A disbelieving chuckle rumbled in my chest. This girl was all kinds of grit and determination. “I’m easy to read, I guess.”
A tiny snort huffed from her nose. “Hardly.”
She angled her head, and those warm eyes turned almost pleading. “Listen, I’m going to be living right across the street...”
Just the thought of it left me antsy and agitated.
Her voice softened. “I don’t know anyone around here anymore, and it’d be nice to have a friend. I thought maybe you and Frankie could use one, too.”
Laughter ripped up my throat.
Cruel and low.
“Sorry, but I have all the friends I need, and I’d appreciate it if you stayed away from my daughter. She doesn’t need anyone else making her promises they have no intention of keeping.”
Before I could do something stupid, I slammed the door shut in her face. Exactly the way she’d been expecting me to do. I leaned my back against the wood, trying to catch my breath, to slow the raging in my spirit, that part of me that hated being such an asshole.
All the while trying to remind myself why it was necessary.
There was something about her that set me on edge. Left me feeling off-balance.
Self-control was not normally something I lacked, and fuck, it wasn’t like she was out there offering herself up like a warm slice of pie.
But just looking at her had me itching for a taste.
I could feel her on the other side, her presence that swept the air unsettled and thick. Like I’d caused her physical pain with the rejection and she was projecting it right back to me.
Maybe she really was just trying to be nice.
Maybe she didn’t have ulterior motives.
But that was achanceI just couldn’t take.
* * *
Fear tumbled through his veins and clanged in the hollow of his chest. Frantic, he stumbled through the brushy undergrowth, the world buried by soaring trees. Branches lashed at the exposed skin of his arms and thorns latched onto the fabric of his shirt in an attempt to hold him back.
It propelled him harder.
Faster.
He screamed her name. “Sydney.”
Sydney. Sydney. Sydney.
The howl of wind answered back.
Sydney.
I shot upright, chest heaving as I struggled to catch my breath. To orient myself to the movement that jostled me awake and pulled me from the dream.
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Wakey, wakey, wakey. I made you breakfast.”
Frankie was grinning at me as she jumped on my bed. Brown hair wild and free, just as wild and free as the way she looked at the world. At the way she loved. Wholly and without reservation.
I scrubbed both palms over my face, dropped them just as fast. It was not all that hard to return her grin.
Her expression alone was enough to chase away the exhaustion that constantly weighed me down. The few hours of sleep I managed were restless. Plagued with the curse that darkened my life.
