The numbers on my screen got blurry. I took my glasses off and scrubbed my hand down my face. I was such a creature of habit that the lack of sleep was making me loopy. I’d been at work for hours and caught myself staring at my startup screen for the first hour I’d been in the office.
I didn’t look up when Wynter and Autumn entered.
The room was quiet, but the weight of their gazes crushed me.
Teller’s chair squeaked as he sat forward. “Wanna dial Junie in, Wynter?”
I sat back and folded my arms. My reports were at the beginning of the meeting. Nothing had changed and we were only in the beginning of the third quarter. Everything was on track and my updates would be short.
“He-ey,” a groggy Junie said from the phone in the middle of the table. “How’s it going?”
“Wild night?” Tate asked.
“Yes and no. We’re nearing the end of the tour and I’m about to drop. I’ll get a second wind and finish it out.” Her yawn came over the line. “The jet lag is brutal though. So what’s up with everyone?”
“We’re good,” Teller replied. “Except for Tenor.”
“Oh no.” The fatigue washed out of her voice. “What happened?”
My family was worried about me. I was ready to avoid their interference. I massaged my temples. “Bobby Morgan is Ruby’s dad.”
The immediate silence made me feel both better and worse. Also justified. Out of everyone, they knew what I’d been through because of that asshole. How it had affected future relationships. Their shock meant I was right to be disturbed.
So disturbed I had trashed everything with Ruby. “And I broke up with her.”
A variety of responses peppered the air. I caught someoh nos and someshits.
“You broke up with Ruby because Bobby Morgan is her dad?” Tate asked, genuine confusion in his voice.
“Yeah,” I answered like it was fucking obvious why.
“But Ruby’s nothing like him,” Summer said. “Nothing.”
I shrugged. “She’s his kid.”
Their uncomprehending stares rested on me.
“I get some of the worst behavior in my class,” Autumn said cautiously. “And sometimes when I meet their parents, they’re complete jackasses. But some are gentle souls who are struggling to parent a troubled child.”
“And?” My crankiness was ratcheting impossibly higher.
“Sometimes,” she continued, “I’ll have the sweetest kid and one of their parents is a nightmare. I just hope the kid has enough good influences in their life to stay sweet. Ruby is that kid who stayed sweet.”
“That’s not exactly my situation,” I said tightly.
“Then what ‘exactly’ is the problem?” Teller asked with a flippancy that made me want to run him down with the riding lawn mower.
Tate rested his arms on the top of the table. “Didn’t Bobby ditch her mom almost immediately?”
“Sort of,” I said.
“So Bobby didn’t raise Ruby?” Tate pressed.
“He had visitation from the way Ruby talked. He’s still an asshole too. We played tennis yesterday.”
“Bobby Morgan plays tennis?” Summer asked like she was scandalized.
Thankfully, he hadn’t played in high school, or I would’ve been out the one place I could escape him other than home. “Now he does.”
