Because of His Past Read Online Free PDF Page A

“What’s that?”
    “The best part of it is that the man he
was with was someone even younger than me.   I’d met the guy before, and he was just as young and dumb and
inexperienced as I was.   So all that
stuff about my lack of experience and youth was bullshit,” Scott said, and his
eyes blazed with fury.   “It was an
excuse to break up with me, no fuss no muss.”
    Grace sat back and thought about it.   “Scott, I’m so sorry.   I wish you’d told me at the time.”
    He fiddled with his fork, finally
plunging it into his quiche with a vengeance.   “What would you have done?   Probably told Mom and Dad their son was
having a big, gay, messy affair.”
    “I wouldn’t have told Mom and Dad,” she
said, rolling her eyes.   “I’m not a
complete jerk, you know.”
    Scott took a bite and chewed, his eyes
glimmering with unshed tears.   “It
still hurts,” he whispered.   And
then he looked up at her.   “So I
know how you’re feeling right now, honey.   And I can tell you that it never completely goes away, but it does get a
little easier to bear every single minute that passes.”
    Grace nodded, taking a deep breath in,
lifting her mug to her lips and feeling the heat from the hot water against her
chin.   “But your situation was
different from mine,” she said.   “I’m the one who insisted on ending things, and I did it because Liam’s
mother is a lunatic.”
    Scott frowned.   “That’s not the real reason.”
    “Oh no?”
    “No,” he said firmly.   He pointed his fork at her and a piece
of quiche fell onto the table.   “You
and Liam Houston might as well be from two different planets.   No, make that, two completely different
galaxies.   It just can’t work.”
    “But why not?   Why couldn’t we be together?”
    He smirked.   “That’s like asking why gravity keeps us
from just flapping our arms and flying into the sky like a bird.   It’s just the way things are.   People like Liam Houston inhabit their
own pretty, protected little world, and the air they breathe is rarified.   It’s a different planet from ours even
if it looks like they’re sharing space with us mere mortals.”
    “You can’t mean that,” she said.   “Is that why you’re so enamored with
rich people?   Is that why you do
this wedding business—because you think they’re better than you, and you
can only be as good as them if you make that much money?”
    “I can’t ever be one of them, Grace,”
Scott said, with a small smile.   “No
matter how much money I make, I’ll always be a poor boy from the suburbs.   It’s not just money—it’s a social
class that goes back decades.   It’s
a way of life—it’s something that’s handed down from one generation to
another.   A name, an inheritance, a
genetic lottery.”
    “I don’t believe in that stuff,” she
said.
    “You don’t have to believe in it. And
besides, we both know that you do,” he whispered, his eyes locked on hers.   “You know, deep down, that the world
would never let you and Liam be happy together.   And the very first instance that you
presented yourselves as a couple, the world conspired against you
immediately.   You have to listen to
what the universe is telling you, Grace.   It’s saying, danger.   Danger.   Danger. ”
    Grace sipped her tea and considered what
her brother was telling her.   She
hated that a suspicious part of her mind tended to agree with him.   Somehow, she felt that Liam and her were
an aberration— that she couldn’t ever truly be
allowed to be with him, he was out of her league in a profound way.   And that made her angry.   “It’s not fair, though.   We’re all just people.”
    “Just people?” Scott laughed.   “No, honey.   No.   You and I are just people.   Liam Houston and his ilk are artifacts from a different era.   They don’t fit in this place and time,
and they never will.   And honestly,
as much as I find them interesting, like rare