Page 134 of Fire for Effect

My ex-wife was ready to bolt for the door, and I had brow beat her into being here. I grabbed her by the arm, and turned her face to me, the anger of what I had learned simmering beneath the surface.

“You’re going to say two things to our daughter,” I growled, staring down my former flame with a curling resentment in my chest. “You will tell her Congratulations, and that she’s beautiful. That is it, you got it?”

I stuck a reprimanding finger at her nose, towering over her as she looked up at me with those stubborn, cerulean eyes.

Thirty years ago, that stubbornness was what had charmed me in the first place. But the more I knew my daughter, the deeper my disappointment.

Teresa was not the woman I had almost given up everything for. She was… someone I didn’t recognize.

If only my body got the fucking memo.

Three decades hadn’t dulled her shine. Her heart shaped face, and little upturned nose, and lush, straight lips still made my head spin. Even her perfume - amber and gardenia - brought back a host of memories I would rather forget.

“You’ve been in her life for two minutes and you think you can tell me how to talk to my daughter?” Her eyes narrowed, causing a wrinkle on the edges. “Who is this guy she’s marrying, huh? How do you know he’s good enough for her?”

“He’s taken a bullet for her three times,” I said through my clenched teeth. “Pretty confident he’s earned this.”

Teri rolled her eyes. “Oh, sure, Joe. Of all the shit you’ve told me, that one sounds like the biggest bullshi—”

I clamped my hand over her mouth, and she mumbled into my palm.

“I don’t give a fuck what you think,” I brought us nose to nose, pushing her against the back of the bench seat that were used as pews for the ceremony. “You spoil our daughter’s wedding day, and I swear to God, I will put you over my knee and spank you until you can’t sit down.”

She narrowed her eyes even more - a real feat.

“We are staying through this reception, and you will play fucking nice, and not ruin this for Trinity.”

She stared up at me, and I looked down at her. I didn’t care that we were making a spectacle of ourselves. The people around us shuffled out of their seats, down to the bar, and to the buffet barbecue.

“I’m not bluffing about the spanking,” I warned.

Teri nodded her head, and I slowly removed my palm, giving her a chance to speak.

“She’s not your daughter,” she said with venom.

“And yet she has my eyes,” I taunted back, coming to my feet, and extending my hand to her.

She took it, and pulled her self up. “You’re a sperm donor at best.”

“That might be true,” I admitted, before I looked down my nose at her. “But only one of us has an invitation to this wedding.”

The hurt in her eyes was unmistakable. Her pain shot through me like a punch to the gut. I had to remind myself that she deserved this. That this was her doing.

So why did I bring her here?

I had no fucking clue. Fatherhood had made me an idiot, apparently.

I extended my elbow out to her, and smiled. “You ready to go, plus one?”

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