Kresley knows me inside and out. She certainly isn’t a stranger to what I like for breakfast.
“Yes, please,” I say, and Chloe shakes her head at Kres.
“I’m working here today,” Chloe says. “I’ll take your order so you won’t have to leave the kids.” She pulls out a pad, and Kresley quickly rattles off every delicious treat we’re about to put in our bellies.
“Chloe,” I bark over at her as she takes our order to the front. “Do not touch our food. I’ll pick it up myself.”
Cooper shakes his head. “She took our orders, too.” He looks to Laken. “Are you still hungry?”
“I’m hungry.” Laken’s denim blue eyes swing my way.
Laken is pissed, I can tell. She is not a fan of me screwing up, and this time I have screwed up royally. But she is beautiful, with a waterfall of caramel brown waves rolling down her back, open face, friendly smile, damn kissable lips that I’m pretty sure were made just for me.
“I’m sure we’ll live,” she whispers in defeat. “Besides, we can’t leave now”—she looks to Coop—“we have no food in the house. We’ll have to stop by Cost Club afterward.”
“Perfect.” Coop offers her a peaceable smile. Coop’s a decent guy, looks a lot like Logan Oliver, and neither of them is my favorite person. But Coop and I were friends, good friends before Laken walked back into my life. And as much as I don’t like that Laken isn’t with me, I know that Cooper loves her as fiercely as I do. Or at least he thinks he does.
“Edinger,” Cooper growls my way. “Let’s talk outside, five minutes.”
“Fine.” I nod to Kres and she nods back as Mally begins to fuss and she pulls her out of her car seat.
Laken looks over at the baby with heavily lidded eyes, as if it pained her to see the face of my inadvertent lovechild with Chloe. And I’m sure it does. I’m sure it will be a dagger to the heart each time she sees her.
Tobie is different. I didn’t step out on Laken to have Tobie. But Mally will forever be a reminder of how low I was willing to stoop for my ridiculous brother.
Coop follows me outside and slams me up against the brick building once we’re out of view.
“Do not mess with my family,” he seethes over my face. “You have done enough to endanger them. You jammed a shit sandwich down my throat for a year, and now I’m giving it right back. I am warning you, Wes. Do not cross a single line. You are involved in our lives only as much as I want you to be. Laken gave me that power.”
A sigh expels from me because I believe him.
“What do you want?” I shove his arm off of me. “Spell out your rules, Flanders, but stay within reason. You will not keep me away from my son.”
“Like you kept me away from my daughter?” His brows hike with amusement. “Look, I’m not the monster around here. You are. You can see your kid in public—parties, parks, run-ins, but you’re not welcome at my house. I’m the go-between for you and Laken from here on out.”
“Why? Don’t you trust her?” Now it’s my brows hiking with amusement.
“I don’t trustyou. No one in their right mind should. You may have broken faith with the Barricade”—he saysbroken faithwith air quotes—“but you have a long way to go before you prove yourself to me.” He blows out a hard breath. “Look, I like you, Wes. We were friends once, but with Laken between us, I don’t think that’s possible anymore. You and I both know you are too much of a whiny pussy to give her up entirely to me. You get what you want. That’s your motto. And that’s been the pattern that your life has adhered to. I get it. You’re a spoiled rotten Fem, whose daddy has gifted him with favor. But you can’t have Laken. She’s made up her mind where she stands.”
My blood begins to boil, and it takes everything in me not to land my fist over that sweet spot on his temple and send him straight to eternity.
“Listen, Coop. You may hold some cards, but you do not hold all of them. Laken still loves me. I think that’s where a lot of your anger is coming from. I get it. I’m angry, too, when it comes to how she feels about you.” I lean in a notch. “Don’t forget that night she left me. She made it crystal clear she was about to forgive me regarding Charlie’s true paternity. That’s not why she left me. That’s overlooking a lot, don’t you think? That’s overlooking you.” A smile flickers on my cheek because the final stab to the heart came from Laken herself. “Now let’s get back inside before our pancakes grow cold.”
His eyes remain trained over mine, and I can feel his general dissatisfaction with the trajectory of this conversation.
“All right, Wes.” Coop blows out a plume of Paragon fog through his nose. “We’re going to find middle ground. And we’re going to get along. Partially for the kids, and partially because I want to make you sweat every time you see Laken’s genuine affection for me. It’s a special brand of torment I’m doling out just for you.” A dark smile rises on his face. “There is something satisfying about rubbing her in your face. You don’t get to own people, Wes. It seems to be a lesson you need to learn over and over again. You have to make choices if you want to keep certain people in your life, and with Laken you kept making the wrong one. She’s not giving you a third or fourth chance. She’s planted herself where she wants to be, and where she wants to be is with me. I’ll let you in on a little secret. She wants to have another baby. That’s right. She’s got baby fever, and I am more than willing to oblige. So when you’re home alone at night, snuggled up to Kresley or someshirtLaken left behind that holds her scent, you can think of the two of us doing our best to bring another life onto this planet that you worked so hard to destroy. I hope it gives you hell, Wes. Just the way you gave it to me without batting a lash.”
He heads on in, but those last few words sink down to my stomach like a sucker punch. Cooper Flanders just gave me hell by the spoonful. How I hate that he gets to touch Laken.MyLaken. I don’t care what any entity in this universe says about the matter. She will always belong to me. Deep down, I know she feels it, too. Sadly, I know she feels that way for Coop as well.
It is hell.
Gage flashes through my mind. This is the exact hell he has to live with, too. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Yes, he cost me Laken, but I made choices, too. And he’s blood. It felt good to have a brother. Not Blaine, not the false blood relation that the Fems threw at me. Gage is real. He’s mine, too. Maybe Coop is right. I try to own people. I don’t know why, but I am certainly wired that way.
I head back into the Gas Lab and enjoy breakfast with all of the people who are mine—Laken, little Wes, Eli, Mally, Charlie, Kres, and yes, Cooper, too. I’m not sure how, but some part of me still holds true to the friendship we once had. Sorry, Flanders, but in my strange and twisted world, you belong to me as well.
Just as we’re finishing up, a thought occurs to me.
Laken is holding baby Wes, and Kres is holding Mally while they chat about nightly feedings and other things that seem to eclipse my intelligence. I nod Coop to the side, and we step over to the window where the sky rains her tears down over Paragon.
