Page 35 of On the Rocks

“But I’m hungry again.”

I laughed. “Good luck with that.”

Dominic rolled his eyes as Hailey dragged him to the door. “If you need me, I’m apparently working from the cafeteria today.”

There was a long moment of silence once they were gone, then Cora cleared her throat. “So, uh…Hailey is Dominic’s daughter?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, showing off the blush in her cheeks, and I wanted to reach out and stroke her cheekbone.God, get it together.

She shook her head. “He, um…He seems really stressed.”

“That’s an understatement. His ex is dragging out their custody battle,” I said. “I swear he looks more rundown with every passing week.”

“That’s rough,” Cora said softly, her words sympathetic.

“He’s obviously trying to spend as much time with Hailey as he can, you know, to keep her from feeling too much upheaval.”

“Right. That’s good.”

“But Amanda’s been threatening to sue for full custody if he doesn’t give into her demands about her divorce settlement.” Saying it out loud made me hate Dominic’s witch of an ex even more. The way Amanda used his love for Hailey to try and control him, to try to squeeze more money out of him, made me sick. This was exactly why love wasn’t worth the effort. All it did was hurt you in the end. I hated the way Dominic was suffering.

Cora winced. “That’s really horrible.”

“It sucks. I don’t even know what to say half the time or how to help him. He’s juggling all his responsibilities here and at home, keeping Hailey happy, talking to his lawyer every damn day…” And I couldn’t even find a few hours to help Cora with the reunion Trish had just dumped on her.

NowIwas embarrassed.

“I get it,” Cora said. “That’s a lot to be dealing with, and Dominic needs your support right now. If you really can’t make time for the reunion, I understand. I can handle it on my own.”

I ran my hand down my face. “No, wait…”

She tilted her head, her expression hopeful. “It really shouldn’t be that much work if we’re both there,” she said hesitantly.

My hands dropped to my hips. “Tell me again what Trish said.”

“Everything’s booked and paid for,” Cora said, counting the points off on her fingers. “Trish already has volunteers to help with setup; we just need to be there to oversee the decorating and food delivery. And, if Trish doesn’t make it back from her cruise in time, we might have to spend a few minutes playing host at the event.”

“It does sound manageable,” I said. Cora stared at me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth in a horribly distracting way. She was close enough I could have counted her freckles. Did I want to do this? No. Did I have time? I supposed I could make time. “Fine. I will do my part.”

A smile bloomed across her face. “Good. Great! I haven’t been back home for a while. My mom will be ecstatic.”

“I haven’t been back in years,” I admitted. After my parents split when I was in college, my mom moved to Ohio to be closer to my grandparents. My dad hung around until he’d hit his thirty years with the paper mill and retired. Then he’d made the move to Manhattan. There hadn’t been any reason for me to go back. “Might be nice to visit the old place.”

Revisit some memories.

Cora was rambling again, talking logistics, but my mind was running back over some of those memories. High school. The football team. Cora. Especially Cora. As I looked at her now, I couldn’t help remembering what we used to get up to. A very vivid image surfaced—us tangled in the backseat of my pickup—and I swallowed hard, pushing it away.

That was a long time ago.

And we weren’t those kids anymore.

I rubbed my eyes, taking a break from staring at my emails. There were still a million things to do to get Elixir Free off the ground—besides the work Cora and her team were doing—and every time I responded to an email, five more appeared in my inbox. I leaned back in my chair, staring out across the city, wondering if I’d made a mistake agreeing to help with the reunion. I really didn’t have time for it. But it was too late now. I couldn’t back out on Cora. My phone buzzed, and I pulled it from my pocket, finding an all-caps text from Vincent.

IT’S HAPPENING!!?!?!!!

What’s happening?

THE BABY!

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