Cindersmellya

It's not that I didn't approve.

Fuck.

Could it be that I didn't want to share?

Did I maybe want Drake to myself?

"I can't fault you now for marrying Linda, man," I say to him. "Otherwise, I would've never met Natalie."

That makes us both pause.

Natalie Vanderhill.

The girl with the beautiful face. The gorgeous fucking body. That tight heart-shaped ass. Those slender legs. That flat stomach. Those luscious tits.

And the dirtiest fucking mind I've ever seen in a woman.

"Natalie is...special," Drake says, choosing his words. I understand where my stepdad is coming from. It's a loaded fucking subject. "Hell, she's the reason we're in this room today talking to each other as civilized people."

"When you married Linda, there was a lot of hurt," I tell Drake, going back to my epiphany. I think I almost have it to put into words.

"But that hurt wasn't because I thought you were forgetting about Mom," I tell him. He's nodding, and looking at me now. "That hurt was because I thought you were forgetting about me."

"I wasn't close to even trying to be a good dad, Sloane," Drake says shaking his head.

"That's not it," I say to him and Drake looks at me.

What is that in his eyes?

He's my stepdad. All it can be is concern.

"I think, yeah, I needed a father," I tell Drake slowly. "But I think I was jealous of Linda because she was going to be your lover."

Drake is quiet.

And that's the fucking rub, isn't it.

I was jealous of my stepmom, not because I didn't want a new family coming in.

Because on some deeper level, I was attracted to my stepdad.

It's been an attraction that I haven't been able to reconcile all this fucking time.

So what did I do instead?

I lashed out. I got angry. I built walls. I never settled on one woman.

So much to tell Drake about. And looking at him, I see he hasn't turned away in shock or disgust anymore. He's smiling; it's an open fucking invitation.

We're going to finally bury the fucking hatchet. We're going to--

The phone interrupts my thinking.

"Mr. Hardman," Cheryl says with professionalism in her voice. "The investors are here to go over the final details on the investment of Dirty Lil' Angels. They're in the South Conference Room."

Fuck. This is a real meeting.

Drake understands though that we've had a fucking breakthrough. He gets up.