Page 13 of Pretty Nightmare

She will always be the little girl who used to climb out her window and creep into the woods.

She will always be the little girl who used to go to church with me.

And now, I take her daughter to church instead.

It’s kinda hard to wrap my head around that.

“I’m sleeping with you tonight,” she says.

“Yup. It’s my night.”

Her eyes twinkle a little bit. “We could mess around a little. If you want.”

“Uhhh…” I don’t know how to answer that. It’s not like I’m not attracted to Indie. She’s a beautiful creature. Very smart. Very capable. Very sexy. But she’s got a big ol’ mess of lovely darkness hiding inside her.

Looking at her right now, and thinking about her offer—well, that’s like being on your knees, leaning over so you can look down the rabbit hole. You don’t know what’s down there. Could be an amazing trip of epic proportions. Could be just a pretty little nightmare waiting to happen.

She gets up and extends her hand to me. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”

She could be my wife.

I mean, she’s never going to be my wife. But she could be. I stole her daughter, didn’t I? I’m that girl’s father now. No way in hell anyone can take that away from me. So Indie could be my wife. We could just… slip into this. Easily. We have Old Home. We have each other. We have everything we need to grab the good old American Dream. We could have more children if we wanted. And things would turn out differently this time.

I would not turn into my father.

We could start over.

And maybe… just maybe… McKay would join us.

Could McKay ever do that? Will he ever love me the way I love him?

“Stop thinking so hard.”

I take Indie’s hand and let her pull me to my feet. Then I click off the TV and we walk through the mosquito netting all lit up with fairy lights, and head towards the house.

She holds my hand as we walk, squeezing it a little. It feels natural, but then again, weird.

This girl—woman, now, I suppose—she has been off limits to me for so long. It’s really hard to get that out of my head. And sometimes, when I look at Maggie, I see Indie.

It’s just… weird.

Indie doesn’t lead me to the front porch. She takes me around the side. “Where are we going?”

“To spy on them, of course.”

“Ahh, I don’t know.”

She stops us on the side of the house in front of the office window. “Stop being a baby. Don’t you want to be with McKay?”

And this is weird too. Since when do I talk about my feelings with Indie? With anyone, actually?

“You’re really trying hard to find an excuse, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.” It comes out defensive. “Of course I love McKay. Of course I want to be with him.”

“So what’s the problem?”

I hesitate. She just shakes her head at me and drops my hand. “Fine. Then stay here. I’ll spy.”