“No, I don’t.” I grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. Still, she didn’t look at me, but she squeezed back. “I’m going to unpack a few things and get the kids snacks. The beach in an hour sounds perfect.”

“Thank you, Evie.” She released my hand and disappeared down the hallway toward the opposite end of the house.

“In case you’re still keeping score…” I said in a soft voice so only Graham could hear me “…I’m not impressed with the way you treat your wife.”

He studied me with an unreadable expression, shoving his hands farther into his pockets, sending his shoulders toward his ears. Graham pulled off the boyish look on very rare occasions. I called them glimpses of the young man who befriended me years earlier.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for the way you treat Lila? Sorry for the things you do to manipulate me? Sorry for buying my children’s affection? What exactly are you sorry about?”

Twisting his lips, he dropped his focus to the floor between us, watching his feet as he stepped closer to me. “Yes.”

Why?

Why was Graham intertwined, glued, stitched, and cemented into my life? He acted like an errant child—my errant child. I didn’t know how to handle his bad behavior because he seemed to stay one step ahead of me. And on the worst days, the days he said and did the most hurtful things, I didn’t know how to un-love him. That was how he hurt me.

“Franz, I’m going to unpack a few things. We’ll have snacks soon.”

He ignored me. Why wouldn’t he? His new BFF, aka Uncle Graham, dropped a pretty penny on a roomful of toys. I questioned if we’d be able to coerce him out of the house to play on the beach.

When Ronin saw me step into the hallway, he picked up Anya and the white teddy bear she hugged to her chest and followed me. I peeked right and left, stopping when I found the room with our luggage at the end of the king bed.

“This is Lila’s handbag, not mine.” I picked up the white leather shoulder bag.

Anya reached for me.

“Trade. I’ll take the bag to Lila. You get Squirmy ready for the beach.”

We made the trade, our gazes locking. I frowned, hugging her to me.

“It’s fine.” Ronin held Lila’s bag in one hand and cupped my face with his other hand, leaning forward to brush his lips over mine, pecking at them playfully. “I don’t like it either. But our kids adore our friends right now. We’ll take Graham out back and beat him up later,” he whispered.

I grinned. “I four-letter-word you so much.”

He bit my lower lip, giving it a playful tug before releasing it. “Watch it … if you open up that can of worms, you’ll regret it when we need it the most.”

On my death bed … or his. That was when I wanted to share those three words with him. I didn’t want rainy days, final straws, or the end of a rope. I wanted those words to be a final breath after a long life of showing everything. I wanted to prove to ourselves and the whole world that words were empty without the true actions to back them up.

“Go. You might have to leave it outside her door. She’s getting ready to … nap or something.”

“Okay.” He left a solid kiss on my lips and sauntered off.

My king.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ronin

I played it cool, walking that stupid line, when Graham unveiled his surprise for our kids. He ruined Christmas for the rest of their childhood. What could we possibly get them after he bought them one of everything from Santa’s workshop?

Stopping at the door to Franz’s room, I debated saying something to him, knocking out a few teeth, or simply breaking a rib or two. But his back was to me. He and Franz were on the floor building something with Legos.

“I loved building with Legos when I was young like you, Franz. I used to build little Lego people to be my friends because …” He paused his hands and sighed. “Well, I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was your age.”

“You didn’t have friends?” Franz murmured, keeping his hands busy with the Legos.

“No. But you’re much cooler than I was, so you don’t need to build friends or buy them. You have cool parents.”

Franz nodded slowly, probably not getting Graham’s point. Again, Graham made it hard to completely despise him. As much as I didn’t want to be affected by the “poor” little rich kid’s story, it made enough of an impact to keep me from saying anything, so I continued toward the other side of the house to find Lila.

All the doors were shut, so I gently knocked on each one. Evie said to just leave it outside the room, but I wanted to make sure Lila was okay. I’d had this clawing need for weeks to make sure she was fine.

Tags: Jewel E. Ann Life Duet Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net