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Grayson had gotten in trouble for it that night. I’d been able to hide it from my mom, who worked three jobs to support us, for at least two days. She only found out because Rosalyn Wolfe, Grayson’s mom, had called her to see how I was doing.
Grayson
See you tonight.
I didn’t respond. I had nothing else to say to him.
* * *
“I can’t wait to see Uncle Grayson and Ruby. Do you think I can call her Auntie Ruby now? She’s like my aunt since she’s with Uncle Grayson, right?” Zoey yelled from the backseat of my car.
I groaned, knowing there was no way I’d get out of answering her questions. It was bad enough we’d already agreed to go to Red’s Sweet Salvation tonight and that Zoey had known about it.
“I’m sure you could ask her tonight what she’d prefer, Zo.” My daughter didn’t need to be aware of or caught up in my drama with Grayson. It had only been a week since he called the emergency board meeting and convinced them to vote on restoring the building we’d purchased instead of demolishing it. Coincidentally it housed Ruby’s bakery along with five other businesses and a floor of residents living above that. It was how the two of them met.
I hated being at odds with my friend. A gnawing sense of unease settled in my stomach. We’d fought throughout our many years of friendship, but nothing this big had ever created such a divide. A divide I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to cross.
I communicated through my assistant and his as much as possible at work. Any conversation between us was brief. Even in my angered state, I didn’t want to say something I’d regret.
We had disagreed about business decisions in the past, but we’d always worked it out. Together. Anger simmered beneath my skin. His relationship with Ruby somehow took precedence over our twenty-nine years of friendship. Someone he thought might be his forever. How could he even know that after a few weeks? How couldanyoneknow that?
“I bet Ms. Winter will be there too!” Zoey’s voice pitched even higher in her excitement, yanking me away from the dark spiral of negative thoughts I’d been lost in.
I cringed. “Most likely.” Unfortunately for me.
“Isn’t she the absolute best teacher in the whole world?”
“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled, once again needing to keep my real feelings from my daughter. My chest tightened at all the lying I was doing.
“Daddy? Do you think she’ll like my costume?” Zoey piped up. When I didn’t respond quickly enough, she continued. “Are you even listening to me?”
Patience was not one of her virtues. “Of course she’ll like it. You look perfect.”
I glanced at her image in my rearview mirror.
Her gap-toothed grin melted my heart. “Thanks, Daddy. And thank you for fixing my costume.”
“Princess, you know I’d do anything for you.” It was true. There wasn’t another person besides my mom that I’d drop everything for.
“Anything, huh?” This time her grin was a little less cute and a little more mini-villain.
“Within reason. What are you angling for?” I hoped it wasn’t a pony because I had difficulty saying no to my sweet girl since Heather died.
“Well,” she drew out the L sound. “I’d really, really, really love to have a sleepover with my friends.”
Internally I sighed in relief. A sleepover sounded manageable. “Sure. Why not?”
“Yes!” She pumped her fist. “You really are the best daddy ever.”
She started singing a made-up song about sleepovers. “I can’t wait to tell everyone at school tomorrow.”
Regret niggled at the back of my mind. “Everyone?” Had I agreed to something I shouldn’t have? “You weren’t going to invite your whole class, were you?”
She giggled. “No, of course not. I’m not invitingboysto sleep over.” She sounded scandalized.
My heart stopped. I hadn’t even thought about the boys in her class.
“Just the girls, Daddy.” She started her song again.