“I guess I could do that,” I replied hesitantly.
Boston blew out a relieved breath. “I told her you would go for it, but she was adamant that you wouldn’t. Thanks, Dad.”
I gave him a chin jerk as Sophia came up beside me and bumped me with her shoulder. “You’re sweet.”
I looked down at her, almost a foot shorter than me, and felt like the world had opened up when I looked into her eyes.
“I try,” I admitted. “But sometimes she makes it really hard.”
She snorted. “If I’m being one-hundred-percent honest, I expected y’all to go your separate ways a long time ago. I’m surprised you made it as long as you did.”
I snorted as I poked a steak with my finger, watching as juices started to pour out of all sides of the meat.
My stomach rumbled.
“You and me both.”
We shared a moment that felt like it went on forever, and just as I was thinking about doing something stupid, like curling that stray lock of hair behind her ear, my daughter interrupted me.
“Hey!” I heard at my back. “Look, Dad!”
I looked up to see a phone being shaken at me. “Don’t have my glasses on.”
“And you know he doesn’t do phones,” Boz pointed out.
He was right. I didn’t.
I also only owned one because of my business. If I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have one at all.
They were a time suck.
They were also the reason that kids nowadays didn’t know how to be fucking bored.
If you went to a restaurant, there wasn’t a single fucking kid coloring with crayons anymore. They all had phones glued to their faces.
Which was why my kids were out of the house and could afford their own before they bought one. Because I didn’t believe in them.
“Come on, come look,” Clem pleaded.
I ignored her and got a steak, slapping it on the plate and handing it to Boz.
I did the same for the other three steaks, making sure everyone had theirs before I took the last one—the biggest.
After loading my plate up with mashed potatoes, I took a seat at the table, only for Clem to set the phone down beside me.
“I…” My voice trailed off as I listened to the news anchor.
“…found dead of a possible air embolism,” the anchor said. “Last night, Jaylin Smith was caught breaking and entering into a home on Clement’s Street. He was attacked by a protection dog…”
“Attacked.” Boz snorted. “That’s rich.”
“…and the police were in the process of investigating,” the anchor continued.
I jerked my chin at the phone. “Off the table, please.”
Clem shut the phone down and smiled widely. “Karma is a bitch.”
I didn’t correct her by saying, ‘No, your father is.’ But I wanted to.
CHAPTER 9
It’s never too late to go back to bed.
-Sophia to Clem
SOPHIA
The fact that my would-be attacker was dead didn’t hurt my feelings.
In fact, as I walked into my dad’s house and shut the door, I felt safe being alone for the first time since it happened.
Though, just sayin’, but if Boston and Clem hadn’t been there, I might’ve tried to stay the night again using the ‘I’m scared’ bit.
Instead, I went home, because there was only so much ‘upbeat’ Clem I could handle after a day like I’d had.
Blakely had been on fire today.
And not in a good way.
From the moment I walked in the door, she’d been combative, argumentative, and annoying as hell.
At one point, she was with a customer, and another had walked in, and she’d literally visibly bristled at the fact that I’d had to take that customer.
And was it my fault that the customer had been ready to buy a car?
No!
Even worse, she needled me all day long to the point that when I got off, I wanted nothing more than to go home and ignore everyone.
In fact, that’d been my intention, to go home.
Except, I’d wanted my damn steaks.
I’d made the mistake of going to Haggard’s place to get them, and had found Clem and Boston there, and hadn’t been able to leave.
Now, I was blissfully alone, and I…
I screamed at the top of my lungs when a large figure stepped out of the darkness into my line of sight.
I hit the ground and started to scramble toward the side of my dad’s recliner, where I knew he kept a spare gun, when I heard it.
“It’s okay, Soph. It’s just me.”
Soph.
My dad.
I stopped in mid-crawl and turned to look over my shoulder at my dad.
He was standing there looking stricken.
I sighed and fell unceremoniously back to my butt, looking at the ceiling fan that had so much dust on it that it needed to be cleaned about a half a year ago.
Why had I not seen that before now?
Probably because we never turned it off long enough to notice.
“You scared the absolute crap out of me,” I found myself saying to the fan.