Page 16 of A Little Puck Luck

That was completely unacceptable.

“No. I love having Eric here. If you leave, it would only force me to do a custody battle.”

Her shoulders slumped so much when I said the last bit. I never meant to be a complete asshole, and I really wouldn’t do that. But if she left, I would. I already missed too much of his life.

But I wasn’t the asshole.

No. I was hurt, but I wasn’t like her ex. I was already too much of an ass for threatening her.

“I’m sorry. You don’t need to leave. I need Eric in my life as much as you do. On top of that, I know you don’t have the money to leave this house or to fight a custody battle. We can work through this. It’s just that, some days, I might be in my feelings. But I’m not that different from our old days. I will forgive you, and it will be forgotten. We’re just not there yet.”

I chugged my coffee and went outside to watch Eric play and to get away from the heaviness of the fight with Annie. I just hoped she didn’t try to follow me.

Chapter 11

Annette

Wakingupafterabig move always felt weird, but I hated feeling like I was a guest in a stranger’s place.

If I didn’t get some coffee into my system quickly, I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with Eric. But the last thing I wanted to do was to accidentally run into Terry like the previous morning. At least not in my pajamas. So I winced my way through the tedious task of taking off my oversized T-shirt. Stupid broken ribs.

My closet was never really large, but now it felt miniscule. I only took the bare essentials like I did when we moved into the shelter. Then, after getting the crap beat out of me, I only had what was grabbed for me, which was even less. On top of that, none of these clothes were good for getting changed with broken ribs.

I said fuck it to the bra and slipped on a cami, and then I grabbed a baggy cardigan to help cover up the bruises on my body. After that, I pulled on my leggings.

From there, I padded down to the kitchen. It was dark, and I was grateful to have some peace, but I didn’t want to wake anyone up.

Not wanting to make too much noise, I carefully opened the cupboards, looking for coffee and cups. Thankfully, the coffee pot was on the counter.

The kitchen was pretty straightforward with the layout, and Eric’s favorite foods were in stock. I had a feeling Terry took the kid shopping and just let him go crazy since there was no reason for there to be four different family-size bags of candy and another four pounds of chocolate. Thankfully, there was also some cereal, peanut butter, and trail mix.

Eventually, I found some coffee in the pantry. I hissed as I lifted the canister.

Almost immediately, it was plucked from my hands. “I can do that, Annie.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe one day, but not now.

“Enough with the Annie stuff. My name is Annette.”

He looked sad, but he continued scooping out the coffee. “But you were always my Annie.”

“That was before everything,” I told him.

He clenched a fist, and my body tensed up, knowing I was going to get struck. But then he released his fist, and I sighed.

I needed therapy. Hell, so would Eric.

But that was a future problem. First, I needed to get my own place instead of relying on other people’s kindness. Then, I would worry about therapy so I wouldn’t flinch every time someone showed the slightest sign of frustration.

Terry said, “I’ll try, but you have always been my Annie. It’ll take some time. I guess if we’re talking about names, please call me Scuba.”

I giggled and then instantly regretted it since the stabbing pain returned. “You’ve almost always been Scuba. Not even your parents would call you Terry.”

That wasn’t anything new, but he was probably just trying to lighten the mood. He always went by Scuba. It was absurd how he would just not hear people who called him Terry. Yet he always gave me a pass since he said I was the only one who made his name feel strong and masculine.

Having the mix of old and new memories, it was awkward as fuck being around him. He was even better looking now than when we were together.

We always talked about how he would grow into his body, but he didn’t just grow into his body. He had a glow-up. His jaw was more defined, and I had to admit, his long hair was kind of sexy, especially with the way he pulled it into a man bun when he was around the house—although I noticed he let it down when he played hockey. All his muscles were more defined, too, and they were teasing me.

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