Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2) Adele Buck (e novels to read .TXT) 📖

“That’s a lot to take on for—what? Sixteen?”

“Fifteen.”

“Jesus, Alicia.”

“I knew kids who took on a lot more a lot younger. I mean, I had always helped out with the younger kids. But Gracie was…it was like she was mine. So yeah, I really was like Juliet’s nurse. I do know how it feels to fail a child that isn’t your own but feels like it is.”

Colin squeezed his arm tightly around her, pressing her closer.

“For three years, she was my responsibility. And then…on my eighteenth birthday, I left. I ran. I left a note explaining that I was done, not to look for me. I didn’t want to turn into a missing persons case—I just wanted out. But I couldn’t take Gracie with me. Even if she had been mine, I barely knew what I was going to do to take care of myself.”

“Alicia…”

“Don’t say it.” Alicia pinched the bridge of her nose, her voice thickening.

“You don’t know what I was going to say.”

She leaned her head back to his shoulder, looking up at him. “Well, you were either going to blame me for leaving her behind or tell me what a hero I was for getting out. Either way, it doesn’t help.”

He paused for a moment, choosing his words with care. “Actually, I was merely going to say that it sounds like you had your pick of bad choices to make. Save yourself or stay for your sister. No matter what you chose to do, it was bound to hurt.”

Alicia swallowed. “Yeah,” she said, her voice barely rising to a whisper. “So. Now that you know what kind of fucked up situation I came from, you still want to be here?”

Colin pressed his cheek to the crown of her head. “You don’t get any less interesting the more I learn about you,” he said.

Chapter 14

“Have you ever told anyone before? About your sister?” Colin smoothed her hair, tucking a wisp behind her ear.

Alicia shook her head, rubbing against his shoulder. This prosaic little gesture, affirming what he had already suspected, felt warm and intimate. Trusting in a way that even their lovemaking hadn’t been.

“No,” she finally said. “I’ve never told anyone. I don’t talk about my family. I don’t know why I told you, except that what you said today forced me to think about it.”

Colin pressed a kiss to the top of her head and felt her relax a little more against him. “Well, I’m honored that you trusted me enough to tell me.”

Alicia turned toward him a little, her cheek pressing against his shoulder now. She toyed with a button on his shirt. “You’re not what I expected when I met you.”

Startled, he huffed a brief laugh. “What did you expect?”

She glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “I don’t know…rich, a know it all, used to getting his own way, mistrustful…”

Colin’s eyebrows lifted. “Not an attractive prospect. What changed?”

Alicia focused again on the button, touching it lightly with a fingertip and biting her lip. “Oh, you were attractive. Are attractive. And you can be a bit of a know-it-all. But when you let your guard down…you’re kind. You listen. You don’t assume.”

Considering this, Colin let his fingers drift up to tease at the short, soft hair that bristled at the nape of her neck. She shivered and shot him a reproachful look. “Sorry,” he said. “I was just reflecting that we both have let our guards down, haven’t we?”

Alicia merely nodded again.

“How long have you been alone, Alicia?”

He expected her to stiffen, to reject the implicit statement behind his question. But she closed her eyes and leaned harder into him.

“Since I left home. Since I was eighteen,” she said.

Fifteen years. Alicia shut her eyes. Her head ached. Colin’s large, warm fingers began to massage her neck, and she let herself relax into him another fraction. His chest was solid and warm against her body.

“That’s a long time to be alone,” he finally said.

“Yeah.”

“Setting out on your own at eighteen…that can’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t.”

“You’re rather remarkable. You know that?”

Alicia tried to laugh, but it came out as a sort of watery gurgle. She shut her eyes and forced back the tears that threatened.

“Hey.” He moved, shifting away and then turning to cup her cheeks in his broad palms. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, trying to smile. “Just…tired.”

“Understandable.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, and Alicia sighed. “Should I go?”

“Only…only if you want to.” Alicia began to sit up, but Colin’s arms pulled her back against his chest again.

“I don’t want to,” he declared. “I’d rather stay here and have this impossibly sexy little haircut tickle my nose.”

“You like it, huh?” she asked, spearing her fingers through her hair so it flipped against his face. He blew the strands away, his breath puffing across the top of her head.

“I do, you minx.”

“Most guys seem to like long hair.”

He shuddered. “Now that I’ve seen that photograph, the only thing long hair makes me think of is underage girls, and I want nothing to do with that.” He pointed at the picture lying on the coffee table. “Why was it so long, anyway? It looks like it had never been cut.”

“It hadn’t. Dad didn’t let us.”

Colin blinked, almost not comprehending what she had said. “He didn’t allow you to cut your hair?”

“No. The girls at least.”

“That seems…extreme.”

She shifted in his arms, shooting him a look over her shoulder. “Colin, I left home the day I turned eighteen. You don’t do that if things aren’t more than a little…extreme.”

“Fair point,” he said, feeling stupid.

She shifted her weight, sitting back so she could swing her legs across his lap, then curling against his chest again. He settled a hand onto her leg, rubbing the smooth skin of her calf.

“So…what was your childhood like?” she murmured.

His hand stilled its stroking. “Mostly unremarkable,” he said with an attempt at lightness. “We lived in southwestern England. Devon. I think you know