She exhaled a disgusted huff, then spun on her heel and stomped her way up the hill.
To Ashlyn’s house.
“What the hell?”
She let herself inside, closing the slider and disappearing into the darkness of the house.
I glanced past the house to the driveway and spotted a red convertible next to Ashlyn’s SUV.Fuck.I didn’t notice she had company.And I went and scared the woman and acted like an asshole.
I dragged myself back to my house, my jeans rubbing against my thighs with each step.In my rush to confront the trespasser, I shoved my feet into slides, something I regretted as I made my way home and stepped on a twig.“Fuck,” I hissed.
Great fucking day.
I examined my foot, finding a scratch that was seeping blood onto my shoe.Nothing to do but keep going.
Evie was at the counter when I walked inside, staring at the stove like it was going to make breakfast for her.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I said, walking over to her and giving her a hug.I kissed the top of her head.“What do you want for breakfast?”
She shrugged.
“Last exam, then you’re officially a high school graduate.Are you excited?”
A hint of a smile accompanied that shrug.
“How about dinner tonight?”
She lifted green eyes to mine.“Can we go to Lakeside Bistro?”
I pressed my lips together to hide my smirk.I figured she’d want to go to the nicest restaurant in town.“Craving a steak?”
“Always,” she said without hesitation.
I chuckled.“Sure.”
“Yes!”She threw her hands up in victory.“Thanks, Dad.You’re the best.”
“You’re going to milk this all summer, aren’t you?”
She nodded.“Yep.”
“You deserve it.I know you’ve worked hard to do well.And we only have two months until orientation, so we need to pack in as much as we can.”
“Mom said the same thing.”
I bit back a scowl at the mention of my ex-wife.Hannah was a pain in my ass, but she was a good mother.I never spoke poorly of her in front of my daughter, no matter how many times Hannah manipulated our lives to get what she wanted.
“You didn’t make coffee,” she said, sliding off the stool.
“Sorry.I’ll do it in a second.”I remembered my bleeding foot.It wasn’t bad, but it needed to be cleaned up.“Let me take care of this quickly.”
Evie nodded and preceded me down the hallway to her room.She closed her door, and I crossed through my bedroom to my bathroom.I made quick work of the cut, hoping I wouldn’t need to ask Christy to check it out.My best friend and neighbor was a nurse in the emergency department.She would complain, as she always did when Oscar and I asked for her services, but she always helped us out.Oscar, Christy, and I grew up together.The two of them were the closest thing I had to family besides my seventeen-year-old daughter.
Ten minutes later, my foot was fine, coffee was brewed, and French toast was on the stovetop.
“Did you make French toast?”Evie asked as she walked back into the kitchen, dressed for her last exam in shorts that made me cringe and a top that could not possibly be within the dress code.
I nodded, not commenting on her clothes since the school didn’t have air-conditioning and it was going to be in the nineties by lunch.And far too soon, she was going to college, and I wouldn’t know what she was wearing, let alone be able to say anything about it.
