Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 142

Chapter 142 It’s a Hickey

Nora stared at him. “You cook?”

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“A little.” Julian nodded. “What do you want?”

Nora checked the time. It was past midnight, and she shook her head. “I’m watching my weight. I’ll skip it. I’m going to bed.”

Julian explained it to her. “About that forehead kiss. I heard there was a pileup on Mount Elden and then heard you were up there, so I had Miles check, because I was afraid something had happened to you. The photo has been handled. Grandma won’t hear about it.”

He hadn’t gone looking into her.

“I know. Thank you.” Nora picked up her pajamas to go and shower.

Then she turned back to him. “Doesn’t it bother you? Ryder kissed my forehead. Doesn’t that make me dirty?”

Julian looked at her, puzzled, and saw that she meant it, so he answered it seriously. “I’m jealous, yes. But that idea in your head is frightening.

“You’re the one it was done to. Why would you ask a thing like that?

“And are we so hard on women now that a kiss on the forehead makes you dirty?”

The answer loosened something in her. “I’m going to shower.”

Julian watched her go, frowning, thinking about the way she’d been tonight. It didn’t add up. Something must have happened to her, and somebody must have hurt her badly enough to leave her reacting like that.

Nora stood under the shower and let the water come down on her, eyes shut, thinking about the day and about how the two of them were with each other, and it left her with a strange feeling.

She couldn’t help holding him up next to Adrian.

With him, tonight would have ended in an interrogation and a whipping, and the doubt would have taken root and grown.

Julian had believed the explanation. Everything between them was easy now, and he’d even wanted to cook her something in the middle of the night.

She went back over what he’d asked her, whether the way he’d handled the last one wasn’t enough to make her trust him.

There had been something almost hurt in the way he said it.

Nora thought it through, then shut the water off and wiped her face. “I shouldn’t be putting him in the same category as Adrian.”

She should give him more trust than that, and make things easier between them.

Chapter 142 It’s a Hickey

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he-next day, Nora came downstairs with Julian.

Constance saw the two of them and smiled, and when she caught the bandage on his throat the smile went knowing and satisfied.

It embarrassed Nora to be looked at like that.

When Miles came to pick Julian up, he saw the bandage too and asked, surprised, “Mr. Weston, did you hy your neck?”

Constance was still standing in the doorway.

Julian didn’t move a muscle and answered perfectly seriously. “It’s a hickey. I covered it, or Nora gets embarrassed.”

Miles was astonished. After that forehead kiss last night, Mr. Weston was letting it go.

They hadn’t even fought. If anything, the two of them looked closer.

Constance’s smile got wider.

Nora couldn’t quite follow her. The whole attitude had turned around far too fast.

And with the word hickey said out loud, she was embarrassed as well. “Grandma, we’re going.”

Julian drove Nora to work again that day.

At the door of her building, he explained it. “The bandage and what I said were only so Grandma wouldn’t

know.”

He hadn’t meant any disrespect to her.

Nora took it. “I know.”

Julian looked at her. “I’ll pick you up after work. Dinner?”

Nora didn’t turn it down. “All right. Bye.”

Julian watched her all the way into the building before he had Miles drive off.

Nora walked into the lobby and went straight past Mandy, who was sitting there.

Mandy saw her, got up at once, and followed her into the elevator. “What exactly did you do? The Westons lost a fortune on that bid and Julian still isn’t sick of you?”

Nora glanced over at her. The cuts had scabbed over, and the marks on her neck had mostly faded.

“Why? You made Adrian a fortune, and he still can’t stand you and won’t see you, so you came here to feel better about yourself?”

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Chapter 142 It’s a Hickey

It landed, and Mandy scoffed at it. “I was with Ace last night, and he drove me to work this morning. You just can’t stand to see me happy.”

The truth was she hadn’t seen Adrian once since the day of the bid, and even the messages had dried up.

She sent ten and got one back, and when she asked to see him he said he was busy with the new project and had no time.

They used to video call at night. That had stopped too.

Mandy could feel how cold he’d gone and how far off he was, and it frightened her. He might be done with

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