Mom shakes her head. “Tad never had shingles.”
“He did before he met you!” Drake pipes up again.
“No shingles!” Tad barks as if trying his best to avert some cosmic backlash. “I’ve got money, dinero, more than a few fat nickels to rub together. I’m rich, rich,rich, I tell you!”
“What?” Mom squawks as if Tad just morphed into one big boil. “What do you mean it’s happened again?” She sucks in a quick breath and lands her hands over her mouth. “You won the lotteryagain?”
“That’s right, baby! I won the quick draw! A cool forty-five grand this time! I keep this up and we’ll be living behind the gates next door to good ol’ Demeet in no time. I’ll buy a mansion so big it makes his hovel look like a shoebox!”
“Good Lord,” I growl as I drag my eyes to Gage. “You did this,” I hiss, completely ignoring the fact my mother has got her hands on another set of pots and pans and she and Tad are banging away as if it were midnight on New Year’s Eve. And soon enough, the kids are flying past me into the kitchen to secure their own bit of chaotic fun.
Gage steps in close. I can smell his thick cologne and it arrests my senses, making me weep for him on a cellular level. My God, why has he done this to us? Doesn’t he know I still melt for him whenever he’s around? How painfully desperate that makes me feel. How loathsome I am to myself at the moment, but it’s a very primal instinct for me to want him so I’m not holding it against myself.
“I didn’t do this, Skyla.” He shakes his head, those watery blue eyes bearing hard into mine. “If he’s winning by some nefarious terms, it’s not my doing.”
I shrug it off. “Every other nefarious term is your doing, so it seemed like a logical leap.”
Chloe presses her hand over her belly and I can see the formation of a tiny round globe. My soul shreds just witnessing the sight.
“Why are you here making me miserable?” I don’t take my eyes off of Chloe’s blooming belly as she busies herself by cooing over baby Ella. Chloe hates babies. She thinks of them as paperweights, a snack, an appetizer, but she certainly does not appreciate them for what they are.
Gage sighs. “Barron forgot his blankie. You know how he gets. He can’t sleep without it.”
“Next time leave it at the door. You’re not welcome in this home anymore.” I force my gaze to meet with his. “And do not drag your whore along with you. Although, at this point in my life, Chloe is a far more welcomed guest than you are.”
A breeze envelops me and I take in an all too familiar cologne and something in me loosens.
Logan pops up beside me, looking resplendent in a dark suit, his hair slicked back, that scruff on his cheeks just begging me to run my fingers through it and forget about the world and the menace standing before me.
“What’s going on?” Logan shoots Gage an eviscerating look and it makes me want to put on my old West uniform and cheer for him.
Gage twists his lips. His eyes grow dark as he inspects Logan from head to foot. “Here to pick up your date?” He says the worddatewith a sarcastic inflection.
I scoff at the thought. “Don’t you dare answer him. He is a repugnant pig who just flaunted Chloe and her demon seed in front of me as if it were no big deal.” As innocent as Chloe’s child is, it felt natural to refer to it as such and so I went with it. “He was dropping off something for the boys and I’ve made it clear he’s not to set foot in here again.”
Logan chuckles to himself as if he found humor in it all. “Skyla, he’s sick.” He shakes his head, his eyes never leaving the man he once regarded as a brother. “First of all, he’s eating shit right now because, face it, you look amazing and he wishes he were the one you were going to spend your time with.” Logan blinks a smile at Gage as if he didn’t mind tormenting him. “Second, being apart from you is wearing him down. Grinding his bones to powder, snuffing his soul out like a candle. Whatever it is that he claims the boys left behind, it’s bullshit,” he whispers the expletive. “Isn’t it, Gage?”
Gage opens his mouth and takes a breath, his eyes falling to mine as he presses out an easy smile. His eyes do a quick sweep of my body and my skin catches fire. It feels as invasive as it does like a hit of a drug I’ve been jonesing for months.
“You do look beautiful, Skyla,” Gage strums the words out like a song and it sinks into my spirit like a poem written just for me.
“Keep your eyes on your wife,” Logan offers. “Stay away from Skyla. It only hurts her. And judging by that look in your eyes, it hurts you, too. Honestly, I don’t care a hell of a lot how you’re feeling since it was you who pulled the roof down on your marriage. Man up. Deal with it. Cry yourself to sleep. Find some comfort in the arms of the beast you’ve leashed yourself to. But I’m not going to stand around and watch you stab Skyla in the heart by parading that witch around in front of her. The only business you have with Skyla is the boys. Period. End of sentence. If you need to communicate, you text her. If you need something picked up or dropped off, call me. I’m the go-between. Other than events like the one we’re attending tonight, or some outing that concerns the boys, there is no reason for you to be in the same room as Skyla. You lost that privilege three months ago. And while we’re on the topic, if the boys aren’t around and you happen to see Skyla out and about, you turn around and head in the other direction. You don’t get to have your cake and eat it, too. You don’t speak to her. You don’t look at her. You don’t think about her. She’s off-limits.”
Gage glowers at Logan. You can see the steam coming from his ears and his eyes burn with a fire all their own—twin blue flames that I can hardly recognize.
A breath hitches in my throat. “It’s not what you thought it would be, is it?” I shake my head at him, incredulous. “Whatever warped plan you concocted when you lost your mind and gave both your heart and soul to Demetri, you thought it would be easier than this, didn’t you?”
His gaze falls to the floor, his lips twisted in an angry knot.
“Chloe.” He takes a breath and heads over to her as if he were in a trance.
The wicked witch scuttles our way with Gage’s arm wrapped stoically by her side. “We’re off to the dance. Isn’t this romantic? Prom night.” She gives a hard wink my way. “You know what that means, Messenger. We’ll both be getting some action tonight.”
Kill me.
Better, yet. Kill her.
They take off just as Bree makes a splashy entry in her hot pink sequin gown and Drake belches at the sight of his dazzling wife.
