Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 22407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
This glance leads to him seeing her see him, something that immediately has her blushing and snapping her face away.
When our stares meet again, he simply shrugs. “Nope.”
“You think maybe you go to school together?”
“Maybe.”
“You think maybe she follows you on social media?”
The disinterest remains. “Maybe.”
“You think…maybe…you should go talk to her?” Keeping an even tone is difficult but not impossible. “Maybe see if she likes to surf?” There’s no initial response in either direction pushing me to continue. “Maybe see what she’s hoping to get this Christmas?”
Still nothing.
“Maybe see if she could be a new friend?” I quirk an eyebrow. “One that’s…closer to home?”
Wy’s eyes swiftly narrow into paper thin slits, wordlessly informing me that I made a mistake.
A grave mistake.
“I don’t need a new friend, Dad.” He carelessly tosses the glue gun onto the table. “I already have the right friend.” His eyebrows pull tightly together. “The perfect friend.” Wy shakes his head in additional irritation. “The perfect for me friend that doesn’t need to be replaced.” Irateness reaches the rest of his expression. “She just needs to see me more than once a year.”
My mouth twitches in preparation of apologizing, “Wy-”
“I don’t feel like making ornaments anymore.” Pausing for me to speak doesn’t occur. “Mom, is it cool if I go get some HC?”
“Is that a drug!?” thoughtlessly leaves me in a low grumble. “Since when do you let our son do drugs?!”
“Fucking really, Wes,” Bryn huffs louder than I’m sure our publicists would approve. “You think I’d just let our son leave in the middle of a family friendly Christmas charity event to go do a bump of Santa’s pocket snow in the nearest bathroom?”
“What the hell is Santa’s pocket snow?!”
“Cocaine,” answers our son without missing a beat. “Mom, can I go or what?”
“Of course.”
“Can we go too?!” Blakely quickly questions. “I’m dyyyyinnggggggg of thirst.”
Not smirking at her theatrics is a feat in itself for Bryn. “Do you mind taking them with you, Fins?”
“I don’t mind doing something for the people I love.” He twitches me a hateful glare. “Unlike some dudes.” Rather than wait for me to defend myself, he uses his two-pointed index fingers to gesture the direction they need to move like he’s a lifeguard on duty. “Swim out.”
Brae skirts around her brother to link arms with her sister. “You want my mellows?”
“Uh…Can I sing every line in Mean Girls?”
Girlish giggles are barely heard prior to my wife viciously poking me in the hand with the pointy end of a pipe cleaner. “Ou!”
“What the fuck is a matter with you?!” she harshly hisses, disbelief occupying her entire expression. “Are you just trying to get bitten? Is that why you keep dangling bright colored netting in front of our bull shark?!”
Huh.
I didn’t realize certain sharks could differentiate colors like that.
I admire the new pages of information she still manages to stuff into our relationship ten years and three kids later.
I, however, know now is not the time to vocalize that.
I’m actually convinced I may never be allowed to speak in my family again without council present.
“Why did you think dropping chum into his territory would be a good idea?!”
Following along with her analogy unexpectedly becomes difficult. “Is the young girl checking out our son the ‘chum’ you’re referring to?”
“Why would you point that out?!”
“I thought that maybe he would want to know a girl might be into him.” Abandoning my hold on the materials I possess precedes me angling my frame to face hers. “I thought that maybe he would like someone his own age to hang out with while we’re here.”
“Or…” she sassily begins, stance swiveling to match mine, “you thought that maybe if you distracted him with another girl, he’d forget all about the one he wants to see for Christmas.”
Against my own volition, guilt flickers in my gaze.
“Let me ask you this, Mr. Wayne…” the combination of light and heavy in her tone is unsettling. “Did it work for you?”
My brow pinches tightly together.
“Did having another woman in your face – a woman you had no interest in – help distract from how much you missed me? How much you wanted to be with me? How much it hurt to be without me?”
No.
Having Penny dangling herself actually made the shit worse.
Exponentially.
Worse.
“I was just trying to help,” darts past my lips right above a whisper.
“You wanna help?” One hand delivers a gentle, condescending pat to my chest. “Consider your son’s feelings and not just your own.”
Chapter 5
Brynley
“Overrule him, Mom,” whines Wy from the doorway of Blakely’s bedroom that I’m frantically searching around.
“I can’t just overrule him,” I mutter in return as I spin around on my heels in preparation of moving my hunt to the other side of the room only to be met with sarcastic stares from my son, my daughter, and Janae who is in the process of fixing Blake’s hair for the play over at the nearby vanity. “Okay, I can, but I’m not going to.”