Running with a Sweet Talker by Jami Albright

Author:Jami Albright [Albright, Jami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

The bus wasn’t as bad as Luanne had expected. It was clean, and had movies and Wi-Fi, not that the last would help them since they didn’t have a smart electronic device to their name. They’d purchased a disposable phone to have in case of an emergency, but it was a flip phone, for crying out loud.

She needed to call her grandmother, who was probably in a complete tizzy by now. Not that she’d really be worried about her welfare, but it always sent the woman over the edge when she didn’t fall in line and behave like she was supposed to.

“I guess I should call my grandmother.” She set aside the bag of snacks they’d bought and held her hand out for the phone.

“What about your dad?” He dug the device from his pocket.

“He won’t be there. He doesn’t spend a lot of time with her.”

“Gigi, it’s Luanne.”

“Luanne. Where are you? You need to get home right now. Your daddy is torn up about all of this.”

“I’m not coming home, Gigi. I only called to let you know that I’m okay.” She picked at a loose thread on her jeans.

“I’m sure you are, since you’re gallivantin’ all over creation with a man other than your fiancé. Honestly, Luanne, have you given any thought to what people are sayin’ about us? I’m not going to be able to show my face in town ever again.”

“Gigi, Marcus—”

“Don’t you call your daddy by his first name, it’s disrespectful.”

“Marcus,” she ground the word out for emphasis, “made a deal with Doug. He wants Doug’s father’s company’s business, Doug wants to be the CEO and needs a respectable wife to get Mr. Divan’s approval. I was the bargaining chip. He sold me to the highest bidder, Gigi.”

“Oh.”

There was a silent pause. Maybe this was what her grandmother needed to remove the blinders from her sight when it came to her son.

“Please. You’re so dramatic, Luanne. Sell you to the highest bidder, indeed.”

Then again, maybe not.

“I don’t know where you get all of this drama from. It certainly wasn’t from me. I guess you’re more like your mother than either of us thought you were.”

That cut deep. Gigi knew exactly how to bring her in line, and any comparison to her mother was sure to elicit the response she wanted.

But not this time.

“Gigi, he doesn’t care about me.”

“Luanne, you’re a spoiled girl who’s been given every opportunity because of the generosity of your father, and you’re being horribly ungrateful. All he asked you to do was one little thing, and you couldn’t even do that.” Her voice quaked with anger.

The part of Luanne that was conditioned to be grateful for any tiny morsel of affection and acceptance from her family wanted to back down from this fight. She pulled on her short black hair.

Not this time. Not this time.

“One little thing? For the love of God, Gigi, he lied to me to get me to marry someone so he could gain a professional advantage. That’s not love.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.