Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
I shouldn’t engage.
I should leave.
Calm down.
Chill out.
There was still plenty of time to make potatoes and the turkey had a full hour and a half left to cook.
I was overreacting because I was letting him push my buttons.
And there was nothing to be gained by this.
But in the headspace I was in, I didn’t leave.
I engaged.
“Why would I worry, Corbin?”
This time, he leaned toward me. “Because we don’t have to get into the collective whack that is your family, and I never liked Juno being around any of them. But I’ve also never been a stripper and I don’t know who that fuckin’ guy is,” he jerked his head toward where Aug’s car was, “but preliminary reports from my investigator said his employment is nebulous and I’m not a fan of that being around my daughter.”
My job?
His…investigator?
Now that…
That made my head explode.
Which meant I went sub-zero.
“You’re threatening me,” I whispered, frost forming on each word.
“Don’t push me, bitch,” he whispered back.
“Fuck you,” I spat.
“You have been, from the minute I fucked up and you didn’t give us a chance, to right now, being at my house with that fucking guy in his fucking car at my curb,” he shot back.
Oh my God!
Auggie had been right.
Corbin had totally been pining for me!
“I don’t like your ladies and I’m gonna live with Mom.”
Hearing Juno’s voice coming from close, a frisson of electricity zapped through me, it was deeply unpleasant, and Corbin and I both stepped away from each other like that feeling came from a lightning strike between us.
I turned, seeing Juno standing not two feet away.
It was then my insides went cold, and I heard Corbin make a noise like someone punched him in the stomach.
Vaguely, I noted Auggie was out of the car and standing at the curb.
But my attention was for my daughter, whose face was red, her eyes were bright with tears, and she was staring at her father.
“I don’t like you calling Momma a bitch either,” she stated.
Oh no.
“Button—” Corbin tried, his voice suddenly hoarse.
Juno shook her head. “No. Mr. Cisco said I should talk to you…”
Mr. Cisco?
Who was Mr. Cisco?
“…and I should have. But I was chicken,” she went on. “Now I will. I don’t like all your ladies coming over and then leaving and I don’t like how you’re always on your phone with them and I don’t like how you’re always finding ways to be mean to Mom and I don’t like that you totally didn’t notice I was upset because me and Mom wanted to make this a special day for Auggie, and you made us late for it.”
“It was a misunderstanding, Juno,” Corbin lied.
“You’re lying,” Juno called him on it. “And you called Momma the b-word, Dad. Right in front of me.”
“I didn’t know you were there,” he pointed out.
“Does that matter?” she asked.
Good freaking question.
I wanted to intervene. I wanted to help her.
But I was sensing she needed to do this.
So I stood there with her and let her do it.
“I shouldn’t have said that, you’re right,” Corbin murmured.
“I don’t want you two back together,” she announced. I pressed my lips together, and I heard Corbin’s sharp indrawn breath. “You’re not nice to her and you kept things from her to break us up and you have too many ladies. You should have just one lady. Not one after another. I want her with Auggie. Auggie looks at her in a sweet way. And I want you to find somebody special you can look at that way too. But it can’t be Momma.”
“You’re really too young to—” Corbin began.
Unexpectedly, she lifted her hands in fists at her side and jerked them down like she was planting two ski poles in the snow.
Okay, maybe I needed to end this.
I didn’t get that shot.
“I’m not too young!” she shouted. “I’m not. I’m not too young to know you hurt Momma. And I’m not too young to know you hurt me.”
Oh God.
Corbin was so silent, it felt like the air around us had been deprived of its ability to carry sound.
“So, I wanna live with Mom,” she kept flaying him. “And when her dad was being mean to her mom, my friend Kyra had to talk to a judge and say what she wanted, and I will too, if I have to. I’ll tell him all this. And Mom might dance at a place you don’t like, but Mr. Smithie is sweet and always gives me a twenty-dollar bill when he sees me.”
He did?
“And Auntie Ryn and Auntie Hattie and Auntie Evie are a million times better than Auntie Saffron could ever be.”
I had to admit, that was true.
“And Mr. Ian is super handsome, and I might marry him when I grow up.”
Uhhhhh…
“And I wouldn’t have any of that if Mom didn’t dance there. And if you love me, you’d love that Mom gave me that. So do you love me, Dad?”