Slut - Woodruff Jettie - Страница 23

I could see the stack of photos upside down in front of my plate, but I was a little more excited about the bowtie pasta, topped with my favorite. The first bite was all it took to realize it tasted as good as it looked. Art with a blast to my taste buds. He did well and I was impressed.

I hummed my delight, looking to Paxton, taking the chair to my left. “Hmmm, this is delicious. You made this?”

“Tricia did. I asked her to.”

I dropped my fork to the plate, causing it to clink against the china, and shoved it away.

“What?” Paxton asked like he had no clue. Idiot.

“Nothing, I just thought there for a minute you did something for me for once.”

“I did, I asked Tricia to make it for me.”

“Did you ask her to make it for you, or for me?”

The silence answered my question and I shook my head in disbelief. Unfortunately, I was hungry, and it was so good. I stabbed a piece of broccoli with my fork and plopped it in my mouth with a glare, sharp knives stabbing out his eyeballs.

“What the hell is this? Since when are you jealous over Tricia? This makes no sense.”

“Did you ever think maybe that it’s because I didn’t care then?” Once again silence fell between us as Paxton reflected on what I had just said. “And her sauce sucks,” I lied while pondering the unfamiliar taste saturated throughout my pasta. Chardonnay maybe. I secretly loved it.

“What does that mean, Gabriella?”

I took another bite and Paxton slid my plate close to me, sensing that my pride and ego wouldn’t let me do it. The same expression that I couldn’t read before reappeared, worry lines in the corner of both eyes.

“It means my sauce tastes way better than hers.”

Paxton smiled with a puff of air. “I’m being serious.”

I pulled both my legs below my butt and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “I don’t have the advantage that you do, Paxton. I don’t know how I felt about Tricia before. I don’t really like her now. I hate the way she flirts with you, and she tried to say something mean to me one day. I put her in her place and she looked like I slapped her across the face. I don’t think we were friends before. Not like Mi. Mi is a true friend.”

Paxton blinked his eyes and shook his head, trying to keep up. “First of all, what did Tricia say? Why did you put her in her place?”

“We were watching you in the batting cage. She told me that she would love to show me how to love a man like you.”

“And you said?”

“That I didn’t need help with that.”

“And?”

“She said obviously I couldn’t. If I could, I wouldn’t be sleeping in my own room. I then told her to go fuck herself, and asked her how she took care of her own man while she thought about mine. I told her she couldn’t handle the things you do to me and walked away. And then you made me go to her stupid birthday party.”

“But you were never jealous before. They all flaunted their high maintenance asses around me, until about a month after your accident. They stopped. Now I know why. You stopped them, didn’t you?”

I shrugged my left shoulder as I shoved more food into my mouth. “I don’t go around hitting on their husbands.”

“Except Lane,” he said, quietly. “What do you mean your real friend?”

“Huh?”

“You said they weren’t real friends like you.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did. You said they weren’t like me.”

“Oh, Mi. Yeah, I’m not hearing voices,” I assured him with half a laugh. “Mi, she’s Nick’s girlfriend.”

“Who the hell is Nick?”

“He works with Lane. They helped me when you tossed me out to the streets.”

“I didn’t toss you to the streets. Lane was supposed to make sure you went into the hotel. I was only going to let you stay there for one night. Where’s the car? Why did you take the car?”

I took a deep breath and told the truth. “I needed what was inside.”

“What was that?”

“I’ll send you the video. If you thought I was fucking the neighbor, why would you let him take me to a hotel room?”

“What video? I don’t think you’re fucking him now. I think you were before the accident. Were you?”

My eyes went to the photos and my lungs filled with air all on they're own. “I don’t know, Paxton. I don’t know why I did a lot of things before I forgot who I was. I feel like I lived a lie. Not just one. Copious amounts of lies hover all around us, and I don’t know why. But you do.”

“I don’t know what lies you told me. You have a fucking twin sister, for Christ’s sake. Did you not think that should have been something we discussed?”

“I don’t know because I don’t remember. You tell me why, why would I ever feel like I needed to hide something like that from you? I loved her, I know I did, I still do, and I can’t for the life of me understand why I would hide her from you.”

“Did you ever think that maybe things are different because you’re not really who I married?”

I snorted with that one, but I knew it would come up. “You think I’m Izzy?”

“I don’t know. You’re so different, Gabriella. I don’t know you at all.”

“I think you do, and I think you’re afraid to admit it.”

Paxton spun my drink in a circle as his eyes dropped to the table. We stared briefly at each other, and then I slid my glass from his hand, asking the loaded question. “What if I am Izzy? What then, Paxton?”

His shoulders shrugged that time, and then sunk dejectedly. He stretched out his arms, took a deep breath of cool air, and cracked his knuckles. “I don’t fucking know.”

“Why did you have me arrested? Why couldn’t you just come to me? That hurts, ya know?”

“See, Gabriella, it’s not supposed to hurt. That’s the big change. You didn’t have that emotion. That’s why we worked so well together. We had an arrangement.”

“Yeah, so I keep hearing. What do you expect from me, Paxton? What do you want?” I questioned as I sipped the delicious drink, wondering if Tricia made it, too.

“I don’t think you’re my wife.”

“I think you’re wrong, but only partially.”

“What do you mean by that?”

There was no easy way to say what I knew I had to say. It had to come out, but that wasn’t what I was afraid of. I had the courage to tell him about our switch when we were eleven, however I couldn’t make him believe me. Hell, I wouldn’t believe me either. I knew our lives were about to change in one way or another. I knew that I had to come clean with what I knew, I had to tell him about Vander, and I had to tell him my plans to go after him. What scared the hell out of me was his reaction. As much as I wanted to keep my pride and ego from getting hurt, I needed him more. For Vander’s sake.

“Gabriella?” he had to say to get my attention.

“I did marry you. I’m sure of that, but I am Izabella.”

He didn’t even look shocked, and I did see and hear a bit of anger with his response.

“Of course, you’re going to play that card, and I’m supposed to believe it, too, right?”

I shrugged my shoulders, letting him know that I didn’t know while moving my wet hair to the side. A swallow stuck in my chest as our eyes locked, and I waited. Waited for what, was the question.

Six

My fingers tapped the sheet of paper while I anticipated turning it over. Paxton didn’t say a word, which made it even worse. He stared at me, awaiting my reaction. One more sip from my drink and I flipped the first page, the one from the hospital in Del Mar California. That was a lie. I didn’t remember anyone telling me that Izzy and I were born on a beautiful island in Brazil, but I knew I had been fed that by my mother. I could even picture Izzy and I, sitting Indian style while she told the untruth, engrossed in every word she said.

“I bet I was never in Brazil,” I snorted while reading the hospital report from the very place I’d been born in. California.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I said as my eyes scanned the paper. Possible hernia on baby number two; the report said to have it checked in six weeks. I doubted that happened. We were probably sleeping in a drawer along the interstate by that time.