Slut - Woodruff Jettie - Страница 46

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“Chuckie Cheese,” they both agreed.

Paxton turned right, heading to Maria’s, his favorite pizza.

“Oh no, I said pizza, not Chuckie Cheese. I hate that place.”

“Well, we want to play there,” Phi whined.

I stared out the window, half listening after a sudden premonition, deja vu. Like I’d already lived this scene in my life once. Only I was in the backseat. I was the one arguing.

“Gabby said we was bastards cause we don’t have a daddy. I’m not a bastard. Tell her I’m not one of those,” I complained from the backseat.

“Yes, you are. We both are. We don’t have a daddy.”

A truck squealed its tires behind us, blowing his horn when my mom whipped the car to the side of the road.

“You’re not bastards. You have a daddy.”

I blinked my eyes, trying to focus on Paxton.

“Hello?”

“Huh?”

“Where’d you go?”

“I—I’m not sure. I have a dad.”

“Um. Okay.”

Paxton derailed that one when the girls asked who my dad was. He talked about school instead, asking Rowan what she thought about skipping the first grade.

“I’m going to skip kindergarten, too,” Ophelia decided.

Again my attention ceased to be held on my family and the feud between my bickering little girls. Paxton explained to Phi how fun kindergarten was, and she changed her mind right quick. I stared at the guardrail, trying to get it back, the daze I needed more of.

I forgot all about it once we were seated at Chuckie Cheese, once again, falling for my man. Paxton was such a good guy. The kind of man women drooled over, the kind of daddy every wife wanted, the kind of lover that curled your toes. I smiled at him across the table, thinking about my silly observation, head shaking back and forth.

“What?” He instantly questioned.

I looked down to my cheese pizza, twirling cheese around my fork. “Nothing, it was just a fantasy.”

“What’s a fantasy?” Phi asked as she bit into her third slice of pizza.

Paxton looked over to Phi, and then right back to me. “Jesus, didn’t you feed that girl today?”

“I know, right?” I replied to Paxton and answered Phi’s question, staring right at him. “It’s make believe. A fantasy is something that isn’t real.”

Paxton narrowed his eyes on me, contemplating what I’d said. I didn’t say anything that wasn’t the truth. He knew it, too. There was no argument about him being able to shed his sheep’s clothes in the snap of a finger. I’d seen it many times over the past few months. One minute he was a soft and gentle like a sheep, and the next the wolf that ate the poor little lamb. Chewed up and spit out in the blink of an eye.

“My belly’s full,” Rowan announced with a hand swirling in small circles around her tummy.

“You can go,” I nodded while wiping sauce from the corner of her lip.

“And me too, Mommy?”

“Yes, are you done?”

“Yes, but I still want my drink. Don’t throw it away,” Ophelia called on the run, trying to beat Rowan.

I watched them run off while talking to Paxton like a normal conversation. “Watch, they both go straight for the rock wall, one hell-bent on beating the other one.” I sucked on my straw and turned to him when he didn’t respond. “What?”

“You think this isn’t real?”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the girls, Ophelia hitting the rock wall two steps in front of Row. “Don’t make that something, Paxton.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll just toss it into the conversation with the girls and you can decode it, okay?”

Why I felt guilty for anything I directed at him was beyond me, it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve every single bit of it, but I did. “I’m sorry,” I said while slipping my left shoe off, a cheesy attempt to flirt. I ran my toes up the leg of his jeans with a tilted head and a crooked smile.

“Do you think I don’t love you, Gabriella? I do. I’m not the type to sugarcoat my feelings. I don’t say shit I don’t mean.”

“Paxton, don’t make a big deal about it. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Why did you tell me you have a dad in the car?”

I blinked my eyes a couple times as the thought entered my mind. “I don’t know. It was a quick vision of me driving down a highway with my mom and sister. I was mad at Gabby for saying we were bastards because we didn’t have a dad. My mom jerked the car to the side of the road and turned to both of us, telling us we did have a dad, but that was it. That’s all I saw.”

Paxton stared at me with a concentrated glare.

“What?” I finally had to ask.

“Gabby? Gabby said you were bastards?”

“Yeah…” I said with a little sarcasm. That’s what I said.

“So you’re not Gabby? You just said it yourself.”

“Oh, my God, Paxton. Will you stop with that already? We were little, like Ophelia’s age. I would have been Izabella then. Do you really believe that? Tell me the truth. Do you honestly believe that I am not the Gabriella you married?”

“I mean, I have times when I don’t, and times when I do. If you are, you’ve—”

“Gabriella! Where’s Rowan and Ophelia?”

I turned to catch Chance with open arms and an excited expression. I hugged her because I wanted to, not because I had to. I sort of loved her, just not her mommy and daddy. The conversation going on between her parents was obvious over her shoulder. Candace wanted to leave while Lane tried to be civil.

“Hi, baby. How are you?”

“Good, I lost my front tooth, see?”

“You did? Rowan did, too. Same one.”

Chance’s eyes grew wide with her opened mouth. “She did? I’m going to go see.”

I turned my attention back to the glare on Paxton’s face. “Get the girls,” he ordered.

My hands went into the air, defensively, stopping him right there. “Oh no, I’m not doing it. They just got in there. You go get them. I’m scared.”

Paxton couldn’t help it. He snickered a little, and so did I. Tension eased between us with a simple smile and a look. A look that I didn’t understand, and I was pretty sure he didn’t either. An understanding that neither of us understood.

“Can I bribe them with ice-cream?”

“And putt-putt golf?”

“Humph,” he grunted as the idea sunk in. “I like it, I haven’t golfed in ages. Let’s do it partner.”

My heart exploded with glitter again, and I didn’t understand that either. One little word had the same effect on me as making love. Partner.

Fortunately, the bribe worked. Paxton lured them away from their friend and the play-place, dangling the carrot in front of their noses. Suckers.

Neither Candace nor Lane acknowledged that we were even there. Not even a glance. The girls and I said goodbye to Chance, but that was it. I didn’t even look their way.

Ice cream and miniature golf was the icing on the cake. Paxton sucked at aiming the ball, and he sucked at being a loser even more. I found it comical as did our giggling girls. Rowan and Phi were even better than him. Of course he let us all win. Of course.

The sun was just about to disappear for the day as we made our way back to the cul-de-sac. A burnt red sky paved the way, ending a pretty good day. I turned to the girls when I heard the click, knowing exactly what it was. Rowan sat behind her dad, Ophelia was behind me, and their hands rested in the middle. Magic stones coming together with a click, click, click, over and over while they stared out the window, lost in their own little worlds.

Paxton pulled his hand from his pocket, placing his hand on the center console, black stone in hand.

Crap.

“It’s at home on the nightstand,” I confessed with an apologetic smile.

“You suck at magic stones, just so you know.”

I chuckled and placed my hand over his stone, loving the way his fingers wrapped around my hand.

I did however have to go upstairs after my stone once the girls were bathed and settled into Rowan’s bed for a story. There was no way I could go to the shower without charging it with power. What was I thinking? I had suggested they power up with their dad while I soaked in a tub of bubbles. That didn’t go over well, but I didn’t stay long. I was serious when I said I wanted to go soak in a hot tub of lavender. My head hurt, but not bad, just a dull ache, enough to make me not feel the best.

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