Beloved Liar (The Reed Rivers Trilogy 3)

Mr. Ricci gathers himself. He puts his elbows on the table. “How old are you, Reed?”

And there it is. The elephant in the room. He thinks I’m a dirty old man.

“I’m thirty-four.”

“Have you been married before?”

“No, sir.”

“Any children?”

“No. I’ve been in some committed relationships. I’d say I’ve cared deeply. But now that I’m in love with Georgina, I know I’ve never actually been in love. Never like this.”

Georgina swoons, but her father looks unconvinced.

There’s silence in the room for a long beat before Mr. Ricci exhales and says, “Georgie, will you excuse Reed and me? I’d like to chat with him, man to man.”

Georgina looks at me, and when I nod, she rises, flashes a warning look at her father, and then an apologetic one at me, and heads out of the room.

“Don’t eavesdrop, Georgina Marie,” her father calls after her. “I’m well aware the walls are thin.”

“I won’t eavesdrop,” Georgie tosses over her shoulder. But even I can tell she’s lying through her teeth.

“Swear on Mommy.”

Georgie stops in the doorway and whirls around, looking annoyed. “You can’t constantly pull that out for things that aren’t critically important.”

“This is critically important,” he says. And it’s clear to me he’s dead serious about that.

Georgina seems surprised by that retort. She softens. “Okay, I swear on Mommy. But be nice to him, Dad. Please. I didn’t bring him here to meet you because I need your permission to love him. That ship has sailed. I brought him here because I want him to be part of our family. Because I love him.”

“I understand, Amorina. Please, give us a minute—without you pressing your ear to the kitchen door.”

Georgina rolls her eyes. “I’ll be in my room.”

“With headphones on and music blaring.”

“Fine!”

When Georgina is gone, Marco Ricci leans back in his chair. “These grand gestures of yours, Reed... Aside from the fact that I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you or repay you—”

“Like I said before—”

“Yes, I know what you said. And I don’t want to appear ungrateful to you. I can’t deny you’ve saved my life. Literally. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. But that’s totally separate from my job, as Georgina’s father, to protect her to the best of my abilities. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

“Of course.”

“So, let’s talk about what these grand gestures are communicating to my impressionable daughter. She’s obviously enthralled with you. Totally under your spell.”

“It’s not a spell. This isn’t smoke and mirrors. We’ve gotten to know each other, in a deep and meaningful way, without any bullshit, and we’re now as close, and in love, as two people can be.”

He sighs. “Georgina doesn’t give her heart away easily, but when she does, she falls hard. Which means she gets utterly destroyed on the back end, when she gets rejected. She’d kill me if she knew I was saying this to you, but Georgina isn’t always the firecracker you think she is. On occasion, she gets knocked on her ass like you wouldn’t believe. Her senior year in high school, some stupid boy rejected her, and whatever happened, she crawled into bed and cried for a full week. And then, at UCLA, when...”

He continues talking, but I’m too devastated to continue listening. This man thinks his fierce daughter was nothing but a silly high school girl with a flair for dramatics for a week, when, in actuality, she was trying to deal, all by herself, with a sexual assault?

“My point is this,” Mr. Ricci says. “How bad will Georgie get knocked on her ass this time, with you—a glamorous man who took her to New York, and signed her stepsister to his label, and paid off all her and her father’s expenses? It’s one thing for a twenty-year-old to say his girlfriend is the ‘great love of his life.’ But when you say it, under the circumstances, you’re creating a much higher expectation. Painting yourself as her knight in shining armor on a white horse. Don’t you see, you’re implicitly promising my daughter ‘forever.’”

Forever.

It’s the first time that word has been in play in relation to my love for Georgina. A mighty big word that should, by all rights, terrify me. And yet, it doesn’t. It only feels right.

“If Georgina thinks I’m promising her forever, then she’s right. I am.”

He arches an eyebrow, clearly surprised by that reply. “Answer me this, Reed. What did you do, mere days ago, that made Georgina crawl into bed and cry for two days?”

Shit. My stomach drops into my toes. “I made a couple mistakes. But we worked through them and came out the other side, stronger for it. Whatever crying Georgie did here, with you, you should know, when dealing with me, she was nothing but strong and forceful about the level of respect and honesty she required from me, going forward. Despite what you obviously think, Georgina is an equal in this relationship. In fact, I think it would be fair to say she has the upper hand in some ways. Although, please, don’t tell her that, or God knows what she’ll do to me.”