Page 51 of After the Vows

Chapter 18

Family night – may involve teasing and poker but always involves whiskey

Lucas

Igroan as I lower myself onto the sofa. I’m exhausted. I thought being a small town cop would be relaxing. I didn’t realize Smuggler’s Hideaway isn’t a typical small town island. If I had, I might not have spent the day arresting women for exposing themselves at theBootleggerbar.

Weston thought it was hilarious. He also ended up asking one of the women out to dinner. Personally, I don’t understand the appeal of a woman who throws herself at you. I much prefer a complicated woman.

Chloe skips down the stairs. Speaking of complicated women.

“You ready?”

“The game doesn’t start for fifteen minutes.”

She rolls her eyes. “Not the game. Are you ready for drunk poker?”

“Drunk poker?”

“I told you it’s family night.”

Shit. I forgot. “Drunk poker is family night?”

“Lily tried doing a monthly Sunday dinner but people kept on cancelling. No one cancels on drunk poker.”

I draw a hand down my beard. I’m tired and have no desire to go anywhere, let alone move from the couch. Natalia is at a friend’s house for dinner and a movie. I thought I had the evening to relax.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. But can I skip this one time?”

“You want to skip this one time?”

I nod. “Yeah. It’s been a hell of a day.”

“So, this is how it works?”

“How what works?” I ask, although I sense I’m walking into a trap.

“I do everything I can to help your family but you won’t spend one night with mine.”

I cringe. She’s right. She has done everything for me. But there’s one flaw in her reasoning.

“Lily and Jack aren’t your real family.”

“How dare you?” She growls. “How dare you say the two adults who helped me to survive my childhood aren’t my family? Do you have any clue what my childhood was like?”

Shit. I fucked up. I stand and prowl toward her. “No, I don’t. Because you won’t tell me.”

“Because I don’t want to talk about it! Would you want to discuss how your mother bullied you? How she starved you? How she locked you in a closet if you didn’t behave?”

My heart seizes at the pain in her voice. “Your mother did what?”

“You want details? I’ll give you details. She forced me to compete in beauty pageants from the time I was five. I hated those pageants. Everything was about your outer appearance. Why do you think I hate being called beautiful?”

A tear slips from her eye and I wipe it away. “We don’t have to discuss this.”

I don’t want her in pain. I never want Chloe to ever feel pain.

“Too bad. You started this. I’m ending it. Whenever I lost a pageant, Mom was convinced it was because I was too fat. I was six years old and she’d starve me. She would send me to school without a lunch and claim I forgot mine at home. It’s hard to forget something that never existed.”

---