Page 8 of Ashes

It was brief.So very brief that if I hadn’t been so focused on every breath the man took, I would have missed it.Wilder’s gaze flickered to me before glancing at King to his right and Thatcher to his left.

“Yeah, we’ll stop by,” he finally said, looking back at Wells.

And although he didn’t so much as glimpse in my direction again, it felt as if his complete focus was on me.

Four

Wilder

Present Day

Sarah sat on the sofa with her favorite fuzzy pink blanket over her, Belladonna tucked in close to her side, while smiling down at her phone.There had been very little smiling from her lately.I didn’t know if I should be trying to make her smile or respecting that she was mourning her mother’s death.I wasn’t sure what the hell I was supposed to be doing.We had been here for almost a month now, and I kept thinking tomorrow would be better, but it never was.

When Sarah started texting, the smile on her face remained, and I watched her, relieved to see some of the little girl that had been there before Sylvia took her own life.This month hadn’t been easy, and I felt like I was failing my daughter at every turn.I’d spent two hours on Amazon last night, looking for books on how to handle this correctly.Three books were on the way, and I intended to read them from front to back.

Sarah put her phone down and lifted her gaze back to the television.She was watching cheerleaders in pink uniforms and teenagers with green hair in some weird burst-into-song movie.I handed over the remote to her in the evenings.I rarely watched television anyway.

Her phone lit up again, and she glanced down at it and … giggled.She actually laughed.Fuck, that sound eased the tightness in my chest like nothing else.

“Who has you so amused tonight?”I asked her.

Her grin grew as she began to text.“Oaky,” she replied.

Of course.I should have guessed.Trying not to be jealous of the fact that Oakley knew what to say to make Sarah laugh, I focused on being relieved someone did.I sure as hell didn’t.

Sarah glanced up at me then.“Daphne has her on a blind date.”

I had no clue who Daphne was or why the fuck Oakley would need to be set up on a blind date.She was the kind of female who should have been snatched up by now.Some wealthy, powerful, charismatic man should have gotten one look at her and done everything he could to make her his.It was a mystery to me how she’d gone this long without getting married.

I knew Sebastian had been in love with her and proposed a few years back.Thatcher was horrified that his little brother would want to get married.I was so fucking eaten up with jealousy at the idea of her being married to someone that I almost wept with relief when I found out she’d turned him down.After that, Sebastian had run off to fucking Las Vegas to work at one of the family-owned casinos.Cleo had mentioned two other proposals.I hadn’t known about those, but it didn’t surprise me.Oakley would allow men to fall in love with her even if she didn’t love them.It was just how she was.

“Who is Daphne?”I asked, knowing it was best that I didn’t know the details of Oakley’s life.Not my business.

“Oaky’s friend from her job that she quit.”

When had she quit her job?I never asked questions about Oakley.I’d learned a long time ago not to ask.The more I knew, the harder it was to get her out of my head.But if she’d quit her job, then why had she said she wasn’t always around for Sarah because of work?Probably a fucking lie.She was good at those.

“She doesn’t have a job?”I asked Sarah.

Sarah frowned.“No.She has a job.She has her own Etsy store.”

I knew Etsy was for selling things you made.I knew I should let it go, but I couldn’t.I wanted to find the flaw in the excuse she’d told me about her work getting in the way.

“What job did she have before, and when did she quit it to have an Etsy store?”

Sarah scrunched her nose.I never asked her about Oakley.My interest was confusing her.If Oakley was going to be in my daughter’s life, I needed to know details about her.

“She worked for a company in Atlanta—uh, marketing, I think is what she did.But she had to be out of town a lot and …” Sarah paused and looked down at her phone.“And she wanted to be home more.She missed me.So, she quit and started selling things on Etsy.”

Why the fuck had no one thought to tell me any of this?Oakley had quit a marketing job in Atlanta because she felt that Sylvia was that bad off?Jesus Christ!Had she not thought to call me?!Tell me, Sarah’s father?!I tried to control my mounting anger.She’d kept it all from me.Just like Cleo.

Sarah’s phone lit up again, and her sad expression vanished.Her smile had returned.Fucking Oakley.

“She’s full of jokes tonight,” I said, hoping my annoyance didn’t bleed through into my tone.

“Daphne has been dating Tanner and wanting Oaky to go on a date with his friend Hamilton.She gave in and went tonight.”

I bit my tongue before I could blurt out,Someone needs to warn Hamilton.

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