Page 282 of As The Shifter World Turns

“How about you eat first?” I indicated his sandwich.

He let out a humph. “You sound like the asshole. Always telling me what to do.”

Daire and I shared a glance as I wondered ifthe assholewas Brax’s dad.

Though the company was Daire and Micah’s, as their mates, Archer and I were involved in the discussion. And I worked with them and Archer had as well. Neil had taken pics too and Martin had helped too. Ivor and Ryder weren’t involved, but everyone welcomed their opinion.

But this was a setup, though Brax didn’t know that. We were going to suggest ideas for a reality show to do with fathers and see if Brax would take the bait.

“Speaking of what to do.” Archer said. “I had an idea but I don’t know thelegal bits of it. What if we followed the life of stay at home parents, work at home parents, and work outside of the home parents?”

“I think it lends people to be judgy.” Ryder said, leaning back in his seat, not touching his sandwich. His hair was falling out and he’d lost his appetite due to chemo.

“Fair point.” Archer agreed. “I was thinking of it as it’s all hard and maybe people need to do what’s right for them, but I could see how that could turn.”

“I know—speaking of dads, what about connecting people with fathers they haven’t seen since they were tiny?” Daire said. “Like a deadbeat dad redemption kind of thing?”

“Too many things can go wrong. and if the father is a real asshat, we don’t want to feature them on the show,” Micah added.

“You can be a shitty dad and still be in someone’s life.” Brax picked up his sandwich and took a bite and not letting his full mouth get in the way, said, “Mine thinks I’m his puppet. He stays in my life to control me.”

“Do you work for him?” Martin asked.

“In theory no, but if I don’t do as he says, I lose my trust fund. Ask Daire how shitty it is to be rich and have no money. He’s been there. Done that.”

He must have done a lot of research into my mate to discover that information.

“It’s not the same,” Daire snapped back at him. “Or maybe it is. I don’t even know. Did your father almost ruin a lot of people’s lives? Because I’m here to tell you that sucked. Knowing my friends were going to suffer because I pissed off my dad—yeah zero out of ten do not recommend.”

I pulled my mate onto my lap. That had hit a little too close. I knew things had been bad but I never really pieced it together.

“Worse.” Brax got up and crossed over to the coolers. Of course he did. Only this time he came back with a soda. Thank goodness for little things. All eyes were still glued to him.

“What? You wanna hear all about how my father makes me run his little retribution schemes when he’s bored or how he threatened to kick my dad out and strip him of everything if I didn’t?”

“Am I a retribution scheme?” Daire asked with no emotion.

“You sure as shit ain’t my damn cousin.” And before anyone could say a word he bent over and lost what he’d eaten all over freaking everything.

129

CAN IT BE?

Daire

“What the hell?”

With one eye open, I glanced at Nate who was still asleep. I wasn’t going to wake him. It was late morning on Sunday, a day off for everyone and we needed it. All the manor residents did. After the crap Brax had pulled, we should have been happy to see the last of him. But when he told us about his father’s bullying, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

And so my dads gave him a job here in town. We didn’t go so far as to offer him an apartment in the manor. That was too much but he didn’t ask, saying he had an old school friend who he’d share a place with.

Nate and I’d planned to spend the day in bed, catching up on sleep, ordering takeout and maybe discussing if we were going to make babies.

But when Ryder’s voice pierced my consciousness, I had to get up. My buddy had lost his hair and had little energy to do much other than sleep and watch TV. We were all pitching in with food and taking Dyani to daycare. Martin had stepped in and was covering for Ivor at work.

The chemo treatment was working, thank Gods, but it was early days. All the Sunshine Manor residents, including the ones living on either side of the building, looked forward to a time when we could enjoy Friday nights on the roof again.

But with Ryder’s shout, I suspected that wasn’t happening today.

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