Page 58 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
He opened his mouth to speak, but I kept going.
“But then you opened up. You apologized. You kissed me like you fucking meant it, Matt—youfuckedme like you meant it. You fucked me like you couldn’t imagine walking away. And I let myself think, just for a goddamn minute, that maybe I wasn’t being stupid, that maybe you weren’t going to run this time.”
His nostrils flared, his breathing evening out as he regained control. “I’m not running. I’m telling you what this is.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted torun. My eyes stung, my chest ached like a ton of bricks had fallen on it and caved it in, and I was left splattered on the floor surrounded by my own damn viscera.
He raked a hand through his hair, watching me with an expression that either saidI want to kill you,orI can’t let you leave, and I couldn’t figure out which one it was. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to know. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
I turned my back to him, not trusting myself to stare without tears forming, and grabbed for my clothes, hastily pulling them on one by one, my bra two hooks looser than I wanted and my shirt hanging wrong in a way I didn’t give myself time to try to fix. I thanked whatever God existed that I’d worn my easiestshoes to get in and out of before I headed straight for the bedroom door and wrenched it open.
I could still feel his hands on my skin, his mouth on mine, his breath on my ear when he’d whispered that I was everything.
And all I wanted, still, was for him to take it back. To tell me he didn’t mean it.
But he didn’t.
He didn’t stop me, didn’t move, didn’t say a word.
I managed to make it halfway down the stairs before the front door flew open.
“Sienna!”
Zach’s voice cracked through the hallway like sunlight breaking through storm clouds, shrill and happy andpurein a way I wasn’t sure how to be right now. His tiny sneakers slammed into the floor as he barreled through the living room, backpack bouncing, and the second I stepped off the stairs, he launched himself into me.
I caught him mid-jump, my breath catching as I hugged him tight against my chest, his arms wrapping around my neck. “You’re here!” he chirped, feet kicking on either side of my hips in excitement.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs behind me only made this so much worse.
God. God fucking dammit.
My throat burned as I kissed the top of his head. “Hey, tiger.”
He pulled back just enough to look at me, eyes wide, beaming, a little tiger shark pin stuck into his shirt. “Guess what? I got a gold star today at school. That’s worth, like, ten green stars.”
“You did?” I asked, faking enthusiasm as best as I could. “What for?”
“‘Cause I knew all the months in order! Even got March and May in the right spots.”
“Look at you!” I grinned, my eyes going wide. “I get those ones mixed upallthe time.”
He giggled like it was the funniest thing in the world. “Ms. Broderick said I should get a prize, and I told her that I wanted it to be going swimming and then I thought about you and how you taught me to float on my back like a big kid and oh, I got new dinosaur sheets and theyglow in the dark.”
I laughed, a genuine one, despite his father’s stare burning a hole in my back. “Glow in the dark dinos? Are youkiddingme? Those sound amazing.”
“They are!” he said, wriggling enough that I knew I should probably put him down. He immediately grabbed my hand. “C’mon, you gotta see ‘em. There’s triceratops and everything!”
He pulled me back onto the stairs, and I turned, watching as Matt took the last few steps down in complete silence.
I went to see the dinosaurs anyway.
————
My room felt suffocating now.
I’d left as quickly as I could manage without completely disappointing Zach, oohing and ahhing when he showed me all the little things he was proud of in his room. But Matt hadn’t said a word to me as I’d gone to the door, his gaze locked on me, his throat working like there was something there he wanted to let out but just couldn’t manage it.
So, I’d left his credit card on the table by the door and walked out.
