We rose together and exited the chapel, leaving Cam alone with his thoughts.
Outside, the evening sun was starting to dip low, the air balmy and warm in its wake. Or maybe it was Folk walking beside me, his boots subtle on the gravel, everything about him so understated and flawless.
“I’m not anyone’s idea of a perfect boyfriend.”
I didn’t have enough romantic experience to argue with him, but what the hell did that even mean? Was Mateo perfect? Was Saint? Goddamn it, wasanyone?
Lord knew, I wasn’t. And when I thought about it with the tiny speck of logic I could find while Folk was so close, it occurred to me that it didn’t matter. How could it when whatever happened with everyone else’s grand plans for us, none of it was real?
“Daddy!” Ivy’s tiny body collided with my legs. Feeling needy enough to embarrass her, I scooped her up, giving her no time to protest, and brought her face to face with my quiet companion. “Oh! Hello, Folksie.”
I cringed.Cheers, Rubi.
Folk laughed, and it looked better on him than the stress we hadn’t quite left in the chapel. “Little bug. That’s what everyone calls you, right?”
“Dad calls me little because he’s the biggest bug inthe world.”
“Noted.” Folk tipped me a filthy grin and ambled away.
At least, in my mind it was filthy. Everything was when it came to ninety percent of my thoughts about him.
“Daddy, can I sleep at Lili’s house?”
My brain shunted back into parental mode. Folk wasn’t an easy man to forget—clearly—but Ivy owned my heart. “It’s a school night.”
“So? We go to the same school.”
“It’s not about logistics, sweetheart. It’s about sleep. That’s why we need to go home now.”
Ivy’s face fell. I grinned and mussed her hair. Since Liliana had come into our lives, I’d learned not to be hurt by the fact that I was no longer my daughter’s ride or die. I’d also learned that my kid was a monster if she didn’t get ten hours of shut-eye, so we really did need to make tracks.
I set her down so she could say goodbye to her friends. Maybe I should’ve said goodbye to mine, but I was in a funny mood now, and I couldn’t altogether blame Cam for skewering me with Rubi’s plan, or Folk for the effect ten minutes of his company had on me. Worrying about Embry didn’t help either. I’d always liked him, but we’d spent a lot of time together since Ivy and Liliana had joined themselves at the hip. I loved him now and knowing he was suffering churned my stomach.
Ivy came back, knuckle deep in a bag of Jelly Tots that had River or Nash written all over it. If I’d had to bet money, I’d have gone with Nash. River ate the sweets he carried in his pockets. “You ready?”
“Can you eat the green ones for me? I don’t like them.”
It wasn’t the answer I’d asked for, but I took it and palmed the handful of green sweets she tipped into my hand.
They tasted like plastic limes.See? My kid is never wrong.
If only life was that simple. I steered Ivy to my car and strapped her into the backseat. The compound was a busy place and I wasn’t that interesting. Most people didn’t notice me unless Ivy corralled them into talking to us, but I felt attention on me as I shut Ivy’s door. Unwelcome attention, Bear, the bullheaded mechanic was watching me, staring dully like he seemed to do at everything.
My car had blacked-out glass, shielding Ivy from view, but I stayed by her window all the same, dead-eying Bear until he got the message and dropped his gaze to the cigarette clutched in his nicotine-stained fingers.
Dick.
Still didn’t know why, but the crawl in my veins every time I looked at this dude made me fucking nauseous.
It also made me want to be a million miles away from a place that had been the only real home I’d ever had, and I hated him all over again for that.
“Hey.” The low greeting seemed far away, the gentle voice almost a dream. Then Folk stepped into my peripheral and the world was a different place, helped along by the fact that he blocked Bear from sight. “What’s wrong?”
I focused on him, as ever instantly lost in his blue eyes, absorbing every oceanic swirl. “Hmm? What? Fuck. No. Nothing.”
Wow. Articulate.
And unconvincing, apparently. Folk frowned and glanced behind him, his shifting shoulders revealing the empty space where Bear had stood. “Sure about that?”
