to open the box, and she’d ripped it from my hands and tossed it in the fire my father had started only minutes before.”
“Christ,” he muttered.
“Something like that,” she agreed. “She was so angry that my father had given me the one and only toy I’d wanted. It was all I had asked for. She stumbled around the living room, cursing, calling me horrid names, and my father even worse ones. By the time she was done, she’d ripped everything down that resembled Christmas. We never really celebrated it again after that.”
“You’re mother’s a real piece of work.”
She couldn’t argue with him there.
Listening to Soph explain what her mother was like when she was so fucking young left Nox feeling incredibly lucky for what he did have. Then, now, and the future. He’d known the love of a parent who wanted him. Whereas, she seemed to have one parent torn between loyalties and broken from love, while the other just hated her. He couldn’t comprehend it.
He’d hoped she would open up during their date, get to know him so he could know her. With the sad look on her face, he knew he had to turn things around. Get her happy again.
“What’s one thing you’d love to do?” he asked, not watching her. He could tell she felt like he put her under scrutiny when he did, so he watched as the wildflowers swayed with the breeze.
“Anything?” she asked, catching onto what he was doing. He nodded, and she continued. “I’d love to make a snowman.”
The laughter in her voice had his head turning. “A snowman?” he repeated in disbelief. “You’ve never made one?”
“Nope.”
Even though winter was over, he suddenly wished for a massive snow storm.
“We’ll do something about that this year,” he reassured her, silently making it his life’s mission to give her the simplest things he could.
“What about you?” she asked him.
“I’d love to go to the Grand Prix in Spain.”
“You’ve never been?” She gasped in mock horror.
“Don’t get smart with me, woman.” She tried holding in her laughter and failed. The tinkling sound was music to his ears. The lightness on her face was a sight to behold. The freedom in her eyes was his goal.
“Okay, okay, sorry.” The damn girl was gasping for breath through her laughing. He couldn’t be fucking happier than right in that moment.
“Do your brothers share your same love of cars?” she finally asked.
“No. Levi, he’s a little more secretive. He likes cars well enough, but that boy has got things going on in his head no one knows about. Loch hasn’t found what he’s passionate about yet. He goes through the motions, pretending so he can fit in. I have a feeling he’s likely to get himself in trouble trying to find what he wants to spend the rest of his life doing.” It’d be easier, less stressful if Loch and Levi could just focus on the cars. But they never had the same interest as Nox did.
“Your mom said the same thing weeks ago,” she told him.
“Really?” He perked up, “What else has Ma said?”
She cleared her throat before answering. “That you were lonely.”
“She did, did she?” He was, he just hadn’t thought he was obvious about it.
“Are you?” Soph hesitated in asking him.
Thinking about it, Nox knew he had to be honest. If he wanted her to give him everything she was, then he had to give her the same courtesy. Trouble was, he didn’t know how to explain why. It’s not as though he was hurting for having people around him. His brothers were always there, his Ma was constantly hounding him for one thing or another, and women flocked to him like birds. Whatever that meant. He just had no logical reason for being lonely when he was surrounded by everyone he loved daily.
Except…
He wanted a reason to go home to at night. A warm body to keep him company. Someone to share his day with.
Looking at Sophia, he saw all of those things with her and more.
“I am,” he finally answered her. “I have everyone around me, but I’m missing someone to share it all with.” He knew if he said he was missing her at his side, she’d get spooked. So he kept his mouth shut.