Page 160 of Wingwoman
One thing at a time.
I inspected the area around my dad. We’d seen way worse in our life together. At least he could sit up and maintain eye contact tonight. And he hadn’t vomited… yet.
Even though he was clearly drunk, this wasn’t anything a little coffee, tylenol, and a few hours of sleep couldn’t fix. “Dad, Vivianneverhas to know about this. I’ll text her now and tell her you were hanging out at the condo with me and Neil, Liam, Finn, and Addy and forgot your pho—”
“Not this time, Lovebug,” Dad said. “You’ve been taking care of me long enough. It’s time for me to face the music.”
He slowly stood from his stool, swaying on his feet. Both Josh and I grabbed his elbows to steady him, but he shrugged us away. “I’m okay, I promise. Hope, can I borrow your phone? I want to step outside and call Viv.”
“Dad—”
“Don’t youDadme. I may not deserve Vivian, butshedeserves my full honesty. And we’ll see where we’re at then. In the case she doesn’t want me to come home tonight, can I stay with you, Bug?”
“Of course,” I whispered. “It’syourcondo, Dad.”
I watched, shell shocked as he shuffled out the front door, my cell phone in his hand.
“Is your dad going to be okay out there alone?”
“That,” I stopped to point at the door slamming closed behind him, “isnotmy dad. That is some alternate dimension, parallel universe Rick Evans.”
A slow, rolling laugh rumbled from Josh as he stared at me with an amused grin.
Honestly, I was trying to keep it together. Focus on my dad and get the hell out of here. But with Josh standing merely inches away from me, I was failing miserably at playing it cool.
My stomach tumbled within my belly.
“Hope—”
The moment he said my name, it was ice water dousing the fire. “I’m glad I ran into you,” I blurted out.
Ran into you. Like this was an accident and not some messed up evening where my ex, if you could even call him that, got called in to take care of my drunk father.
I yanked my checkbook from my bag and started scribbling Josh’s name on it.
“What’s that? What are you doing?”
“I am giving you your money back.” I punctuated each word as I wrote out the amount. Then I ripped the check out and shoved it at Josh.
When Josh turned to face me, he stared at me for several silent beats, not taking the check from my hands. “You’re trying to give me the money back.”
“Yes. With our contract voided—”
“You already refused to take what was left of the gifts I gave you,” he said, point blank.
That was true. The Annes had offered to get my things for me and I gave them explicit instructions not to take a single thing that Josh had given to me. What was left of them after the auction, at least. It was nice to know they listened to me and didn’t take a few things for themselves.
“That’s right,” I said, waving the check around. “And now I’m refunding you your money.”
Josh’s laugh was humorless and quiet as he grabbed the check, then tore it into a dozen little pieces and tossed them into the air.
They floated around us like snowflakes falling from the sky.
“Hey!” Nina shouted from the bar.
But he didn’t remove his scowling gaze from mine. “Sorry, Nina. I’ll sweep them up later.”
“Damn straight you will,” she muttered.
