Page 8 of My Almost Ex

Her shoulders fall and she slowly pivots around to face me. “I don’t remember any of that.”

“It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

She crouches and buries her head in her hands. “You hate me!”

Fuck me.My jaw tenses and my fists clench at my sides. “I don’t hate you. I—”

“Lucy!” Susan screams from the balcony of the inn, then rushes down the stairs toward us.

“Fucking hell,” I murmur.

Lucy’s head flies up. “So you hate her too?”

I shake my head and don’t answer because Lucy doesn’t remember the hell they put her through. All she must remember are her parents from when she was younger. I’m sure not going to be the one to help her figure this out.

“You can’t just take her like that,” Susan says when she reaches us, trying to catch her breath.

Mandi is right behind her, along with my stepbrother Jed. He sighs and gives me that look to say this sucks.

Yeah, tell me about it.

“I didn’t take her,” I grind out.

“You expect me to believe that? You have a new girlfriend, why don’t you just keep moving on?”

Lucy stands, and her mom wraps her arm around Lucy’s shoulders.

“Susan, you’re being unfair,” Mandi says. “I was there. Lucy wanted to talk to Adam.”

“I did, Mom,” Lucy says.

I blow out a breath and run my hand through my hair, pulling at my neck to relieve the tension building there.

Susan ignores Lucy’s comment. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you inside.”

“She’s not ten,” I say.

Jed groans.

Mandi sighs.

Susan stops and turns around. “Your animosity toward me isn’t going to help her.”

“Maybe a call from Idaho would’ve been helpful.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Jed puts his arm around my shoulders, as if I’m drunk or something.

“Listen to your stepbrother, Adam. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.” She walks away, Lucy’s eyes filled with questions.

Once they’re gone, I sit down and lean back, staring at the sky and wondering how the fuck I got here. Jed falls down next to me and Mandi follows. No one says anything. They don’t give me advice or tell me what to do. They just lie there and let me collect my thoughts.

How can Susan Davis find our family so despicable? We’re there for one another all the damn time, which is more than I can say for her.

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