Page 5

Not that I had asked.

It felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle that was us. I also didn’t have the damned box to know what the puzzle was supposed to look like. It was all a mess.

In the four years since I had River, she had kept the equivalent of a ten-foot pole between us. I was close with everyone else at the company, except the owner, Fai, who was rarely around these days, having handed the reins to Goldie. She was close with everyone as well, and the owner was family to her. You’d think we would have grown at least friendly over the years, but nope. I had accepted that she didn’t like me and, well… I felt the same.

Kind of.

I was mostly annoyed at her.

I knew I had faults; hell, I was extraordinarily aware of them. My shortfalls and weaknesses plagued me day in and day out. I would always be second best in my life, but I was the first to admit that. I knew I struggled at work, often. Timelines, schedules, and deadlines were hard to follow when raising a kid on your own, but I was doing my best. I just wished she had shown me grace, accepting that I was human and bound to make mistakes.

If she were anyone else, I would write her off and cut her out of my life. But she was Oliver’s friend and my boss, and despite the struggles, I liked my job and wanted to keep it. I needed to be on my best behavior for the next few months; I couldn’t put my job at risk.

Oliver waltzed through the front door at just the perfect time.

“I come bearing dessert!” he called into the house, holding a bag with the local bakery’s logo plastered on the front. He ruffled Violet’s hair as he passed her. “Vi, you need to tell me how practice went today.”

Violet, at sixteen, acted as though she didn’t like the care from her dad, but I could see her eyes light up at the sight of him. I hoped that I was doing enough right that River would look at me the same way someday.

“Can I actually talk to you?” I interrupted.

Oliver looked at me concerned, and then back to Violet. “Are you okay waiting a bit while I talk to Uncle Lex?”

While he loved me, his kids and wife were always his first priority. Just as River was mine.

She nodded. “Maybe we can play tonight, and we can talk then?”

Oliver smiled wide and pulled Violet into a side hug, planting a kiss on the top of her head. While she had officially passed Theo in height at five foot six, she would never surpass her dad. I mean, who could? My brother was six-five. He made my six-one look short in comparison.

“I’m yours whenever you need me, kid. Where’s your mom?” Violet pointed over her shoulder toward the kitchen as she wandered toward the living room couch.

Oliver turned to me. “Let me drop this off and check in on Theo, then we can chat. Everything okay?”

I nodded. “Just need your advice on some work shi—” I glanced at Violet and back to him with an apologetic wince, “—stuff.”

He patted my shoulder and wandered into the kitchen.

I made my way toward my old room, drawn there by nothing more than habit. It had always been a calming space for me—the last place I’d lived before becoming a father. I would never regret having River, but it was hard not to feel nostalgic for the absolute freedom I used to have. The familiar band posters still covered the walls, and my old college textbooks sat neatly on the shelves. Yet even this room hadn't escaped the shift; my mom had added a pull-out couch so River and I both had a place to sleep when we stayed over. River's existence had rewritten my entire world, down to my childhood bedroom, and I loved him for it. He was my little twin, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything.

A few minutes later, Oliver wandered in, carrying two beers.

He handed one to me and claimed a spot at the foot of the bed next to me. “What’s going on?”

I took a heavy swig of the beer, letting the cold liquid wash down my throat. “Did you hear about the case Goldie wants me to work on?”

Oliver smirked and nodded. “I heard her ranting about it today.”

I groaned, because of course she was. I kept my dislike for her well hidden; she wore her dislike for me like a badge of honor. “Do you know why she hates me so much? It has to be more than my sometimes shitty work.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “Your work isn’t shitty. It’s good. You’re good. Sure, sometimes you miss deadlines, but you have a lot going on. We all know that.”

“Goldie doesn’t seem to get that,” I complained.

“Look, I don’t know why the dynamic you two have is so weird, but I do know Goldie wouldn’t dislike you for no reason,” he explained. He had been working with Goldie since she was only fifteen years old. After these last twelve years, they had grown close. He had practically watched her grow up over the years. “Just talk to her, man. The two of you are like a pair of pissed-off kittens who keep hissing at each other."

“I just need you to tell me how to get through working directly with her,” I explained. It was true I had never outright asked why she was perpetually upset with me. I never felt like we were close enough for me to. I simply suspected it was irrational.

But if Oliver was right, I had done something. Which wasn’t entirely unexpected. I had never not claimed that I was a fuck-up. I was acutely aware of who I was. Hell, I was a single dad to an awesome kid whose mother’s last name I didn’t even know until I got his birth certificate in the mail.