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She shrugs and rubs her upper arms. “I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want to...”

It’s said so softly with an uncertain glance in Lachlan’s direction.

The knuckles on his hand match the stark white of the towel fisted between his fingers. The veins of his arms bunch beneath the taut flesh of his forearm. The fabric gets tossed to one side as he replaces it with a firm grip around the back of Everly’s neck.

She’s pulled to him.

Dragged so close her clothes tangle with his. His lips ghost over hers.

“I have no business in your life after this.” He pulls in air I know is filled with her when he holds it too long. “I’ll help you today because I made you a promise, but that’s it, okay? I can’t hold on to you.”

Not at all to my surprise, Everly nods. “I understand.”

I have to resist the urge to smack my face with my palm.

Who did I piss off in a past life to get stuck with two of the most frustrating, illogical people? How am I the only rational one who sees what bullshit that is?

Fine. If they want to keep playing that game, I’m not going to meddle.

CHAPTER TWENTY

LACHLAN

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I’m a shit father.

I was never cut out for the task, especially at sixteen when I could barely wipe my own ass. But that’s what you get for having sex. That’s the risk when you’re stupid and all your brain can process is fucking the hottest girl in school one time before leaving.

But I stepped up.

I tried. I got a job and every penny I earned was sent to Ashley. I didn’t ask my parents for help. I didn’t tell Ashley to contribute. I supported my kid from across the country until I was old enough to pack up and go back.

I married Ashley when her parents said I had to. I got us an apartment and worked three jobs to keep them happy, but it wasn’t enough. I was working too much. Not enough. I was too tired to spend time with Bron when I got home. I was neglectful when I’d doze off watching the same six TV shows he loved after a fifteen hour shift.

When Mom got sick and Dad needed help, the opportunity was too good.

Or maybe I was a selfish coward, running from the judgment of her parents.

Her mom’s constant reminders that I was failing as a man. How I was nothing like her niece’s husband who spoiled his wife and gave her a lavish lifestyle with nannies and a cook.

Or her dad’s disapproval of such a worthless kid knocking up his daughter.

Maybe it was when their bitter, poisonous words started spilling from Bron’s mouth like it was gospel and Ashley would laugh.

No. It was none of those things. I don’t run because people are mean to me. I had a job and I was determined to see it through.

What hit my breaking point was catching Ashley in our bed with the guy from across the hall. It was coming home to Bron scrambling off the sofa and yelling,“Dad, you’re home!”at the top of his lungs. His enthusiasm would have been endearing, except he was never excited to see me. More so was the fact that he grabbed my hand and demanded we go get ice cream.

The silence of the apartment had me asking about his mother. She should have been home. His vague response about a migraine had me eyeing the closed door.

The irony of it all isn’t that she was sleeping with another guy for a whole year, but that he wasn’t her first and Bron knew about that. That he kept it quiet.

Kept watch ... in exchange forPokémoncards.

I try to remember if I even felt betrayed at that point. I remember annoyance. I remember thinking I wasn’t surprised. But it’s all a blur as I packed up and went to Van’s.

For a week, Ashley and everyone she knew blew up my phone calling me every name in the book for abandoning my wife and kid. When I finally answered her mother and told her why I left, my answer was,“Mistakes happen. You can’t expect a woman not to have needs when you don’t show her affection.”