by KD Robichaux
“Do you think so?” Her voice and her eyes seem so hopeful it makes my heart ache.
I snort. “How many men do you know would show up at a woman’s house when they find out they’re sick? Especially”—I emphasize the word—“when they aren’t dating. They aren’t even really seeing each other. Not to mention the fact that he looks at you like…” I close her eyes for a moment then sigh. “God, I don’t even know, because I’ve never had a man look at me that way.” Winston does, a voice whispers, but I shove it away. “All I know is he’s totally into you, and if you weren’t my sister, I would be so jealous right now.”
The problem is, I am jealous. I’m 100 percent jealous that my sister is completely single and a man who is also completely single is clearly smitten with her, and if they both wanted to, they could be with each other right this very second without any qualms.
Which is so fucked up of me and fills me with even more guilt than I already carry, because if anyone deserves happiness, it’s Mia.
“We have a date Saturday,” she tells me.
“So you’re going?” I ask, and she frowns. I roll my eyes. “Last night, you kept talking about how you didn’t know if you should go. It happened every time you picked up your phone, wondering if you should message him. We really need to work on your alcohol tolerance.”
“I think I’ll be happy to never drink again. And I didn’t know if I should message or go, because I don’t know if I trust that he’s real. But as you put it, how many guys would most likely illegally get your address and show up at your house to check on you when you don’t call to let them know you’re okay?”
“I’m pretty sure a stalker would do that,” I joke, and she sighs. “But seriously, Mia, like I told you last night, what do you have to lose if you spend some time with him? Plus, if you’re lucky, you’ll have the memory of his penis. I just hope it’s not small, because that would really suck—not only for you, but for the population of women in the world who are drooling over him.”
She laughs loudly, making my grin widen, and she lets out a deep breath. “I’m going out with him. Well, not out. He’s taking me to his house and—”
“Banging your brains out?” I cut her off hopefully.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong with you? He’s just making dinner.”
What’s wrong with me is I had my first non-self-given orgasm in over a year a couple nights ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it, even though I know it’s wrong. “Well, I still hope he bangs your brains out.”
“Can you please stop?” She groans.
“Sorry. You’re right. I’ll stop.” I pretend to zip my lips closed.
“Thank you. Lord… I think you need to get laid. Maybe it’s time for you to sign up on a dating app or order a new vibrator.”
“Already done. Not the first option, but the second. I don’t need another man,” I tell her, something I’ve been chanting to myself over and over since I left Win’s house the other night.
“Right now.”
“What?” I prompt, only half listening now that the image of Win and what we did together won’t get out of my mind. God, what I wouldn’t give—
“You don’t need a man right now.”
“Ever.” I take a drink of water from my glass, the ice clinking. “I… I just want my girls to be happy and to get myself sorted. I don’t want another man.” Maybe if I say it enough, I’ll start believing it.
She looks at me for a moment, so closely it makes me think she might sense I’m holding on to something, keeping my secret about Winston. But instead of calling me out, she only says, “I love you.”
“I love you too.” My expression softens, and my eyes water a little. “I see good things with you and Talon, so I hope you let him in and actually give him a chance,” I whisper, then I clear my throat before walking my glass to the sink. I turn back toward her. “I’m gonna head to bed, and don’t worry about getting up in the morning. I’m taking the girls to school, since I don’t have class until after noon and didn’t work tonight.” I walk around the counter, and she turns her stool toward me as I wrap my arms around my little sister. “Love you,” I repeat for good measure.
“Always,” she replies, and I head for bed.
15
Winston
“My son is going to need therapy when he grows up. If not sooner,” I murmur to Steph in her office before the dinner rush starts. Jared, our other evening cook, had to take the day off in order to get some work done on his house. Contractors have been backed up for what seems like forever after the tornado, and he was finally able to get on the Maysons’ schedule after I put in a word for him.
“At least you got her hysterics on camera this time,” Steph replies, shaking her head. “No offense, but that girl needs to be sedated.”
“None taken. I agree. Thankfully the restaurant wasn’t too crowded when it all happened. We lost a small fortune by offering everyone free dessert for having their meal ruined last time she pulled that shit.”
“Where is Nick now?” she asks, since it’s not often I work in the evenings on the weeks I have him.
I smile. “In his fort,” I reply, referring to the empty storage room down the hall that we piled with blankets and pillows for him to chill in with his iPad on the rare occasions I have to bring him to work with me. The perks of owning my own restaurant and being the boss.
“You going to introduce him to your new girlfriend when she arrives?”
She asks it so nonchalantly, yet I still choke on the water I was drinking out of my stainless-steel bottle. When I stop hacking up a lung, I look at her, my brow furrowed. “What are you—”
“Oh, come on, boss. You’ve been watching and panting over Cece like a lost wolf pup since the day I hired her. And all that ‘naekkeo’ mess… dude… you haven’t given anyone else around here a cute little pet name. You are so smitten kitten it’s embarrassing,” she says, and I swallow thickly. I thought I’d done a better job of hiding my feelings for her than that. “And the way she avoided you on Sunday, something must’ve happened between you two.”
