We stopped at the foot of the four steps that led to thefront door.
A sudden wind swept through, taking wisteria petals with it,and they floated with the glitter in the air between us.
I’d already fallen in lust, but being that close to him, forthe first time thinking this was a different kind of Disney, the adult kind,but it wasn’t from hell in the slightest, I fell a whole lot deeper.
Loren’s eyes moved down my length and then up, withoutshowing even a smidgeon of real interest, and it was then I becameuncomfortably mindful of the fact that I was on display.
A ware.
He was adukeling.
Royal.
And in this moment, he could take me.
Or pass.
“She’ll do,” he murmured.
My lips parted in shock.
They did this not only at his words.
They stayed this way when he turned and strolled into thehouse, disappearing in the shadows, not uttering another sound.
Chapter Three
Scarlett O’Hara
Maxine
Hawkvale
PinkwickHouse
The Parallel
I stood, staring out the window at thegathering clouds, the same, figuratively, forming in my head.
Prior to his most recent betrayal, I hadn’t seen my fatherin over a year.Mom hadn’t seen him in a lot longer.Life was good.Healthy.She was dating that nice Keith.I had a decent job I liked that paid okay, andI loved our residents at the over-fifties community I managed.
We were steady.
Safe.
Why did we both run to him when he called (or, as it was,texted)?
Yes, he said it was urgent.
Yes, he said he was terribly ill.
But he was a conman with a charlatan’s heart and a grifter’ssoul, and his gut instinct was always to fend best for himself even if doing someant he lay devastation in his wake.
We’d learned that time and again.
When did you stop hoping your father would become aworthwhile human being?
The answer to that question for me, apparently, was…on hisdeathbed.
