Page 99 of When the Stars Fall
“And yet, I could never beat you.”
“I would have let you win but the one time I tried that, you punched me in the face and accused me of treating you like a girl.”
“I didn’t punch you in the face.” She laughed. “You’re just making stuff up now.”
“Might have been my shoulder. There was definitely a punch involved.”
“Sorry,” she said, not sounding the least bit sorry.
“No, you’re not.”
We both laughed and it eased some of the tension.
I rinsed and she stacked, neither of us talking until the job was done. When the dishwasher was filled, she leaned her hip against the door to close it. I turned from the sink, wiping my wet hands on my jeans, and took my first good look at her since she’d arrived.
“You look good, Rebel.” She looked up at me from beneath her long lashes. The sun pouring through the window gave her skin a honey glow, highlighting the flecks of gold in her green eyes. Her throat bobbed on a swallow, and she licked her lips. I wanted to sink my teeth into her pillow-soft lips. Crush her body to mine and never let her fucking go.
How could I have ever walked away from the best thing in my life? Even after all these years, I still didn’t have an answer. Except that I was so fucked in the head that I couldn’t stay and subject her to more abuse. “Motherhood looks good on you.”
Her eyes lowered to the terracotta tiled floor. “I never meant... I never meant for it to happen this way. I never meant to hurt you.” She took a ragged breath and let it out as if admitting that had cost her a lot.
I never meant to hurt her either, and it killed me that I had, but it happened and there was no way to rewind time and undo the damage. “You never answered my question the other day. Are you happy?”
Unable to meet my eyes, her gaze drifted to the window. “What do you want me to tell you?”
“The truth. Is it that hard to answer my question?”
“You tell me,” she challenged, her greens meeting my blues and it made me happy to see that I hadn’t completely destroyed her. She was still full of fire and sass. Still so fierce and defiant. “Are you happy, Jude?”
Turnabout is fair play. I couldn’t answer the question any more than she could.
* * *
“Run, Noah, run,”Lila shouted.
He looked over his shoulder to see if I was gaining on him. That was his downfall. He stumbled and fell to his knees, the Nerf football still clutched to his chest. I pretended that I couldn’t catch up. He was on his feet again, running and laughing. Should have known that Lila’s boy would be tough. Whenever he fell down, he jumped to his feet and kept going without even shedding a tear.
“Touchdown,” Jesse yelled, simulating the noise of a crowd. “Noah McCallister has scored again.”
Noah spiked the ball the way I’d showed him and did a little victory dance. So damn cute. Then he flopped on the ground and panted like a dog. I loomed over him and he grinned up at me. Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten that I was the bad guy.
“I beat you,” he said.
“You sure did. You know what happens to winners?”
His eyes grew wide. “They get ice cream?”
I laughed.
“No more ice cream,” Lila said. “It’s time to go home for a bath and bedtime.”
He kicked his feet and pounded his fists on the ground. “No!” When Lila tried to grab him, he jumped to his feet and darted away from her. “I’m not going to bed. I wanna play.”
I scooped him up and tossed him over my shoulder, jogging across the field while he pounded his little fists against my back and screamed. I ignored his tantrum.
“Your old party trick,” Lila said, referring to the way I was carrying her son.
“He weighs about as much as you did.”
