Alex made a sound—moving away and out of my reach. “Fuck you twice,” he replied, but I didn’t imagine that time.
That sound... was a laugh.
Chapter Nine
Utensils clinked. Glass thudded on wood. Chewing filled the air. The air conditioner rattled and hummed.
If I thought a family dinner would defuse the tension and clear the space for conversation, my delusions were soundly and thoroughly popped.
Every attempt at conversation I made was only picked up by Lily—the only person in the room who wanted to talk to me. Thirty minutes into the awkward silences, I was on the edge of giving up.
“So—” How in the hell did I become Davis 2.0? “What does everyone think of bulgogi? Yea or nay?”
Micah rolled his eyes. He picked up his wineglass—filled with the merlot he pointedly stood up and rescued after being told I chose to serve the strawberry-ade. “We’ve had bulgogi before, Sue. We’re not the uncultured swine you think we are.”
“Oh.”
I thought he’d say more. Nothing came.
I turned my smile on Lily. The five of us were sitting at a dining table built to hold twenty. I sat at the head of the table with Lily sitting directly to my right. All three of the guys sat at the opposite end, making the distance between us literal. “What do you think, baby girl?”
“Mmmm.” She tipped her head to the ceiling—little face scrunched up in thought. “It’s okay.”
“Okay enough that you’ll take leftovers to school tomorrow for lunch?”
That got another ponder. “Mmm, no, thanks, Mommy. Tomorrow is pizza day.”
“Course it is,” I muttered. “My cooking doesn’t beat out microwaved pizza, but I bet you don’t have these mixed feelings about boogers.”
“Ewwww!” she squealed.
“You ewwww! I know you’re a booger-eater just like your mama!”
“Nooo!” she carried on, nearly pitching over and laughing herself out of her seat.
Eeee!
Three chairs scraped across the hardwood.
“Time for bed, Lilybug.” Micah set his empty glassdown next to his full plate. “Daddies will race you.”
“Okay!”
“Wait,” I cried, jumping up. “I can do Lily’s bedtime routine tonight if you want—”
“No need.” Rhodes scooped up a giggling Lily mid-run. “You did the cooking, so you just relax. We’ll get Lily down and then clean the kitchen.”
“But—”
They were already gone.
Blowing out a breath, I turned my attention to clearing the table and washing the dishes despite Rhodes’s offer. Truth was, both Courtney and Alex got me thinking I was spending too much time playing homemaker and hiding in the house because I didn’t know how to move forward from here.
I knew I wanted my chance to graduate from college, and that I wanted a degree that would help me serve lost and abandoned people who had to watch all of their dreams get stolen from them, but knowing wasn’t the first step to doing like so many thought.
Money was the first step to doing. And that was one thing I had none of.
Giving everything in Sue’s bank account to Lily was the right thing to do, and I’d do the same thing again, but it didn’t leave me with any of that steal-my-life-back-from-that-treacherous-bitch money I was counting on.
