Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

Pepper’s face changed to a Get used to it, I’m your mother and I’m gonna give you loving guff until you die look.

Juno bobbled her head on her shoulders in a whatever gesture.

Pepper mimicked it then tugged playfully on her daughter’s hair.

Auggie nearly burst out laughing.

Then again, that was his constant state when he was around these two.

He’d never seen anything like it, and he loved how they interacted.

“Juno, go out and sit in the car.” Corbin interrupted this silent, hilarious and awesome byplay to issue this order.

Still not letting go of her mom, Juno looked to her father.

Auggie did too, his eyes narrowing.

“But…Dad.” There was a whine to it, not full-on but it was there. “Auggie’s here and—”

“What’d I say, Juno?” Corbin demanded.

She continued to look at her dad, and when it was clear there’d be no quarter given, she glanced through Auggie in an embarrassed way that pissed Auggie way the fuck off, then up to her mom.

“Do what your dad says, Dollface. Okay?” Pepper urged, smoothing her daughter’s hair. “But not without a hug and a kiss. Yeah?”

Juno didn’t move immediately. But when Pepper bent to her, she gave her mom a hug she got in return, same with the kiss.

“See you later, gator,” Pepper said, her voice having a forced lilt that wasn’t there earlier.

Yeah.

She was pissed Corbin was essentially kicking their daughter out of her own house.

Maybe also pissed that, to be a decent parent, she had to keep her mouth shut and not countermand his order.

“Later, Momma,” Juno mumbled then looked up to Auggie. “Later, Auggie.”

“Later, sweetheart,” he replied.

Her mouth was moving, and he didn’t know if she was struggling to smile at him or struggling not to cry.

She turned away, and with a gentler voice, Corbin said, “Take the keys, Button.”

She went to her father, got his keys, then trudged, like the wood floors had turned to sludge, down the hall and out the front door.

When it closed, the adults refocused, laser sharp, on each other.

Pepper got there first.

“I don’t like the idea of my daughter sitting out in your car by herself, Corbin.”

“Does this guy sleep in your bed when my daughter is in this house?” Corbin asked, completely ignoring what Pepper said.

“Maybe I need to define how you need to be careful, Corbin,” Auggie suggested.

“You are not fucking in this,” Corbin bit at Auggie.

“I’m standing right here, and I was invited,” Aug fired back.

“Stop it,” Pepper hissed.

But she did this doing something he thought was odd.

She moved from where she’d been standing, at his back, off to the side. She shifted her body right to his side, pressing in there and wrapping her arms around him.

Jesus, fuck.

She was claiming him.

In front of her ex, she was claiming Auggie.

And the ex did not miss it.

The vibe of the room, already not good, disintegrated.

It got worse when Aug slid an arm around her shoulders.

“Corbin, you need to go,” she ordered.

The man’s eyes darted from where Pepper held Auggie around the middle up to her face.

“You stood in this room, not a week ago, listening to me say shit to you—” he began.

But he didn’t finish.

“I’d just learned my mother had cancer,” she shot back. “And you showed up unannounced. And I’ll remind you, I did not leap at your offer of reconciliation. Because that isn’t a possibility, Corbin. And it isn’t because you broke my trust in a way that it’s impossible to repair. Regardless, I don’t want you to repair it. I’ve moved on. And incidentally, I didn’t lie about Auggie. We weren’t seeing each other then. We’ve since changed that. It isn’t your business, except for the fact Auggie has been a part of my life for a while, and in the way he was, as you know, he was a part of Juno’s. Now, he’s in it this way, and I hope that means he’ll be in Juno’s life in another way. So you’d eventually need to know.”

“You didn’t mention that was a possibility when we discussed him,” Corbin spat.

Right, this guy wasn’t getting it, and this was going on way too fucking long.

“You didn’t mention you were fucking your high school girlfriend for six years while you had a woman and child at home either,” Auggie put in.

Corbin made a move toward him.

Auggie shoved Pepper behind his back.

She was fast, though. Fast enough to whip around and get in front of him.

She had both arms up to hold them back, but Aug hooked her at her ribs and drew both of them away from Corbin.

“Okay, this is not happening in my house or anywhere,” she declared. “Corbin, we’re done. I’m sorry if you’ve had second thoughts about that, but if you think about it further, we were done before we even began. And you,” she turned to look at Aug, “behave.”