Page 9 of Better Daddy

Lo snorts and Sully sighs like I’ve exhausted him again.

Good. It’s better when he looks at me like that. Like I’m an issue to deal with rather than the love of his life.

Before I can make my escape, though, he takes a step closer, his eyes narrowing, piercing me in a way that makes it impossible to flee. “You can’t leave.”

I glare at him. “Well, I certainly can’t stay here. I’ve got a job, Sully, remember? It’s in New York City. Miles and miles from here. How the hell would I live here and work there?”

Sully straightens, his chin lifting, as if he has all the answers. “You won’t. You’ll come back and work for us. Or not work at all. It’s not like you need the money.”

My jaw hits the disgusting floor.Did he really just…

Sully holds his hands out. “What?” he asks, his tone challenging. “You know I always pay for you. Hell, I probably paid for that new car. So if you’re set on working in the city, you can use that to get back and forth.”

I don’t respond. I can’t. The gall of this man has rendered me speechless.

He huffs, like I’m the ridiculous one. “Why are you looking at me like that?” He turns to Lo. “Why is she looking at me like that?”

I’m going to kill him.

Tamping down on the rage burning inside me, gatheringfigurative ammunition, I take a deep breath. Then, as evenly as I can, I explain, “This is my career, Sully. A career I’m proud of.”

A career he never took seriously. But it’s always the same with him. We’ve been having this argument for years. Why would today be any different?

His shoulders rise and fall. “Wonderful. Be proudhere. Will only hired you to piss me off anyway.”

That rage is back with a vengeance, my vision going red. “Are you serious right now?”

“It’s also because he’s always wanted to get into your trousers, and now he thinks he has a shot…” The man just keeps going, digging himself a deeper grave.

Is he for fucking real?

“Sully, shut up,” Lo hisses.

He runs his hands through his hair like he’s losing his patience.

Me too, buddy. Me freaking too.

“I’m getting this all wrong. But please, Sloane, you can’t leave. You must stay. It’s?—”

“If you tell me I have to stay here because I’m the vessel for your progeny one more time, I’m going to strangle you, and then Cal will be T.J.’s only male role model. Is that what you want?”

As my husband’s eyes fall shut, I take the opportunity to dart for the door. The bitter fall air has just stolen my breath when I hear the footsteps chasing after me.

“I can’t do this,” I say, my entire being defeated. I don’t want to battle with my husband any longer. I don’t have it in me. I need to wrap my head around this before I talk to him again.

“Are you okay?”

My shoulders sag in relief at the sound of Lo’s voice. I turn around and shake my head. “I don’t freaking know. This isn’t how I thought my day would go.”

This isn’t how I thoughtmy lifewould go. I never would have pictured myself like this: apregnantalmost-single forty-year-old.

Lo glances back at the building. “Why don’t you come up to the apartment? We can talk alone.”

I shake my head. There’s no way I’m going back in there.

She sighs and loops her arm through mine. “Fine, let’s walk, then.”

I glance down at Lo’s impossibly high black heels and then at my rose-gold Louboutins. Neither are walking shoes. Especially in this neighborhood. The inside of the office building is bad enough, but the outside? On either side of the three-story brick building are almost identical structures. Some have windows, and somedon’t.A plastic bag sways in the wind of one of the open doors and garbage liters the street.