Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Oakley had been breathtakingly beautiful at sixteen, when I shouldn’t have been looking at her. At eighteen, when she was still too entirely young for me, she owned me. She could walk into a room and become the center of attention without saying a word. The way she could smile and make a man believe he’d fallen in love instantly was a weapon I knew she had used more than once over the years. There was a time that I would have died just to hold her and have her look at me again as if I were the only man she wanted. God, I had lived for that look. To see that smile.
She wasn’t a kid anymore. She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman and a complete stunner. The kind that turned heads, made men stumble when they caught a glimpse of her. The unreal kind of beauty that was unfair to the female population. She was also Sarah’s only aunt and, unfortunately for me, one of Sarah’s favorite people.
Oakley despised me, and she made no attempt to hide the fact. Except around Sarah. My daughter was the only mutual ground between us. Otherwise, she acted as if I were invisible, and I did the same. The best I could at least. Ignoring Oakley Leola Watson was just about fucking impossible for any straight man.
“I was expecting Cleo,” I said when she turned around with a can of soda in her hand.
She smirked, but there was no amusement in her eyes. “That’s why I’m here,” she said, then popped the can open. “I figured you’d need my help.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. It had been so long since Oakley had spoken to me. Much less wanted to help me.
A bark at the screen door interrupted what I was going to say. Oakley walked over to open it and let Belladonna—Sarah’s reddish-brown labradoodle—into the house. I had assumed that we’d be forced to leave Belladonna behind. Sylvia had refused to keep her, so for Sarah, Cleo had taken her when she was a puppy. I hadn’t expected Cleo to allow me to take Belladonna.
The dog had looked like a stuffed teddy bear the one and only time I’d seen it. Sarah had run out to the truck to show me her new puppy when I came to pick her up. That was two years ago. Belladonna was huge now. I only recognized her from pictures that Sarah had texted me of her.
“Sarah hadn’t mentioned the dog,” I said, trying to decide if this was a good thing. Letting her tell the dog bye might be more painful for her. “It might do more harm than good, having it here when we leave.”
Belladonna walked inside, and her eyes locked on me as she fell into step at Oakley’s side.
“It’s a she, not an it. Do you have a thing against dogs?” she asked me with an annoyed gleam in her eyes.
“No. I’m worried about Sarah’s emotions,” I replied through my clenched teeth.
I hated that Oakley always assumed the worst about me.
“Belladonna belongs to Sarah. I brought her, assuming you’d want to take her with you. Sarah could use the comfort.”
“Not something I expected,” I said slowly, trying to decide if she had an angle here that I was missing.
Her dislike for me wasn’t one-sided. It was mutual. She’d made damn sure any feelings I had for her were slaughtered years ago. When I had divorced Sylvia, Oakley was one of the reasons I hadn’t been granted fifty-fifty custody. Her testimony in court had swayed the judge’s ruling. I was positive of it. Had I been able to have Sarah fifty percent of the time, then I would have seen what Sylvia was putting her through. That Sylvia was spiraling. And where the fuck had Oakley been when her stepsister wasn’t fit to raise my child?
She took a long drink, then locked those baby-blue eyes on me. “Why?”
Suddenly having someone here to unleash my anger on, I glared at her. “Oh, I don’t know, Oakley. Maybe the fact that you made sure Sarah only saw me every other fucking weekend and didn’t seem to think I needed to know that Sylvia was in a bad mental place. One that was creating an unsafe home for my daughter,” I snapped.
She didn’t need more of an explanation than that. She knew what the fuck she’d done. How she had failed Sarah.
“You now helping me move Sarah to live with me seems odd, considering.”
Oakley took another drink from her can, never taking her eyes off me. Her eyes lit up with her own pent-up fury. I could see it there, shining as she held my glare. A low growl came from Belladonna. Oakley reached down and ran her hand over the dog’s back, whispering something that made the dog ease.