like rocks again. It was amazing how everything turned to shit the moment I was faced with my ex.
“You told me I could drop her off early today,” she hissed.
“Watch it, Lisa,” I warned her, glancing towards our daughter. I scooped Willow in my arms,
peppering her cheeks with kisses. I set her down, patting her backside. “Why don’t I take you over to
the playground?”
“Really? I don’t have to eat lunch first?”
“If you haven’t already eaten, we’ll get you something in just a little bit,” I promised her. I glared
at Lisa. She’d obviously been sitting here a while. How hard would it have been for her to take
Willow down the street for a kid's meal?
I waited until Willow was just out of earshot before continuing the conversation—if you could
call it that—with Lisa. “I told you that you could drop her off this afternoon. It’s barely past noon
now.”
“And you said I could bring her by early,” she repeated. God, now I knew where our daughter got
that defiant streak from.
“That doesn’t mean you can show up whenever the hell you feel like it. I told you last night when
you wanted me to take her, that I had plans.”
“I didn’t realize they were all-night plans,” she sniped. Her lip curled as she took in my
sweatpants and wrinkled shirt. “Who is she? You haven’t been bringing some random whore around
our daughter, have you?”
“First of all, how dare you.” I took a step closer, towering over her. She jumped back, flinching as
if she expected me to hit her. It was all theatrics; she knew damn well I would never hit a woman, no
matter how they tried provoking me. She’d tried getting me to cross that line at the end of our
relationship, and I never gave her the satisfaction of playing her games. “You’ve obviously forgotten
that our daughter is intelligent enough to see what’s going on around her. And, just so you know, I’ve
heard all about thefriendsyou have sleepovers with.”
“Don’t you bring my decisions into this.” She dug her perfectly manicured nails into her palms. “I
need to know that I can trust you to take care of Willow when I leave her with you.”
“Oh, that’s fucking rich.” I laughed, shaking my head. “Everything I do is for her. I bend over
backward to make sure she has as normal a life as possible. Can you say the same?”
She knew she couldn’t.
