankle to go in.”
“That’s funny.”
“I thought so. She had money from her allowance she’d been saving, but then I found out she needed some things and hadn’t felt right asking. My father was a cheap asshole and, again, I’ve never needed nor wanted much.”
“Teenage girls are different.”
“Don’t need to tell me that twice.”
“How much did she buy?” she asked.
He held his hands up. “There are still indentations in my fingers from the bags. She didn’t spend nearly what others would have from the amount of stuff she got. I figured if I could handle the pads, I could handle bras and underwear.”
“Good for you.”
“I really wanted her to order them online, but the next thing we know, she’s running into a place and looking through them.”
While he stood there and looked anywhere other than all the items on the racks.
He felt like a pervert being in the teen store to begin with, but then that section.
Yeah, too much. He handed over his card to her and wouldn’t even get in line. Bella took care of it all.
“Sounds like you had a stressful Saturday afternoon.”
“More than it needed to be,” he said. “Had some frustration from the night before on top of it.”
She wiped her hand across her forehead. “Thank God I wasn’t alone. And that is why I went to see my sister-in-law.”
“Are you going to share your conversation since I just shared mine?”
“If you want to hear it.”
“Absolutely.”
14
AN EGO STROKE
Marly munched on her salad while she tried to decide what to say.
Did she admit how sexually frustrated Colson had made her?
