Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 137131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
One second, I had Winnie in my arms, crying and begging for a favor and feeling too damn good. The next, my ex-wife shows up to hammer my coffin shut.
This day is cursed.
“Dad?” Colt asks when I don’t move.
“You guys are busy, that’s cool. I should be going,” Winnie says abruptly, taking another step away. “Enjoy the cake! We can talk later about anything else. I have your number, Archer.”
“Wait, hold up.” I massage my temples. “Colt, stay here. I need to speak with your mother for a minute. Winnie—”
“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry for taking up your time,” she says, still retreating away from me.
She looks like a frightened deer, ready to flee, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear and not meeting my eyes.
That’s also my fault.
I shouldn’t have tried to comfort her. But when she said her tyrant father cut her off from her inheritance, it set off a bomb under my ribs.
Watching her desperation, seeing her cry—or at least, trying valiantly not to break—just made it worse.
What choice did I have?
Her dad is a royal piece of shit, Attorney General or not.
I had to step in, to give this vulnerable young woman some breathing space. The only thing she truly asked me for.
I saw the whole universe looking at me through her, asking for a favor, and I answered.
Now, since no good deed goes unpunished, I’ve got Rina on my doorstep, waiting to fuck with my head.
There’s nothing else I can bark at Winnie to make her stay, especially with Colt standing there, so I stride through the house to where Rina waits outside the front door.
It’s been several years since I last saw her face-to-face. One glimpse reminds me time is passing.
She looks healthier than the last time I saw her, her cheeks less gaunt and some wiry muscle running along her thin arms.
She still looks like a walking paint splatter. Bright-red pants and a dark-blue and white shirt that’s a couple sizes too big. There’s a scarf over her chestnut hair and oddly colored contacts in her eyes. Indigo-violet.
The kids would call this look Boho, I think. To me, it’s just modern hippie shit.
For Colt’s sake, I’m glad she looks like she’s in a better place, even if I’d love to snap my fingers and make her instantly vanish.
Sighing, I fold my arms and lean against the doorframe, praying Winnie doesn’t choose this moment to run out of the house. If she just gives me a few seconds, I’ll have Rina out of here.
“What do you want?” I demand.
“Hello to you, too, Arch. You’re as pleasant as ever, I see.” There are even more tattoos up Rina’s arm than I remember, all mystical-looking faces and symbols. I notice them as she rubs a hand up it. “Can we stop the glaring? Can’t a girl drop in and see her son?”
“You mean the son you walked out on a long time ago? That son?” Barely two sentences and I’m already fuming. I don’t give her time to respond. “Drop-ins aren’t welcome here. We live a busy life.”
Drop-ins also aren’t typical for her. At all.
Usually, she just takes Colt on her time off for vacations or the odd holiday every year or two, and that’s that.
She’d make a better aunt than a mother, the cheery, distant kind you only hang out with once a year before they disappear into the ether again.
I’ve been fine with this pattern because it’s predictable.
The last thing Colt needs at this stage in his life is a loose fucking cannon of a mother hanging around, becoming a bad influence. He’s at the age where he needs good people who really care about him. Stability. Order.
Undaunted, Rina purses her lips as she looks at me. The hole where her lip piercing used to be seems larger than ever.
“Who’s this?” She smiles wide enough to eat her face.
Her gaze flicks past me. I bite back a groan.
Of fucking course.
Of course, Winnie chooses this exact second to head out.
“Oh,” Rina says, stepping back to let Winnie pass. “Sorry, Archer. I didn’t realize I was interrupting time with your girlfriend.”
My girl—
What the fuck?
“Sorry, sorry!” Winnie hisses as she breezes past. “I really should be going. Archer, thanks again, and let me know what you think of the cheesecake.”
Disaster.
Rina tilts her head like the smuggest creature alive as she looks up at me, a thin smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Interesting. Colt never mentioned her.”
“No need. She’s just—a friend. Also, since when does my private life concern you?”
My skin burns behind my beard.
Shit, why is this a thousand times more embarrassing than it has to be? Even if Winnie was my girlfriend, what does it matter?
Rina and I were done a decade ago.
She’s been out of my life for ages. She doesn’t get to have an opinion on what I do anymore, much less a say.