I slouch down in my seat. “Yeah, well it certainly wasn’t her becoming my girlfriend. The opposite actually. I think I fucked up any chance of that happening in the future.”
“Uh oh. What happened?”
“I told her the truth about Corina, how we’re technically still married,” I murmur.
She sighs, shaking her head. “Well, it had to be done. It’s not like you can be openly in a relationship with Cece anyway, or your cunt of an ex will nail you in court for cheating, even if y’all haven’t been together in three years. Do me a favor and never sign another prenup for the rest of your life.”
“That, I can agree to. And I know. So it’s not fair to even try to have anything serious with her right now anyway. I still have three years to go before I can get divorced without losing everything. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t… stay away from her. I can’t stop thinking about her. I’m—”
“In love with her,” she states matter-of-factly, and it’s like she’s slapped me, because it rings true. I can’t even deny it. “You are head-over-heels for a woman for the first time in… God, I don’t even know. I’ve never seen you in love before, because I started working here after you were already well into the ‘hating life’ part of your marriage before y’all separated.”
“I’ve never felt like this for anyone before,” I admit, and she gives me a sad smile.
“Well, now you know. This is what it feels like to be in love with someone. It just sucks because there’s nothing you can do about it… not unless you want to give up everything you’ve worked so hard for to a bitch who’s done absolutely nothing but make your life a living hell for the past seven years. Has she shown up to any barbeques or dinners lately?” Steph asks, referring to all the times Corina’s arrived at my friends’ events without having been invited.
Everyone knows we’re separated, but she likes to make it super awkward
by still showing up and claiming to be there as my wife. I don’t even know how she finds out about them. The last one was at Asher Mayson’s barbeque about a year ago. We became close after his construction company built my house. He’s like, the cool uncle I never had because my parents’ siblings live in other states. Being the narcissist she is, and knowing how affluent and influential the Mayson family is in the area, she tries her best to be associated with them. And she’s so fucking delusional that when she suddenly walks in and everyone already knows only I was invited, not her, she doesn’t recognize the fact that it makes every person there super uncomfortable. She can’t fathom the thought that no one wants her there, that she brings the whole party to a screeching, painfully awkward stop, especially when I ask her what the fuck she’s doing there and she throws a damn tantrum like I’m the one making it weird.
It’s probably why I haven’t been invited back in a while. Best for everyone, since we don’t know how the hell she keeps finding out about them.
“Not lately, since I haven’t been either. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen much of her at all in quite some time. Sunday was the first time’s she brought Nick to me in a while. It’s usually her parents,” I say with a shrug.
“Wonder what’s got her so busy,” Steph says suspiciously.
I shrug again. “Don’t know, don’t care. The less I see of her, the better.”
She sits forward in her chair and rests her elbows on her desk. “You never know, boss. You could catch her with some other guy, and that would be the end of this charade. You’d be free and clear to date whoever the hell you want without the worry of losing everything.”
I snort out a short laugh. “I couldn’t get that lucky.”
She shakes her head. “I’m serious, Winston. Get a… a private investigator or something. Have them follow her. See what she’s up to. What could it hurt? If they catch her doing something, it would only add to the video you took of her being psycho, more evidence to show in court if you need it.”
I sigh. “Yeah, I’ll think about it. But I’d rather put as little thought into that woman as possible. I just want to keep what little peace we have between us and do my time. Then I can think about being happy with someone else.”
“Three years is a long time, boss. A lot can happen during that time. Like… the one you want could be off the market by then,” she points out, and my nostrils flare at the thought.
“That’s not happening,” I growl, a sense of possessiveness coming over me like I’ve never felt before.
Steph chuckles. “Oh yeah? And what would you be able to do about it if Cece starts dating after she and her husband are officially divorced?”
Over my dead fucking body, I think, and I stand from the chair, my hand shooting into my hair with a frustrated snarl.
“I’ve gotta start prepping for the dinner crowd,” I murmur, and I hear her chuckle behind me as I storm toward the kitchen. I take a moment to check in on my boy, who doesn’t even look up from his iPad where he’s buried in the pile of pillows, and I close the door once more. He can FaceTime me and he has a walkie talkie if he needs me. Mine is attached to my belt, turned on high so I can hear it over the loud sounds inside the kitchen.
I spend the next half hour cutting up vegetables, wondering if Cece is going to avoid me all night once she gets here for her shift.
16
Cece
It’s crowded tonight. One of the waitresses called in sick, so I’ve been pulling double duty, bartending and waiting tables. I’ve had to see and speak to Winston each time I’ve picked up a table’s order, but it’s been so busy I’ve had an excuse not to linger. Plus, he’s been working his ass off trying to keep up with the food, so he hasn’t tried to stop me.
An hour into my shift, I glance at the table where my sister is eating dinner with my girls and see Talon has joined them. I grin, seeing Mia watching him with a smile on her face as he says something to Ruby, and I make my way over to them.
