Читать книгу Seduced By Second Chances - Reese Ryan - Страница 16

Six

Gideon had been working in his office all morning with the door closed and Jessie’s first album playing. She’d hit the music charts with one or two of the songs from her most recent album. But the songs on this older EP were far better. Her voice had a raw edge that reminded him of Alicia Keys’s first album. And the songs all seemed so personal and heartrending.

He couldn’t help thinking of her older sister Geneva and how heartsick he’d been when she’d broken it off with him. But he was also reminded of the day two years later when Jessie had shown up at his place.

Gideon couldn’t help cringing at the memory.

He didn’t regret rejecting Jessie’s advances then. It was the right thing to do. But he did regret how he’d handled the encounter. He would never forget the heartbreak and pain in those dark brown eyes. It haunted him still.

Gideon paused as he listened to the song.

“I was so young. Did you have to be so cruel? All I ever really wanted was you.”

He rubbed his jaw.

Was the song about their encounter that day?

Maybe it made him arrogant to speculate whether the incident between him and Jessie had been the inspiration for the song. But it’d been fifteen years, and he hadn’t been able to get that day out of his mind. Was it really so implausible that it’d had a lasting impact on her, too?

Gideon massaged the base of his skull, where tension always gathered.

The Humphrey sisters.

Painful memories of both Geneva and Jessie were inextricable parts of his past. As were the happy memories of them that he’d always treasure. So he could never regret the rainy Saturday afternoon he’d first encountered the pair at a local movie theater. Or the ways in which that encounter had shaped his life.

As painful as it’d been, the dissolution of his relationship with Geneva had been the best thing for both of them. He wouldn’t be the man he was today if not for his drive to prove Geneva and her snobby, elitist parents wrong.

It had taken a while for him to get over the sting of her rejection, but Gideon harbored no regrets about Geneva. But Jessie... He groaned.

Jessie was another matter altogether.

He’d considered contacting her, if for no other reason than to apologize for handling the situation so badly. But he’d decided against it.

He would welcome the chance to make peace with Jessie. But he wouldn’t reopen an old wound just to absolve himself of guilt.

There was no point in revisiting old hurts. What was done was done.

So despite his desire to make it up to Jessie for hurting her, some relationships were better left in the past.