“Yeah, well you’re not the only one with a life, Corey.” The accusatory tone in her voice would
have felt like a slap if I wasn’t used to her games.
“And I choose to live my life on the weekends I’m not taking care of our daughter, Lisa. Maybe
it’s time you do the same.”
“That would be great, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, something came up. Please, Corey,” she
whined. It wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t let Jack down again, and I wasn’t about to give William
any reason to go back to treating me like I was incompetent.
I thumped the palm of my hand against the steering wheel as traffic got heavier. For once, I’d left
work in a good mood, despite the never-ending barrage of customers who thought they should get
special pricing. I was not going to let Lisa and this tangle of traffic kill my mood.
And okay, so maybe part of the reason I was excited about work was getting to see William again.
He scared me, but all it took was one dose of what life could be like and I’d been hooked. It was
stupid to think the other night meant anything more to him than helping out someone who was afraid to
explore their fantasies, just like he did almost every night he was at the club.
“You know I would if I could, Lisa.”Even if I should say no to you because every time I say yes,
only seems to make things worse, a little voice in the back of my mind added. “It’s not that I don’t
want to spend time with Willow, or that I’m trying to be difficult here, but you have to get better about
planning. I know it’s not your sister’s job to watch Willow, but when you have something come up,
you need to figure out if it’s worth calling someone other than me to watch her for you.”
“It’s not like you’re a babysitter,” she sniped. God, this woman was something else. I’d say I
wondered what I ever saw in her, but really, what do most awkward teen boys see when a pretty girl
starts paying them attention. Yes, I was weak. I’d been blinded by her interest in me, and now I was
bound to her for at least the next fourteen years. We’d known one another a third of our lives, and it
was sad to see how much she’d changed. “You’re her father, Corey. You should want to spend time
with her.”
“Don’t even start with that shit, Lisa,” I warned her. Some asshole cut me off and I laid on the
horn. Traffic slowed to a crawl. I thumped my forehead against the steering wheel as I waited for the
mess in front of me to clear up. This was not how today was supposed to go. “You have zero room to
lecture me about wanting to spend time with Willow. One of us is running ourselves into the ground
trying to make sure she’s taken care of and, let me tell you, sweetheart, it ain’t you.”
