“Why do you look so terrified?” Cash asks me.
I shift in the plastic chair, uncomfortable.
“I was thinking about your mom framing my dad,” I answer honestly.
Cash nods, the ends of his hair the only part still wet in the heat.
“I’m sorry she did that,” he apologizes.
I wave him off with an exaggerated flick of my wrist. “No worries.”
Cash scoffs. “I think my mom almost ruining your life is not something we should say ‘no worries’ to.”
My face heats. Just a little.
And it hits me how Wilder never makes me feel this way. He never makes me feel like I’m saying the wrong thing.
“She’s in jail,” I say bluntly, watching as Cash flinches. “Pretty sure justice is going to take care of itself there.”
“Fair point,” he concedes as if this conversation is a fight only one of us can win.
“How are you, uh…” I trail off as I scratch the back of my neck. “Handling all of that?”
Cash shrugs. “I wish I had a normal family.”
I laugh softly. “I don’t think they exist.”
“Something like normal then,” he rephrases.
“I think we all want that,” I muse. “People who love and accept us without having to earn it.”
“A home that doesn’t feel like a warzone,” Cash thoughtfully adds.
I slowly nod my head. “Yeah.”
“Why do people have to fight all the time?” he asks me.
Isla.
She instantly comes to mind.
And Jason and Jill.
They’re always at war. Always trying to diplomatically deal with Queen Isla and her ruthless demands.
“I think people are selfish,” I say to him. “Not inherently. But they want their way and they get angry when they don’t get it.”
Isla wants my bedroom for a nursery. Jason and Jill want peace and quiet.
But they don’t realize that I live there, too. And I’m the one always absorbing the tension whether that’s their intention or not.
“Both my parents are selfish,” Cash exhales hard. “I don’t want to be like them, Ingrid.”
I shake my head as the sun dips below the horizon. “You won’t be.”
Hechuckles softly. “I always thought it would have been nice to be born into a family like yours.”
I smile. “Jason and Jill are okay, but the real problem is Isla.”
