Miah (Lane Brothers #2) Read Online Free

reminder of why I left in the first place.
    “How did you find me?”
    Not that I expected less, but I’m curious since I’d gone to so much trouble to cut all ties.
    “I called Mary.”
    My mother, of course.
    “What do you want, Nick?”
    I hear a sigh and the rustle of papers before he answers, letting me know that he’s still at work and managing things while trying to get at me. Same old Nick, always fitting me into his life instead of shaping the other stuff in his life around me, like I had to do with him.
    “You know what I want, Clara. Don’t play dumb, honey. You’ve made your point and I understand what you were saying before you left. We’ll change together and finally start that family you wanted.”
    “The family I wanted? You never listen, Nick, and that’s the problem! I told you I don’t want kids for at least another two or three years, and I meant it. You want kids now. You want that big house in the good part of town. You want everything perfect and fitting into your ideas of what a good marriage should be. I don’t want any of that,” I hiss, rolling my eyes heavenwards.
    Seriously? This is what he’s going to do again after the major fight that convinced me that he is capable of a lot more violence than I gave him credit for.
    I want to be with someone who thinks that being with me is enough without all the trimmings and a houseful of kids. I want a man to be satisfied with just me for however long it takes me to be ready for the white picket fence and the junior soccer matches.
    I may never want kids in spite of Nick, who once told me how unnatural that is.
    “You’re just scared, Clara.”
    “No, I am not. I told you how I felt about bringing children into the equation when we couldn’t even agree about the color of the freaking living room. I don’t want marriage and a family right now. I want to build my career—”
    “Career? You teach second grade, for God’s sake, and make less than some cleaners earn. What kind of career is that?” he yells, finally losing his patience.
    “It’s the one I want and that won’t change now or even ten years from now. Like I told you, we’re not compatible.”
    I’m sure, now, that I’d never willingly go back to him.
    “Clara.”
    “What’s in the package, Nick?” I cut in, not willing to listen to another word.
    “I bought you a new wardrobe and some better shoes—”
    “I’m sending it back. I can’t wear designer clothes to work, and I don’t freaking want to! You’re not my boyfriend anymore, so stop buying me stuff!”
    I disconnect the call to the sounds of him yelling and possibly cursing me out. Looks like I’ll have to move soon on top of spending a ridiculous amount of cash I can’t afford to send his attempts at controlling me back to him.
                  Miah would be different .
    Jude once told me that she and George raised their sons, along with Roman and Jace, to understand that men were only as strong as they allowed their women to be.
    I like that, because what they got out of it was five men who are well rounded and have a healthy respect for females. George and Wyatt may coddle Jude and Ellie to an uncomfortable degree, but they’re not averse to letting their wives do what makes them happy. Even if it means they’re doing something they don’t like.
    Take Jude, for example. George hates the fact that she drives in the rain and won’t let him fill her gas tank, and yet she does it regularly, sometimes with him in the car.
    Now that is a marriage, an equal partnership that I’d dreamed of when I first met Nick, and he fooled me into believing that he was this modern, easygoing guy.
    “Clari! Open up, girl!”
    I’m so lost in thought that the pounding on my door and the sound of Ellie’s voice startles me.
    “Ellie? My God, woman, did you drive here all by yourself?” I ask when she bustles in, loaded down with shopping bags and her burgeoning belly.
    “Of course. Here, take these, I