Page 24 of Wild and Bright

“Alright, fine,” she says, turning away from me. The motion makes the long, beaded earrings around her strong jawline flutter and tinkle.

I’ve always loved the way she dresses. Huge, sparkling earrings, bright-neon dresses, and clacking high heels that lift her already tall form to nearly six feet. She’s so undeniably herself.

I find myself drinking in the sight of her. God, I’ve missed that face—everything from those beautiful green eyes and that plump pink mouth to that bump on the bridge of her nose and that small scar on her cheek that she got from a loose metal bolt on my old backyard swing set. How in the hell have I been able to stay away from her all these years?

“What time are the movers coming tomorrow?”

Her question makes my head jerk up. “Eleven o’clock. Packers, too. You can oversee the move if you need to, but I want you at my house right afterward. That way you can be all settled in by the time I get home from rehearsal.”

“No, sorry. I won’t be able to get there until later. Probably after you get home. My whole family is going to SeaWorld tomorrow.”

“SeaWorld?” I can’t keep the disgust out of my voice. How the fuck could she even consider going to that hellhole after the agreement we made a half hour ago? I can hardly breathe from anticipation. I’m ready to pull her onto my lap and fuck her right now, right in front of her parents’ house. “Can’t you get out of it?”

She scowls. “Do you think I’m going to SeaWorld for my benefit?”

“So get out of it.”

She stares at me steadily, as if there’s something I’m missing. When she says her next words—with that cool, detached voice—I want to flinch in shame.

“Did you forget that I have a daughter?”

I exhale heavily, wishing I could hide my face from her view. I did forget. Probably willfully, too. Ever since I found out that little girl wasn’t mine, I’ve been going out of my way to forget her.

“Do you think I can dump her off on my parents any time I feel like it?” she asks, snapping me out of my head. “If you do, then our arrangement isn’t going to work. I can get babysitters for her sometimes, but I don’t love doing it. I already only get to spend half of my week with her.”

“I’m sorry. I forget you’re a real mom.”

When my gaze returns to her, I catch the flare in her nostrils and the rigidity of her posture.

“Shit, Lauren. That’s not what I meant at all. I know you’re a real mom, but I haven’t been around you much since you had Cadence, and it’s a little weird for me. You were such a wild kid yourself, it’s weird to think of you as a responsible parent.” When she opens her mouth, I raise a hand in defense. “Not because I don’t think you’re capable of it, but because I still imagine the Lauren I grew up with.” A smile rises to my lips. “The one I caught tanning naked in my backyard.”

As soon as I say the words, a vivid memory of that day rushes through my senses. I can even smell the sweet scent of the freshly cut grass in our backyard. I see the dusty-yellow sundress that she laid over the back of the lawn chair. Her perky, round tits that dipped slightly to each side of her chest. And that gorgeous V between her legs that I couldn’t quite see, though not for lack of effort.

She did it to taunt me, as she always did back then. She flaunted her naked body in front of me and my other teenage friends because she wanted to fluster and arouse me and get me back for being a high-handed prick to her all the time.

But that’s because she didn’t understand the mind of a teenage boy. She couldn’t have known that for probably thousands of subsequent nights, I would call that memory to mind when I couldn’t sleep, put my hand on my cock, and let my imagination run wild.

Or maybe she did. Maybe it was what she’d wanted.

When I catch her questioning frown, I straighten my posture. “That’s fine if you have to go to SeaWorld with your family, but I want you to come over as soon as you’re done.”

“You got it, boss.” Her full lips spread into a lazy smile. “Or do you prefer sir?”

My stomach turns to knots. It takes every ounce of my self-control to keep from reaching out, grabbing her, and pulling her onto my lap like I did on that night so many years ago.

How the hell am I going to get through the next twenty-four hours?

SEVEN

Lauren

“I want the red eye shadow next,” Cadence says.

I can’t help but smile as I run a featherlight brush of baby-blue across her lid. Red and blue. She’s such a ham, just like I was at her age.

“These colors make your big brown eyes pop,” I say as I grab another eye-shadow brush from the pile. I run it lightly over the deep-crimson square on the palette before lifting it to Cadence’s eyelid. “Honey, I have to tell you about something.” I smile brightly. “Something exciting.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

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