I lay my hand on his shoulder and chirp his name. “Talon.” He tips his head back and returns my smile. “Mia didn’t tell me that you were coming with her and the girls tonight.”
“That’s because he didn’t come here with us. He came here with his uncles and brother,” Mia says, and I narrow my eyes on her for a moment before glancing around the restaurant.
I know the exact moment I’ve spotted the table where Talon’s family is, because it looks like a group of big-ass, good-looking superheroes who favor him have come to dinner. “Umm… wow, okay. So you get your hotness honestly.” My cheeks flame as my wide eyes return to Talon’s. I can’t believe I just said that out loud. “I mean… I mean…. Never mind. I’ll be back. I need to go check on my kids’ dinner.”
I rush toward the bar, not paying attention, and run straight into a brick wall. A brick wall that smells just like the delicious cologne Winston wears along with the yummy scent of bell peppers and spices that has attached itself to him. My gaze makes its way up until I’m staring into his beautiful dark eyes that are full of heat and need, and his big, hot hands come down on my shoulders. The touch sizzles even through my T-shirt, the heat rushing down my arms to my fingertips before zipping back up and surging toward my nipples. They harden instantly, almost painfully, inside my bra, and I nearly moan.
He ducks his face so close to mine I think he might kiss me, right there in the restaurant in front of everyone, and my breath catches. I scold myself for not jerking away, for not putting some distance between us, because anyone looking at us right now would clearly see there’s more between us than just a boss and his employee. It’s obvious in the way he’s looking at me, in the way his pointer fingers slide gently up the sides of my neck as his hands still rest on my shoulders, in the way I’m sure my expression shows how much I long for him. But I can’t move. I can’t… fucking… move.
“We need to talk, naekkeo,” he murmurs, his minty breath filling the short space between us.
“Are you divorced yet?” I ask, my voice not as strong as I want it to be.
He frowns. “You know I’m not, Cece.”
I lift my chin but still can’t find the fortitude to step out of his hold on me. “Then we have nothing to talk about,” I say, shaking my head.
His face softens, and my knees grow weak. “But we do. We need to talk about the fact that I’m in love with you.”
I do jerk back then, my hand going to my chest as if to hold back my frantic heart. Did he—
“Order up!” Steph calls as she comes through the door from the kitchen, and I take it from her on autopilot as Winston finally lets me go.
“Thanks,” I murmur, catching Winston’s small smile when I turn back toward him with the tray.
“We’ll talk later,” he states, and there’s no room for argument in his tone even though his expression stays soft.
I make my way over to my girls, my sister, and Talon, where I see he’s got his plate already in front of him. He must’ve grabbed it after his family’s dinner was brought out. I wink at Ruby when I see her already munching on a fry.
“Dinner is served,” I announce, and Ruby pushes her tablet across the table so I can place her plate in front of her. Talon helps me pass out the other plates, and once everyone has their dinner, I tuck the tray under my arm. “Are you guys good?”
“I think we’re good for now,” Mia replies as Talon grabs the ketchup from the middle of the table and squirts some on Ruby’s plate. He’s such a good guy. I hope my sister doesn’t try to push him away.
“I’ll be back to check on you guys after I check on my tables.” I pat Talon’s shoulder before walking back toward the bar, hoping they didn’t sense I basically had the wind knocked out of me by Winston’s declaration.
I glance around but don’t see him in the dining room. He must’ve gone back to the kitchen after dropping that little bomb on me. I do, however, see table twelve is getting low on their drinks, so I slip behind the bar to grab some refills.
“What the fuck is the meaning of this, Cecilia?”
I turn wide eyes on Mike, his barely controlled anger permeating the air around him as he waves a manila folder at me, even though he’s kept his voice low enough the people around us didn’t hear. Image is everything to him, so I’m absolutely shocked he’s here right now at all.
I shake off my surprise and pull myself up to my full five-foot five height, squaring my shoulders. “I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. Right at the top of the page in bold are the words Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.” If he wants to always treat me like I’m stupid, then I’ll spell it out dumbly for him.
“Daddy!” Kate yells, and I look down just in time to see her wrap her arms around his waist and hug him. Mia is close behind her, but her eyes are on Mike.
“This isn’t the time or place,” she tells him, her face more serious than I’ve ever seen it.
He shakes his head at her. “I was just served these… asinine papers at work. If I can be interrupted for such ridiculousness, then so can she,” he sneers, turning his eyes on me.
Mia takes Kate’s hand. “Work or not, you shouldn’t be saying any of it in front of your daughter,” she hisses, and he at least has the decency to look chastised as he flashes apologetic eyes Kate’s way before Mia pulls her back to their table.
His nostrils flare as his eyes narrow. “I’m aware of what the papers are. But what were you thinking, asking for all the things in them? And how the hell did you even come up with the money to file, when you can’t even afford to pay your bills with your sister’s help?”
