“Sheri?”
She kept picking, picking, picking at the bright red color of the polish. Pieces of it flicked up through the air until they disappeared in the mess of thefloor.
“Sheri?”
“Yeah,” she answered, tilting her head up and twisting her handstogether.
“A little help?” I pointed to Addison, whose limbs were enveloped around me like a second skin. “I really need to leave forwork.”
“Come on, Addison,” she said, holding out her hand. “Daddy’s got to go to work. You hungry?” She pulled back her hand and scratched at her neck and arms, leaving white scrapes against already pale skin. “I got cookiessomewhere.”
My leg was abandoned immediately. “Cookies for breakfast?” she squealed withdelight.
I couldn’t even disapprove—I had no time—if I didn't leave, then I'd be late, and I couldn't afford the hit in pay. I had three hundred dollars left in my account, and I had thousands of dollars’ worth of bills topay.
I kissed Addison quickly on the top of her head, getting a face full of hair. She giggled when I tickled her on her sides and shoved a half-bitten chocolate chip cookie atme.
"Wantsome?"
“No, thank you, sweetie. I gottarun.”
I gave her another peck on the head, peeked quickly in on the baby – who was in the same position I had left him in – then rushed out the door. I didn’t even say goodbye to Sheri. She was hunched over her phone anyway, hopefully texting her mother to ask for help.Hell, I think I’ll throw her mom a text when I get to work to ask her to stop by—just to makesure.
I blew through every red light on the drive to work, praying I didn’t get pulled over by acop.
When I pulled into the back lot, there was a car on the lift and some old guy yelling at Vinny in another language. I messaged something fast to Sheri’s mother, asking her to stop by the house, make sure everything was okay, as I jogged into theoffice.
The time clock caught me five minutes late. “Damnit.”
“That’ll cost you anhour.”
I spun around and stepped back. Vinny’s wife was way into my personal space, wiping her hands on a blackenedtowel.
“You got to learn to get up on time, greasemonkey.”
I let out a loud breath. “Yeah, the baby was up againall—”
“I didn’t ask.” She tossed the filthy towel behind a workbench and strutted away. “Straighten up your home life, Dylan, orelse.”
“Shit.”
I ran my hands over my face and dropped them heavily to my sides.I could really use some damn coffee right now. A dull ache thudded through mytemples.
“What’d you do to her?” Vinny’s voice echoed behindme.
“Late again. Five minutes,” I said, turning to give him asmile.
“You look like shit,Dylan.”
“Thanks. It’s pretty much how I feel.” I nodded my head to the car on the lift. Might as well just get to work. “What do wehave?”
“The whole damn axle is bent,” Vinny said, patting my shoulder. “Hey, by the way, have you tried brandy? Brandy always made my kidssleep.”
That explains why all three of them were always drunk. “Must have skimmed those parts in all the parenting books Iread.”
“You should talk to Lena. She was the one who took care of the kids when they were young. She’d know what todo.”
She was docking me one hour's pay because I was five minutes late.Why would I want to ask her advice on anything except for how to be a cold-heartedbitch?
“Yeah, great idea. So, how about I get started on theaxle?”
“Yeah, I got a carb rebuild in the second bay, too. I might as well start on that,” he said, walkingaway.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Sheri’s mother’s face popped up on my screen with a response ofYeah, I'll pop in. She looked like maybe what Sheri would look like in twenty years. The only difference was Sheri had a pair of blue eyes that made people stop and stare. The bluest eyes I’d ever seen, like that kind of Caribbean water blue you want to fall into. First time I saw them, I was donefor.
I loved her without thinking about it. It's strange when I think about it now. I was just going along, and then I met someone, and she turned everything upside down, and for a while I got swept up in the craziness of it. We partied. Every night. We had sex everywhere. Anywhere. She was dirty and ready for anything, and I tasted it for the first time and was instantly addicted to her. I had money. She came from money. We were like Bonnie and Clyde, full of fire, ready to take on the world. There was nothing that could stop us from beingwild.
But the thing was, I didn't really know her then. Atall.
