Short Excerpt from “A Wounded Heart” Chapter 3: Date Night

You can read up to and including Chapter 11 of A Wounded Heart on my Patreon right now, with Chapter 12 posting tomorrow.

To whet your appetite, here’s a short excerpt from Chapter 3: Date Night

“Paul?” She said as I bit into a slice of garlic bread. Was garlic bread a good choice for a date? I suppose if we were both eating it, it didn’t matter. I covered my mouth as I chewed and answered with my eyes that she should go ahead and say whatever it was that was on her mind.

“I have a confession to make.”

I swallowed, took a quick sip of wine and said, “Go on…”

She took a deep breath. “I…” She looked down at the table. “I looked you up. On the database at work.” Then she looked up at me. Waiting.

I knew exactly what this meant—I’d looked myself up on the database as soon as I’d had access. I was a client of the firm. There were all sorts of details in the database.

“I know I shouldn’t have done it, but… When Will sent the e-mail around saying you were coming for some work experience… I heard all these rumours and… I know I shouldn’t… I never expected… I’m sorry, Paul, I really am.”

“Hey,” I said, smiling. “It’s okay. This is actually easier.” I tried to put the best spin on the situation I could. I was thinking on my feet. Sometimes that was a good thing. Sometimes, not so much. “I guess, this way, you already know everything. I don’t need to hide anything from you or worry what you might think when you find out.”

She half-smiled. “I don’t know if I know everything. Only what was in the files.”

“Which is.”

“Like you don’t know. I bet you looked yourself up on the first day.”

I shrugged. “Humour me.”

She shook her head, still wearing that cute little half-smile. A knowing smile. “I know that we held some money in trust from your parent’s estates until you were eighteen. I know that you received some money from the Liddington estate—I’ve only heard rumours, but it was tragic what happened to her. So you—What? Shit, were you close? Of course, you were. You had to be or—Shit, I’m sorry.”

“No. No, it’s fine,” I said, wiping an unshed tear from my eye. “Go on. What else.”

She hesitated. “I know you bought a house not long ago.”

I nodded.

“That’s it. That’s all that was on the database.”

I took a moment to compose myself, sipping again from my wine glass. “All the facts, none of the detail. Right?”

She nodded.

“Is that why you came out with me tonight? To get the details?” I felt my anger rising and fought to keep a lid on it. It wouldn’t do to lose my cool in a restaurant like this. Or on a first date. Not that there would be a second date at this rate.