“But I amsohere for it,” Tru says and we all crack up.
Elle looks at me, eyes wide. “I am in shock,” she says.
“I feel so deceived,” Penn says.
We all laugh…even Penn.
“So, the times we were out and you walked a girl out of the bar or wherever we were…” He frowns.
“Once you were out of sight, I would send them home in a cab. I’d also tell them while we were chatting that I only wanted a conversation. Most were fine with that. I wanted you to have fun. I’d learned my lesson after getting Carrie pregnant and thought I had lost my chance with Elle forever.” I look at Elle, and her eyes are filling with tears. “The day I told you…” I shook my head, overcome with emotion. “It was the darkest day of my life, knowing I had ruined our chance for good.”
She wipes the tears falling down her cheeks.
“Anyway…I just wanted to clear that up because I’ve let you all think one thing about me and it's not been the case at all. I’m not sorry about Levi, but I wish I had changed my ways a lot sooner. Took me a while, but I got there.”
“Wow,” Penn says. “So it turns out I'm the only man whore here.”
We crack up.
“Well, more like reformed man whores,” Weston says, as he laughs and makes a face at Sadie.
“There's no shame,” Henley tells Penn.
“When you meet the person for you, you'll be reformed too,” Bowie says.
“Well, let's get you situated first,” I tell Bowie. “You’ve never been a player and you deserve to have someone in your life.”
“Oh God,” Penn says. “Here he goes.”
Bowie groans. “I know. Don’t start on me. I'm happy. I'm just fine as I am. I have a full life.”
“Youarefine as you are, but you could be even happier,” I say.
“Yeah, Dad.” Becca walks in and comes straight for the puppy. “You could be happier.”
Our phones start dinging and Penn is the first to check his.
“Hey, guys?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BIG MOVE
ELLE
Then
I’d feltlike a shell of a person since finding out Rhodes was having a baby. I couldn't even begin to describe the pain I’d felt when he told me he was having a baby with someone else. It was crazy. I had never had any realistic hope that I would have a child with him one day. Imean, he had never given me reason to, but in my heart of hearts, it was what I wanted more than anything.
I had no right to feel any of this, and since I was with Bernard, it really felt wrong that I grieved the news like someone had died.
I was trying so hard to move on from these feelings.
My parents were happier than they'd ever been because Bernard was exactly the kind of man they wanted me to be with. But Bernard had his cracks too.
It was like an extension of how I felt growing up with my parents trying to keep me in line and squashed in a box. And now that I was living back at home, I’d regressed. Bernard underscored everything my parents believed.
He wanted me to dress conservatively. If something was too short, he asked me to change. If I had alcohol, he had something to say about it. Going out dancing was out of the question. But mostly, it was the condescending way he spoke to me. I had tried to break up with him once and he got my parents to talk me into giving him another chance. I should’ve ended it then, but there were good things about him too. He wanted to help me move out of my parents' house for one, and I was desperate to do so. He’d come up with a plan where I would be able to soon. Unfortunately, it tied me to him more than I wanted since I had trusted him with my finances.
