Page 46 of Snow Harm, No Foul

My ex-boyfriend spins on his heels and stalks out of the room before slamming the door shut behind him. The loud noise jolts through my system, waking me from the daze Niko found himself in alongside me.

I fall down from the high with a startling realization. Pawing at Niko’s shoulders, I shove him from my chest and press a hand to my mouth.

“Oh, my god.”

“Gonna take a shot in the dark and guess the wind didn’t blow that door shut,” he mutters, swiping his hair from his face.

“More like a storm.”

And now we’ve got to go withstand its incoming blows.

14

NIKO

My son hasn’t takenme by surprise in over a decade.

Being handed Tanya’s positive pregnancy test beneath rusted football field bleachers had me wondering if I’d shit my pants from utter shock. The sight of Travis’s first scraped and bloody knee at two years old was enough to have me rushing us to the hospital, only to be scolded for overreacting.

I was expecting Tanya to leave me and for our son to choose to move in with only her. When he stopped accepting my invites to hang out on a rare weekend when I wasn’t working, I took it on the chin as if it was a fair punishment for my lack of free time. Maybe he had wanted me to fight his mother for split custody, and I’d let him down by allowing her to have her way, or maybe he just simply didn’t like me.

Regardless of the why, I learned to stop expecting much from our relationship. We’re strangers forced together by social events and holidays.

I take the small moments he offers me to try and learn something about him, but he’s never shared that initiative. I’ve failed us, and I wear that with a deep sense of shame.

If I thought he cared about closing the chasm between us, I’d try harder. But after this long, I know that’s not somethinghe’s interested in. What he walked in on only reinforced his disappointment in me.

I can’t apologize for this choice, though. It’s not a mistake, and I refuse to make it into one.

Ivy’s worried frown has my annoyance with my son growing tenfold. She’s lost in her head while she dresses, her movements rushed and anxious after telling me it was Travis who caught us in the act.

Sure, it doesn’t help that she doesn’t have any clothes here besides the dress she showed up in yesterday. I’m caveman enough to have suggested she put my shirt back on.

She didn’t entertain me with a reply to that. Hell, I barely got confirmation that it was my son who walked in on us, so I knew not to push for anything else.

My jeans are constricting as I sit perched on the edge of the bed and scrape a hand over my bearded jaw. It’s scraggly from not being groomed in two days, but fuck it. My son just saw me balls-deep in his ex-girlfriend’s ass, so something tells me an untrimmed beard won’t matter much.

“Why is he even here?” Ivy asks accusingly, but it’s hard to tell who or what she’s actually accusing.

“I didn’t invite him, angel. I’m surprised the roads were plowed enough for him to get here. They must have been out before the snow even stopped.”

She sighs heavily and pushes her hair behind her shoulders. It’s messy and knotted but still glossy. Beneath the mess of old makeup, under-eye circles, and pale skin, there’s something different about her now than there was three weeks ago. It’s obvious to me. She’s happy.

I did that. I’ve made her happy.

And Travis being here is not only a reminder of a time in her life when she was hurting, but it also ruins my plans of ravaging her all fucking day until she demanded we finishgetting everything ready for the Christmas event. It’s only one day away, and with the storm, everything is going to be rushed.

I’m prepared to do everything I can to help her get it figured out.

“I’m sorry he saw us like that,” she murmurs, fidgeting with the sleeve of her dress.

I release a disgruntled noise. “Don’t be. Fuckin’ awkward as it is, I didn’t miss the irony of it.”

“Irony?”

“He hates anal and big tits but caught me takin’ your ass’s virginity while suckin’ on your nipples.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then she’s belting out in loud, unabashed laughter. Something tight releases in my chest at the sight and sound, and I let myself smile.

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