Page 207 of Handsome Devil
Even more, a guy who’d had so much taken away, and still fought on.
A guy who deserved her.
Shane was popular, yes. His family had money, but they didn’t have nearly as much as mine. He was a gifted hockey player, but he was never that great in school. He worked his ass off to prove himself, to win scholarships, to set up his future.
Even if it didn’t all pan out the way everyone thought it would.
It wasn’t really fair that it was all ripped away from him because of the accident. If he’d had a girl like Devi in his life, it probably wouldn’t have been.
But definitely, back when we were teenagers, he’d deserved a girl like Devi.
That was the thing.
I never really believed I deserved the things I had. I definitely didn’t think I deserved her.
Shane was right. I’d never fought for anything.
I’d never really had to.
And now, Devi was only with me because of all those things that I’d been given in life but hadn’t earned.
The things I’d promised would be hers after we divorced.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Dane
“You’re mad at me.”
We were in the car on the way home from Johnny’s, just Devi and me. We hadn’t even stopped off to pick up her poutine yet.
She looked over at me, the light of the streetlights rolling over her. The look on her face seemed to shift, from pure, clean innocence, to shadowy despair, to almost wicked as the patterns of light and shadow shifted, over and over.
“Why?” she said softly. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I didn’t just give you the agency in the first place. I could’ve made you manager from the start, but I didn’t.”
“You had reasons,” she said.
“Not good reasons.”
“I thought Lizzie was more qualified.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know if she was.” I rubbed my hand over my jaw. “I didn’t give you a chance, though. I could’ve given you a chance.”
“No.” She held my gaze. “You couldn’t. You weren’t ready to admit I was anything to you yet. Or anything at all.”
I stared at her as she stared at me.
“I’m sorry about that,” I told her.
“Are you?”
The car rolled to a stop. The engine shut off and I heard Rolf get out.
Devi looked out the tinted window. There was nothing to see but trees in the dark.
“Why are we stopping?” She looked at me. “What’s Rolf doing?”
