Free Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken by Michelle Hardin Page B

table with fifty different fucking people , and every time she talks about how much weight she’s lost she makes it a point to direct all of her statements to you.”
    “Okay stop!” she said sharply. “I get it.” She got it, and her cheeks burned with a fierce, fiery embarrassment when she finally did.
    Ronaldo didn’t respond to her and she was glad he hadn’t. Was she seriously that busy looking for the good in folks that it completely goes over her head when she’s being called a fat ass?
    “She thinks I’m fat.” There was a slight sting when she said the words aloud, but she played it off with a shrug. “I don’t … take that as an insult, Ron. I’m not a child.” It was both a lie and the truth. It was true that Reanna didn’t take any of Aniyah’s offers as an insult—after all, the woman was just concerned for her health—but on the other hand, she was embarrassed. There weren’t necessarily ‘fifty’ people at the table whenever they all ate together at Aria’s little restaurant, but there were about ten, and all ten friends at the table knew that Aniyah was singling her out as the group’s ‘fat friend’.
    Nice .
    But whatever. Though true that Reanna was a little embarrassed about being unknowingly insulted in front of her friends, she still didn’t consider herself what Aniyah thought she was … fat. Because she wasn’t. Yeah, sure, she had wider curves than all of her girlfriends, and her belly was only flat in the right pair of jeans. She was heavy chested, had thick thighs, and an ass that didn’t quit, but she was very comfortable in her own skin. She always had been, and most likely always would be. Her love for her body knew no limits, and hell if she was going to let insecure ass Aniyah make her feel any different about herself.
    That she wouldn’t do.
    A gentle hand on her shoulder brought her from her thoughts as her eyes lifted to Ronaldo’s “Reanna, I’m not telling you this to hurt your feelings, love,” he sighed softly, gazing into her eyes with concern.
    “My feelings aren’t hurt Ron,” she said semi-truthfully. They were a little hurt.
    His concern only seemed to deepen at her denial. “I just hate that you are allowing yourself to be used by this jackass, and Aniyah is benefiting because of it.”
    Reanna sighed. “Ron, Kyle doesn’t use me, we’re friends.”
    “But is it not true that you wish you two were more than friends?” he questioned accusingly. “I see the look on your face every time he calls, Rea. I know you like him.”
    “So what?” she snapped, backing away from his hand. “So what if I like him? Nothing will ever come of it because I’m not telling him.”
    “My guess is he already knows, Rea.”
    Reanna became silent. Not because she was shocked by what he said, but because she agreed. She believed that Kyle did already know. She also believed that he might have had feelings for her, too.
    Ronaldo released a long breath as a look of distress fell over his handsome face. “My fear is that he knows you have a crush and he’s using you, Rea. He uses you because he knows you can’t say no to him.”
    “Can to,” Reanna pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
    She could say no to Kyle anytime she wanted. She’d said no to him plenty of times before.
    “Really, Rea?” Ronaldo shook his head. “I don’t believe you. You barely have time for your own life anymore. You’re always cooking, or picking up Sofia, or staying over at their apartment. When’s the last time you got to go out with me? When’s the last time you’ve gotten to go out on a damn date?”
    Reanna refused to answer that. She looked away from him instead.
    “See? You’re ashamed.” He pointed at her when she turned a glare on him. “You should be, Rea. You’ve put your whole life on hold to play mommy to Sofia, and wife to Kyle when you are neither, sweetheart. And if you keep playing around like this, you never will be wife or mommy to anybody.