Twisted Palace(114)

His smile grows broader. “Well, now you can go to an arts college and live off your trust fund.”

“What about your business degree?”

He shrugs. “I can get that anywhere. It’s not like Dad’s not gonna hire me. He’s dying for us to get into the family business. Gid has zero interest. East likes fast cars. The twins are more like—” He breaks off before he says Steve’s name. “The twins like the planes and aren’t interested in running the business.”

I pull out of his embrace and go to the dresser, where I pull out the flier I found on the Astor Park bulletin board tonight—Hailey had pointed it out. I return to Reed and trade his UNC-Greensboro brochure for the flier.

“What’s this?” He turns it over.

“It’s an amateur boxing circuit. I know you like to hit things, but you probably shouldn’t go to the docks anymore. This will let you hit and get hit and it’s perfectly legal. I’m not saying you should do it for the rest of your life, but—”

“I like it,” Reed declares.

“Yeah?”

“I can do this, go to classes, and come home to you, right?”

I melt against him. “Right.” A grin lifts my lips. “Oh, and Val said to tell you to take Wade along. She thinks it’ll be good for him to get punched in his pretty face every now and then.”

Reed snickers. “I thought they were together now!”

“They are.” I laugh as I think about our best friends. They’ve been an official couple for a week, and already Val is laying down the law. “But she’s still making him pay for fooling around with someone else.”

He rolls his eyes. “Chicks are nuts.”

“We are not.” I pinch his side in warning. “Oh, and by the way, I decided I’m going to take dance lessons. It’s the one thing Jordan does that I’m really envious of. And I know I’m not going to be as good as her with a year’s worth of dance lessons, but I still think it would be cool.”

“Dad would love that.”

Reed pulls me on top of him, and I rub against his deliciously hard body. Our lips meet, softly and sweetly. His hands creep under the fabric of my shorts to press me tighter against him. We kiss until we’re breathless and then I roll away, because if we keep this up, we’ll be undressing each other in no time. Dinner’s soon, and we’ve all made a conscious effort to start having meals together as a family.

Plus, Gideon’s coming tonight and I have a gift for him.

“How’re you doing with the whole…?” Reed trails off. As usual, he doesn’t mention Steve in anything other than vague terms.

“I’m good,” I assure him. “And you shouldn’t be afraid to say Steve’s name in front of me. Just don’t call him my father, because he’s not. He never was.”

“No,” Reed agrees. “He was never your dad. There’s not much of him in you.”

“I hope not.”

Except, as much as I want to deny it, Steve is my dad, and that trust fund Reed referenced earlier? It’s all of Steve’s money that he signed over to me, with Callum serving as the trustee. I’ve already reduced that trust by about half, but it was for a good cause.

I think Gideon is going to be very, very happy tonight when he finds out about the deal I made with Dinah. In exchange for half of Steve’s money, she burned all the blackmail evidence she had against him and Savannah. I know it’s gone for good, because I stood at the fireplace with her while she lit the match and torched the USB drive, the printed photos, and the legal papers which she haughtily informed me would never have been filed.

It was the same fireplace where Brooke and her baby died, but I try not to think about that too much. Brooke is gone. So is Callum’s unborn child. Nothing is going to bring them back, though, and all we can do now is put the whole tragic ordeal behind us.

I reach out to hold Reed’s hand. “Are you okay? Are you feeling better about everything?”

“Yeah,” he admits. “I’m definitely relieved that I’m not going to prison, but I’m still pissed at your—at Steve. And I’m angry at my mother, too. But…I’m trying to let it go.”

I completely understand. “What about Easton? Does he seem weird to you lately?” Easton has been strangely subdued this past week.

“I don’t know. I think he might be all twisted up over a girl.”

I flip over on my side. “Seriously?”

The side of Reed’s mouth quirks up. “Seriously.”

“Wow.” I shake my head in astonishment. “Hell’s frozen over.”