Page 98 of After the Vows

“You never minded it when people disrespected me,” Holly claims.

“Maybe because your idea of disrespect was when a waitress didn’t rush to fulfill every one of your needs.”

“It’s literally her job.”

“I’m done.” I’m not allowing Natalia to hear any more venom come out of her mother’s mouth. “Let’s go, Natalia.”

I lead her to the door. I don’t have a plan. All I know is I won’t allow Natalia to witness this scene any longer. I should have left the second I realized her mom was here. But I thought Holly would at least pretend to be excited to see the daughter she hasn’t seen in a year. My bad.

Holly runs ahead of us and bars the door. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“We’ll go out the back door.” I whirl around.

Lucas growls before stepping beside me. “Touch her and you and I are going to have even bigger problems than we already have.”

I glance over my shoulder and notice Holly has her hand lifted as if to slap me. Unfortunately, I’m familiar with how a woman who’s about to lose her shit and slap me appears.

There’s a knock on the door before it opens and Weston enters.

“Hey, bro. Heard you might need an assist.”

Lucas nods to me and his daughter. “Can you get them out of here?”

I frown. Get us out of here? Not his ex?

He kisses my forehead. “I need to discuss some things with Holly. I’ll come get you when she’s gone.”

“Gone? I’m not leaving!” Holly shouts.

“My mom is waiting outside with the car,” Weston says.

I wrap an arm around Natalia’s shoulders. “You wanna go to Grandma Lily’s house?”

“Can we watch a movie?”

“Yep. I bet she’ll bake us some cookies if we ask real nice.”

Weston accompanies us to the door.

“Bye, Mom.” Natalia waves. “We’ll do some fun stuff when I get home from Grandma’s house.”

Holly forces a smile on her face. “We will, baby. We will.”

Not if I can help it, they won’t. This woman is toxic. I don’t want her anywhere near Natalia.

Lily rushes forward. “Natalia! Are you ready to come to my house? We can bake some cookies.”

“What kind of cookies?” she asks.

“What kind is your favorite? We can stop at the grocery store for ingredients.”

Weston shuts the door behind us. “I could go for some cookies.”

Lily frowns at him. “You can have cookies when you give me grandchildren.”

He grins. “I’d break all the women’s hearts in Smuggler’s Hideaway if I chose to settle down with one woman.”

“My son.” Lily shakes her head. “He won’t know what hit him when he falls in love.”

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