Page 84 of Sneak Attack

The stupid ogre. How had he not heard me?

My hands pressed to his cheeks, and I rolled to my toes. I still wasn’t anywhere near his eye level with his height, but at least he’d stopped talking.

“Call me or text me. FaceTime me after Jasper’s in bed. We don’t need to see each other to figure things out. And maybe it’s for the best.”

His frown told me he disagreed, and he opened his mouth to say something along those lines, but I pressed my thumb to his lips, silencing him.

“Five days ago, I was sure you still hated me. Now we’re having dinner at your parents’ house, and you let me meet one of your friends. I’ve met Jasper and you have drama with his mom. We can slow this down, Cole. There’s no rush.”

“There is if I want you in my bed again, which I do, by the way.”

“Then that’ll happen when it’s supposed to.”

He nipped at my thumb and stepped back. “Fine. I need to get Jasper home and in bed. With school starting this week, I’m trying to get him to sleep earlier. But one more kiss before I leave?”

How could I resist?

CHAPTER26

COLE

It’ll be more fun for Jasper if we ride together.

Like hell it would. Selma wanted to show up at the elementary school on my arm for the pleasure it’d bring her. Besides, we’d already discussed this.

I’ll meet you there with him.

It’s his first day of school. It’s a special day for him.

I choked on my own growl of frustration. Jasper was finishing up his eggs and bacon, but this was ridiculous and not what any of us needed on his first day of kindergarten.

I’ll meet you at the school.

Cole, be reasonable. The parking lot is going to be full. It makes more sense to do it this way.

By this way, she meant her way, and while my own frustration was growing, I could only imagine how much this was pissing off Selma. There was a time I would have given in for the sake of keeping her happy, allowing her to get the perfect happy family shot for her Instagram.

Not anymore. Besides the fact I was done playing her games, I now cared how people perceived us. I was not going on as the happy family she liked people to believe we were. Not anymore. Not with Eden back in my life.

Last text you’ll get from me: I will see you there.

Her final reply came seconds later. I took a sip of my coffee and almost spit it out all over my counter when her next reply came.Is this attitude about the other night? I can’t believe you’re still mad at me.

The fuckingnerve.

If I didn’t need my phone, or to have actual contact with her, that reply alone would have had me chucking my phone as far into the trees in my backyard as I possibly could.

Yeah, I was still mad. My bad.

There was no way I was getting into it with Selma this early, and like always, it’d prove futile, so I turned off my phone and set it facedown by my keys and wallet.

She’d been like this all week.

When I woke up Monday and was trying to get Jasper ready by the time he’d need to be once school started, Selma had already been in the driveway, sitting in her car, waiting so she didn’t need to pick him up at her parents or the diner even though they were on her way and my house was not.

It was a matter of a few miles and five minutes, but whatever.

She showed up, acted like she hadn’t driven drunk, and made a scene, and swept him off for the day.

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