Page 107 of Seven of Hearts

She scoffed. “Because it’s Christmas. I’m here to spend it with my family.”

A shadow loomed behind me. I knew without looking that it was Will. Leah couldn’t get up that fast, and there was no way my siblings would give Cheryl the time of day.

“You wouldn’t turn me away on Christmas, would you?” She was back to using guilt trips. The same thing she used to do to get me to send her money for years. “I just?—”

“What do you want, Cheryl?” I was done playing games.

She blinked for a moment. I wasn’t coddling her anymore. I wasn’t playing the role of the compassionate son who had hoped she would change.

She wouldn’t.

She was the same selfish woman who had chosen to beef up her income by selling drugs in the carpool line. She was the same person who had pushed those substances to my classmates and put one of them in a casket. She was the same mother who had hidden her stash under my baby sister’s crib, not caring that she was putting us all in danger if someone came looking for it. She was the exact same woman whose choices had put us through hell for years.

“I need cash.”

I laughed, because she was done trying to hide it. She didn’t give a shit about what she had done or who she had hurt.

“I told you. I’m done giving you money.”

“But I’m out of what I had left on my books,” she whined. “Are you still giving your father money? It’s not fair if you give him money and not me.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“Logan—”

“No,” I clipped. “You have been out of my life longer now than when you were in it when I was I child. That makes you nothing more than a ghost to me. I don’t care if you stay in town, but you will leave me and my family alone.”

Her jaw clenched in a tight line. “Fine. This isn’t even your house. Let me talk to your sisters and Hunter. I know they’re here.”

“He speaks for theentirefamily,” Will said from behind me.

“How dare you?—”

“How dare I what?” I said. “How dare I put my family first? I can see how that would be a new concept for you. So let me be abundantly clear. You will leave us alone, or I’ll file a restraining order. I’m sure the court would love to see that piece of paper with your name on it.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Cheryl glowered, then slowly backed away, muttering under her breath about ungrateful children.

Finally, she disappeared down the driveway and out of our lives.

The cocktail of rage and adrenaline crashed immediately. “I need a minute,” I said as I slipped out the door and headed down to the dock. But to my surprise, Will followed.

We sat in silence, watching the rippling water across the bay. Everything was quiet. Peaceful. I expected the ferocity and rage from the confrontation to make me crash to a record low. But, to my surprise, it didn’t. I felt the same peace that the waves did, gently lapping against the shoreline.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken charge in your house,” I said after a long stretch of silence.

Will hunched forward and rested his elbows on his knees. There was a smile on his face. “Do you remember when Kris and I started dating? You were wary of me.”

I remembered it well. After my parents went to jail, I didn’t trust anyone, much less people who seemed too good to be true.

But Will had always been a man of his word.

“You had a lot of responsibility that you didn’t get credit for,” he said. “You and Kristin handled the kids. You were privy to how bad things were, but you still helped Kris protect their innocence. And I know it scared you to have me step into a dynamic that was already precarious. So I made you a promise that I wasn’t trying to take your place as the man of the house.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “This is still your family, Logan. Leah and your baby should, first and foremost, be your priority. But you always have us. Today you were the man of the house. You handled business to protect them just like you did when y’all were living in the trailer in Havelock. And you know what that tells me?”

“What?” I croaked out as emotion pricked at my throat.

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