Zoe Pierce didn't know when she had fallen asleep.
She only knew that late into the night, she had listened to Erin Xavier talk a lot about his family. With just a few simple words, he had revealed his family's complicated situation to her.
A mother who died young. An uncle and his family who were beyond helping.
A social-climbing father and a stepmother who was always scheming.
"Zoe Pierce, will you look down on me for this?" The flaws in his character were still there, always revealing themselves unintentionally.
Paranoid and stubborn.
It wasn't like her, with no family ties to worry about. His family's affairs were a tangled mess, impossible to sort out, and sometimes maddeningly frustrating.
At the time, Zoe Pierce sighed softly. "I won't."
It was true that Erin Xavier had a strange temper, but if you looked closely, you'd realize he never threw a tantrum for no reason.
He was able to listen to reason and could rein in his own behavior.
