Page 121 of When the Storm Breaks
“Good morning to you too,” Jude said.
I rolled my eyes. “Answer the question.”
“I might have fucked up the dates.”
I could almost hear him wince. My brows shot up to my hairline. Then I smirked. “That’s not like you.”
“Lila says baby brain is a thing.”
I chuckled. “Guess it is.” I leaned back in my seat and took a sip of coffee. “How’s Gracie?”
“I don’t know, man. Having a girl is different. I’ve been losing sleep over the thought of her … fuck, there’s so many douches out there.Wewere douches.”
“She’s three weeks old. Pretty sure she doesn’t have sex on the brain yet.”
“Jesus. Don’t mention sex and my daughter in the same sentence. I’m keeping her locked in the house until she’s twenty-one. Even that seems too soon to let her out.”
A laugh burst out of me. “You’re such a dumb shit.”
“Fatherhood is making me question my lack of teenage morals. How’s Shiloh?”
“She’s good.” Although I wasn’t so sure about that. Her brother was an asshole. Every time I thought about him, it made my blood boil. The girl was surrounded by users. No wonder she wasn’t sure who she could trust. And last night I’d promised her to always be honest. No secrets, no lies.
Tonight I should tell her the truth and pray that she didn’t look at me like I was some kind of monster by association.
“Have you met the ex yet?”
“Nope.” My hand curled into a fist at the mere thought of meeting Dean the douche.
“Just do me a favor. When you do meet him, refrain from planting your fist in his face.”
“As much as I would love to do just that, I won’t. I don’t want to cause a scene or upset Shy.”
He was quiet for a couple seconds. “She’s changed you.”
Didn’t I know it. And I wasn’t even mad about it. “Yeah, yeah. Next time you recruit volunteers, run it by me first.” I paused a moment then grudgingly said, “And thanks.”
“That hurt, didn’t it?”
I huffed out a laugh and we said goodbye. Then I hung out at a trendy coffee shop in South Beach, with the sun on my face, and watched the beautiful people go by. Sitting around doing jack shit didn’t come easy to me. Two coffees later, I was bored and restless, so I went for a walk on the beach. About twenty minutes later, I’d had enough of that too, so I headed back to the hotel. By now, Shiloh should be done with her radio show.
* * *
I was crossingthe hotel lobby, also white with a big-ass chandelier hanging from the high ceiling and gauzy white curtains hanging between the pillars, when a guy stepped out in front of me. It took me a second to realize who it was.
“You’re the new boyfriend, right?”
“I’m theonlyboyfriend.”
“Huh. Not what I expected.”
“Funny. You’re exactly what I expected.” His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, his dark hair spiky like he’d used a lot of styling products, and he was wearing skinny jeans with a dark gray button-up shirt untucked, an expensive-looking chunky silver watch on his wrist.
I was going to leave it at that. I had every intention of walking away from Landry Leroux and not saying another goddamn word.
But then he had to go and question me. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He punctuated his question with a sniff. Jesus. The fucker was coked up at eleven thirty in the morning.
“If it looks like a weasel and acts like a weasel, it is a goddamn weasel. You should clean your nose. You’ve left some nose candy in the left nostril.”Asshole.
