Page 3 of CurVy Baby

Dexter: Give your husband a message from me.

Vallie: ?

Dexter: Your wife is mine the first night I get out. I will be taking her to a hotel so that her moans do not disturb Tyler.

Vallie: *blush* So, that wasn’t just a sexting scene? To make me come on your sheets. Imaginary…

Dexter: Oh no. No, no, Baby Girl. That wasn’t imaginary. That was an itinerary.

CHAPTER ONE

DEXTER

Release Day

It is midday by the time I exit the prison. I swing the bag over my shoulder, grip the strap, head high, and walk through the first row of fences, then the second, between dual brick watch towers, and I am free.

That is the last time.

I lift my chin and inhale. The last time. I stride on. I’m following the wall towards the rear parking lot when I hear, “Hey, Monster!”

I stop midstride.

My muscles roll under her voice and her use of the word Monster. A term she gave me when she believed I was one. Perhaps I was. When I was drinking, when I was fucking mouths, paying fifty dollars a pop and not worrying about the person on the end of it. I used women. Like they were holes.

But that is not me.

Not with her.

Daddy…

Scanning the carpark, my eyes land on Tyler, my little brother, first, noting the clarity in his gaze. He is obviously taking his medication. This is good.

I tear my eyes from him and see Donnie, Vallie, and— I look down… Molly. The reason I spent five months in prison. The little girl I picked up outside her abusive mother’s house with no devious intentions. Drunk out of my mind. Not thinking. Single-minded. I just wanted to repay the favour. She had brought me water once when I was passed out in my own piss and vomit. I wanted to return the kindness. I only wished to offer her food—she was far too skinny—a shower and new clothes. Not the dirty ones she lived in each day.

Christ.

And I can barely recognise her.

My hand comes to my mouth, my brows pitch above burning eyes. She is clean, a peach summer dress dangling to her calves. Her cheeks are round and rosy.

I clear my throat when Tyler begins to jog towards me. Always has to be first. My baby brother. I have to make it up to him, too. For all the years I was absent, drunk, careless, and neglectful. I can do that now.

I can guide him now.

Support him on his path to greatness.

He collides with me, and I wrap my arms around him, holding him, using my entire body to convey how I feel, how sorry I am, how I’ll show him the new me.

The sober me.

Who is present.

“Hey, Ty.” I squeeze. “You seem good.”

“Clear as a diamond!” Tyler confirms.

“With a few inclusions,” Vallie adds, joining his side.

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