Page 56 of Killer Kiss

She scoffed, “Says the man who was willing to eat a grease-filled burger at that diner. It had four patties on it, Augie. Four. I want to have a heart attack just thinking about it. I can actually feel my arteries closing up as we speak.”

She had a point. “I work out enough to not worry about clogged arteries.”

She made a face at me. “Oh yes. I forgot. You’re Mr. Muscles.”

“Glad you noticed.”

She took a sip of her sugar-drenched coffee, but I liked the little smile at the corner of her mouth.

I sipped my tea and stared out the window again. Luna’s daycare was right across the road, and a bunch of toddler-sized kids ran around their fenced-in yard, playing in sand and riding little bikes that didn’t have pedals.

Ophelia followed my line of sight and then cringed. “Ew. Children.”

“You don’t like them?” I asked her.

She held one finger up in my face like I’d just said the most insulting thing ever. “If you’re about to say, ‘You’re thirty-three, Ophelia, Isn’t your biological clock ticking?’ I will lean over this table and punch you right in the nose.”

I grabbed her finger and lowered it to the table.

I didn’t let go of it. “I don’t give a shit whether you want kids of your own or not. I was just asking if you like them.”

“Oh.” The defensiveness fell out of her posture. “Sorry. I heard my mother in my head for a second there, and she makes me crazy.”

I let go of her hand to cup my mug again. “Is she a nightmare?”

“In pretty much every way imaginable. Including wanting to marry me off so I can produce all the pretty babies her heart desires. Well, the babies her heart would want, if she had one.”

I chuckled. “When other people talk about their nightmare parents it makes me glad mine aren’t in the picture.”

Ophelia sat back in her seat, studying me. “Poor little orphan, Augie, huh?”

I shook my head. “Something like that.”

“So no family?”

“No parents. Not no family.” I pointed across the road to the daycare. “One of those kids in there is probably my niece.”

“Ah. So you have a sibling.”

“A brother. He hates my guts though. With good reason. Doesn’t talk to me. Won’t let me see his kid. Can’t blame him. I fucked up.”

Ophelia toyed with the edge of a sugar packet. “Join the club. Tell me how you fucked up and make me feel better for what I did to Fawn.”

I’d never told anyone what I’d done to Banjo. At the time it had all made sense.

I’d thought I was saving him from himself.

But all I’d done was ruin my relationship with the only person, other than Fawn, who I gave a shit about.

Maybe it was about time I confessed my sins.

Seemed like Ophelia had a few of her own, so maybe she wouldn’t judge me quite as harshly. Plus, I didn’t have anyone else to tell. Phoenix and I didn’t do deep and meaningfuls. I could have tried Eve but I already knew how disappointed she would have been in me.

I couldn’t stand to have her look at me like that. Not when I was already rolling around in my own guilt.

But Ophelia was a virtual stranger.

I sighed heavily. “What didn’t I do, might be the better question.”

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