Page 59 of Temptress

My back shot straight and my vision started to cloud red. “What?”

“She told Sloane about what she overheard, and the following Monday, Sloane went right up to the school to talk to my coach.”

All of a sudden, it was a fight to pull in a full breath. As Darcy explained how Sloane had gone to bat for her, going above and beyond, my lungs felt as though they were filling with wet cement.

“She told Coach Wallace all about it, and when the coach called those girls in to ask them about it, one of them started crying and confessed to how they’d planned the whole thing. They didn’t think I’d get hurt the way I did, so they were scared when they got called in, and now they’re kicked off the squad. Sloane did that, Dad. She found out those girls hurt me, and she didn’t hesitate to try and make it better for me. And the only reason I know any of this is because Karla just so happened to see Sloane go into Coach Wallace’s office and snooped on their conversation.”

“She—” I had to swallow past the tightness in my throat. “She really did that?”

“Yeah, Dad,” she said softly. “And she did that because she loves me. So you dumping her for the reasons you did is stupid. Because you made me lose her too.” She scowled then. “And just in case you haven’t realized, I’m kind of mad at you for that.”

I couldn’t help but laugh then. My girl was just too damn cute. “I may have noticed.”

“She made moving here better, Dad. I was scared to leave all my friends behind and have to make all new ones. But she talked me through it, and she showed me I was a whole lot tougher than I thought. I like living here now, and it’s because she helped me see how awesome this place actually is. Now I have a ton of friends and I’m on the cheerleading squad, and I just found out that Evan Reynolds has a crush on me.” She smiled so big it looked like her face was going to spit in half, but while she got all excited, I felt like I was going to be sick.

“Who the fuck is Evan Rey—no, you know what? I don’t want to know. You aren’t dating until you’re fifty.”

My threat didn’t hold an ounce of weight, because she knew if her puppy eyes wouldn’t turn me around, all she had to do was wait for her mom, and the two of them could gang up on me together.

“How about we make a deal? I won’t mention Evan Reynolds again if you make things right with Sloane.”

I had to admit, that was a pretty good deal. But something told me that making things right was going to be easier said than done. I fucked up when I pushed her away. It seemed to be a running theme with us. I’d screw up and have to come crawling back with an apology on the tip of my tongue. The problem was, eventually, those apologies stopped meaning anything when you kept hurting the person.

“I’m not sure it’s as simple as that, baby girl,” I confessed, my stomach sinking like a rock. The truth was, I missed Sloane every second of every day. In the short time we’d been together I’d discovered what it was like to have everything I could have ever wanted. Being with Sloane was a gift. Other than Darcy, she was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be lucky enough to stumble across the kind of love I felt for that woman twice in one lifetime. And like a fool, I’d thrown it all away like it meant nothing.

Darcy shrugged. “You won’t know unless you try, right? I’ve never seen you happier than you were when you were with her, Daddy. I think that means it’s worth the risk. Don’t you?”

I moved around the island, stopping beside Darcy and pulling her into a sideways hug so I could press a kiss to the top of her head. “How in the hell did you get so smart?”

She pulled back and looked up at me with a cheeky smile. “I get it from Mom.”

Smartass.

28

SLOANE

Imoved on autopilot as I unloaded the groceries I bought for my mom and put them away before moving to clean. I hadn’t bothered to try making conversation with her this visit, choosing to wallow in my silence and continue to nurse my bruised heart.

So it surprised me when, as I grabbed my purse and started for the door, issuing a mumbled goodbye, she asked, “Are you okay?” I froze with my hand on the doorknob and slowly turned to look back at her sitting in her same beat up recliner just like always. “You haven’t been yourself. Is everything all right?”

I nodded as I worked to swallow down the lump in my throat. A small kernel of hope that never seemed to go away bloomed at the concern etched into my mother’s face. “Yeah, Mom. I’m okay. It’s been a tough couple of weeks.”

She looked around anxiously, like she was desperately trying to figure out what to say next. “Do you... want to talk about it?”

I couldn’t help but be taken aback. I’d spent most of my life wishing she might one day show me more than indifference of bitterness, but in the back of my mind there was always a voice warning me not to get my hopes up.

“Really?”

She shrugged awkwardly, lifting the remote toward the television to mute the sound. She didn’t turn it all the way off, but I’d consider that mute a win. “Yeah. Sure. I mean, if you want to, that is.”

All of a sudden I wanted nothing more than to pour my heart out to my mom, to have her hold me as I cried over my broken heart. When she moved to sit beside me on the couch and wrapped her arm around my shoulder as I told her everything about Silas and Darcy, the tears flowed freely. While I was sad, there was a bittersweet relief that I was finally getting something I’d always wanted, even as I mourned the loss of something else.

I shared how I’d not only fallen in love with Silas, but Darcy as well, and how terribly I missed her and hoped she was doing okay. I told her how hard it was to work and live next to the man who’d hurt me so badly, how I wished I could hate him so the pain would be a little easier to bear, but that I couldn’t, because deep down I respected his reasons for ending us.

But the time I finished sharing, I thought we’d finally turned a corner I’d waited thirty-four years to reach.

Then she spoke, and I realized I’d been a fool to think things could ever change.

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