Page 20 of My Mistake To Make

‘Mhmm.’ Bo mumbles around a mouth full of sandwich. ‘Mama didn’t have time.’

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full, honey,’ I say softly before taking a big bite.

‘Well, it’s a good thing your dad has all the time in the world for you, then.’

I shoot my sister a warning glance. She’s skating toward thin ice, and she knows it. She dislikes my ex as much as me, but her niece doesn’t need to know that.

It’s not just that she’s my ex, and that shit is always awkward. She’s—and I don’t say this lightly—a scheming, oxygen-stealing bitch.

We dated in high school. I thought she was my forever. I loved her, and she said she loved me too, then she cheated on me. She said it was a mistake and begged my forgiveness, and like the idiot I am, I believed her, then she did it again and again. We broke up, and I went off to college and never planned to come back except for holidays. I graduated, got a place, set up my business, and started living a great life.

Then one Christmas, I was home, I drank too much and woke up next to Jessie. I hightailed it out of there and didn’t look back until my sisters showed up at my door and told me I needed to get back to town. Jessie was pregnant and telling all of Forest Falls it was mine, and I didn’t care enough to stick around.

One paternity test later, and my life in the city was over. I moved home to be there for my kid every day, and as soon as I can get on my feet properly, with my own place and a more stable income, she’s coming to live with me full-time. I will fight Jessie with everything I have. Hell, she’s practically always with me anyway. Every time Jessie has a date or an itch to get laid, get wasted, go shopping, has a headache, or gets her period, she calls me up, telling me to take Bo. She should just let me take her full-time now. Then my poor baby wouldn’t feel like a bouncing ball.

She’s a smart kid, and she’s starting to see that her mom values her free time more than her, but I won’t hear a bad word said about Jessie in front of Bo, and I sure as hell won’t be saying them myself.

‘Speaking of all the time in the world,’ Zoe says in that tone again, the annoying, about-to-cause-trouble one I’ve known my whole life. ‘I heard from a little Scottish birdy that the Reynolds’ house is about to be renovated.Amazing, I thought, my brother, who just happens tolovethat house, is also an expert when it comes to fixing up old houses.’

‘Not doing it.’

‘Imagine my surprise when my new friend—who thinks you fill out your jeans real nice, by the way,’ I glare at my sister, my daughter is right there. Also,hmmm,interesting. ‘—Tells me that your grumpybehindsaid you can’t help.’

She glares at me now.

‘I can’t do it, Zo.’ I stand from the table, put my plate on the countertop, and head outside.

I hear, ‘Eat your lunch, sweetheart,’ from my sister before she follows me. ‘You’ve been dying to fix up that house for years, Doug. You have the opportunity to do that now.’

‘For a fuckin’ tourist, Zo. A transplant who will probably rip out all the history and replace it with everything modern andcontemporary. She’ll tear out the heart of the place and flip it for a profit before she moves on to somewhere new.’

‘That’s not what she’s doing.’

‘Oh, your new bestie told you that, huh?’

‘Yes, she did, actually. She wants to make the house a home, Doug. She wants to live here and build a life for herself.’

‘She just stuck a pin in a map of the States and landed on Forest Falls?’

‘No, idiot. She has her reasons for being here.’

‘Which are?’

‘Not your business if you don’t have the courtesy to be nice to her. She’s cool, Doug. She’s sweet and quirky. I like her.’

‘I don’t.’

‘You don’t even know her. Anyway, I told her you’d meet her up at the farmhouse at two, so you better get your ass movin’.’

‘Zoe, I have Bo.’

‘Well, I didn’t know that, but she will be fine here with me for an hour or two.’ I shake my head, and she turns to walk away. ‘Do yourself a favor, baby brother, wash your pits and change your shirt. You stink.’

I growl at the sky, frustration tightening my whole body. My sisters are so fuckin’ annoying. They’ve been pushing me into shit my whole life, that whole twin thing letting them both know their mischievous plans without words while I stood there waiting for them to ruin my day.

I don’t want to be nice toCara. I don’t even want to think her name, but fuck do I want to restore that house. The war raging inside me has me throwing my tools back into my bag in no kind of order and with way more gusto than usual before stomping up to Zoe’s bathroom with a clean shirt from my truck and the sound of her smug ass laughing in the kitchen.

The old Reynolds farmhouselooks down over the whole town from its position on the hill. The drive up here doesn’t take long from Zoe’s place, as it’s just one pretty straight road. I love it up here.

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