Free Flirting With Disaster by Sofia Harper Page B

choice in
liquor last night, he could guess she came from money. Dane
couldn't even begin to imagine why his words would make her look at
him like that.
    “ You're right,” he said.
“It's a catch-22.”
    She clung to the cover but sat up. “What
happened?”
    Of course she wouldn't let this go. He
smiled at her for a second. “She had the idea we’d get married, but
at the perfect time. She'd get pregnant before it was considered
high risk. She'd run the world before forty.”
    Brooke frowned. “And...what did you think of
that plan?”
    He shrugged. “We’re no longer together. What
do you think?”
    She sat up straighter and tried to corral
her hair into something presentable. “I think you don’t like women
to be in the driver’s seat.”
    “ Wrong. It’s attractive. I
don’t want to be someone’s be all to end all. And her plan only
involved me because she needed someone on her arm, a sperm donor
later. Our life together was all about hers and what I'd do to fit
into it. I was something to help her check off items on her to-do
list.”
    “ There’s a bite in your
voice over that.”
    “ I’m over my ex, but she
left...a bitterness in my mouth.”
    Brooke’s gaze softened. “I’m sorry for
that.”
    Surprise stiffened his back. “You sound
sincere.”
    “ Because I am.”
    He could leave it at that, but they both
were still opening a vein, showing each other their hurts. “And
your ex?”
    “ Fair play?”
    He nodded. Brooke sighed and added, “He
wanted me to be a little homemaker, and I wanted to be that for
him. You'd have liked me then. I agreed with him, because he was
the man. I cooked for him. Had sex regularly because that's what
you do. I was born and bred to be a lady whose crowning achievement
was to get married and have babies.”
    He tried to imagine Brooke like that, and he
had to laugh. “No, I wouldn't have liked that Brooke.”
    Her face flushed from the compliment. She
glanced down and picked at stray threads on his comforter. “Well, I
wasn't that docile. Sometimes he'd do things that pissed me off,
disappointed the shit out of me. I'd—I'd go to my mother for
advice, and she'd reassure me.”
    “ And your mother would give
you advice to be...docile?” He couldn't wrap his mind around
that.
    She nodded. “The man is the king of his
house.” She scoffed. “And then my brother got into cars. He'd bring
around these old junkers that weren't worth the money he spent on
them. At first I'd watch and he'd have me get this or that. It
wasn't long before I was up late at night researching whatever car
he was working on—the common problems and coming up with solutions.
It became a passion. So when I changed my focus to being a mechanic
in college, my ex lost interest.”
    She shook her head. “I was still me, but he
wanted...traditional, and I tried to be for him. I remember cooking
him dinner one night. I was dressed sexy. I brought out the good
dishes, candles. And I spent half the night waiting for him like a
cliché. Drinking the wine, getting madder by the minute, and at the
end of the night, I had enough.”
    Brooke’s voice was thick with emotion. She
closed her eyes. “I decided I would never again wait on a man. He
wouldn't be my everything. He wouldn't be my barometer for how well
I was doing in life. He wouldn't tell me who I should be.”
    Dane wiped his mouth in hopes that would get
rid of the sudden bitterness. It didn't. “Your ex sounds like a
dick.”
    She laughed and opened her eyes. “Yeah, but
it wasn't just him. I still deal with that bullshit. People come
into my shop and see that I'm a woman...” She met his gaze.
    “ I'm not your ex. I'm not
your mother.” He paused, a thought hitting him. “That's your
contact? Your brother.” He laughed at himself for having been
jealous.
    “ Told you it wasn't
a him .” She gave
him a sidelong glance. “You were jealous.”
    “ So were you. That's what
started this mess.”
    She glanced down. “There's