"I don’t dispute that it does, but I just wanted a different path for my daughter." If I placed emphasis on the word ‘my’ well, so be it.
He raised his hands. "Sorry. None of my business."
"No," I told him sweetly. "It isn’t."
"Look, I’m really sorry about not calling—"
"Honestly, no hard feelings," I replied earnestly, able to utter the words because there were zero hard feelings.
Hell, I felt nothing whatsoever, just discomfort that he’d come here, period, clearly hoping to get back in with me. Why that was, I didn’t know.
"I was wondering if you’d like to go on another date?"
I shook my head. "I can’t."
"Come on," he wheedled. "Friday night? I’ll drive us to a club in Columbus. You can let your hair down and we can have some serious fun."
"Thanks, Jared, but I’m actually back with my husband."
Husband.
Not ex-husband.
It was the first time I’d said it out loud and it tasted damn fine.
His brows rose. "Seriously? I didn’t realize you were even married."
"Seriously." I smiled at him. "We’re working on things."
"Oh." His bottom lip popped out in an honest-to-God pout, and he murmured, "Hold the coffee? I just remembered I have to head back to work."
I rolled my eyes at the bullshit segue but found myself relieved he had somewhere else to be as I returned to cleaning the counter down from the lunch rush.
I didn’t want to quit working at the diner entirely. Not only because I found it soothing to be around normal people, doing normal things, but also because it was a chance for Cyan and me to have a break from each other.
The homeschooling was going surprisingly well, especially with Storm doing some of the classes, and now we were paying MC to teach her French, that made things a lot easier because languages had never been my strong suit.
So, while those classes happened, I took some time to just come here and be Keira, really. Not Mom, or Old Lady or wife, not cook or vacuumer, or math teacher or… the list was endless. Just Keira.
It was refreshing.
I worked with the wait staff to manage the place, formulating schedules, helping make stock orders, and did a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. Today, Franny was out sick, though, so I’d asked MC if we could move tomorrow’s class to now, while I worked her shift.
The door opened once more, and I turned to the entrance with a smile that slowly died.
She strode in like she owned the place.
Of course she did.
God, I hated her.
I didn’t think I’d ever hated someone so much in my life.
Even though Storm’s words were there to comfort me, Rex’s too, and knowing full well that she was a liar, that didn’t take away from the fact that she’d been the one to break apart my world and had done it with a comforting smile.
Kendra.
"You can walk back out the way you came in," I told her calmly. "You’re not welcome here."
Kendra smirked. "I think Storm would disagree with me."
She was everything I wasn’t. Always had been.
In high school, she’d been popular, somehow managing to cross the line between the Sinners and the regular kids, somehow being accepted where Jimmy had only been ostracized.
Of course, now I knew why.
She’d probably sucked, fucked, and bent over for any guy who’d get her into a party.
"I think he wouldn’t. I think he’d be insane to disagree with me." I shot her a serene smile, even as my temper soared when she further ignored me by taking a seat at the counter.
Dressed to impress—if you were a hooker—she had baby pink platforms on her feet, at least seven inches in height, a tight white skirt, whose only deference to the weather outside was that it was ankle-length. A pink sweater covered her torso, beneath a fluffy pink jacket.
Hooker Barbie.
Especially with her new hair—bright, white blonde that she had in a high ponytail, which swung to and fro, whipping from side to side with each movement of her head.
She couldn’t have been more eye-catching if she tried. At least, if she wanted to draw the attention of every guy in every room in every state in the country.
"I’d like a coffee," she murmured, placing her white pocketbook on the table.
"I’d like for you to get VD and die." I smiled. "We don’t always get what we ask for, do we?"
"Tsk, tsk. Someone’s grown a spine since I last saw you. Probably having to deal with that stupid girl of yours.
"Such a shame. I don’t know how Storm managed without me." She shot me a pitying look. "He called me down here, Keira. He pleaded with me because he needs me."
Her audacity had me shaking my head. "Even before, I wouldn’t have believed that. You know how?"
"You think I’m lying?" she scoffed.
"I know you are. Because if you ever inferred that Cyan was stupid," I hissed, low enough for my daughter not to hear even if I knew Kendra and I were drawing the post-lunch crowd’s attention better than if I’d declared everyone’s tabs were on the house, "Storm would decimate you."
Unashamed, unapologetic at being caught in a lie, she hitched a shoulder that somehow tossed the ponytail and set it swaying from side to side.
Like a pendulum, it entranced me, making my hands curl into fists as she declared, "We both agreed your parenting skills are quite weak. I can promise you that if I’d been blessed with Storm’s child, I’d take care of her, make sure she didn’t prefer to run away with dirty old men. I wish we’d been so lucky, but—"
"You’re not wanted here, Kendra. You should leave." I said that with as much calm as I possessed, but I could feel my control starting to break.
Could feel the edges of it starting to turn frayed.
Giulia wouldn’t have shown diplomacy in the face of Kendra’s outrageous lies. She’d have thrown a plate at her. That would have been for the bitch’s audaciousness in coming down to Coshocton.
Indy would have probably stuck a dinner knife in her face and told her to fuck off. Simply because she’d come to the diner.
Stone would have informed her there were a million things she could do with a scalpel and that she wasn’t going to let the Hippocratic oath hold her back. That would have been payment for calling Cyan stupid.
And only the Lord knew what Amara would threaten.
Maybe a mixture of the above?
All to avenge the notion that Cyan preferred to be molested because I was a shitty mom.
Then there was Lodestar. Christ, I shuddered to think what she was capable of.
Five women. Each of them stronger than me. Every one of them raised not to give a fuck. All of them raised not to be dainty, delicate little girls who’d turn into future Stepford housewives…
"I think you’ll find I am wanted here, Keira. What’s a woman supposed to do when the love of her life calls her and pleads with her to come help him in his hour of need."
"Hour of need?" I demanded, wondering if she was talking about the padlock. Did she know about that? Did she know what it represented?
"I heard she’s not doing well in school."