Page 44 of Down & Dirty (Holden Cove #1)

CHAPTER 44

SKYLAR

I was nine years old the first time I beat a boy in a motocross race. He’d been ten, and his father was probably more upset than he was. I think he’d had a crush on me, and my schooling him on the track had only added to my appeal.

But even at nine I knew boys weren’t worth the trouble.

So, when he’d come up to me after the race to shake my hand, I’d blown him off. It was a punk move, I’ll admit. But I was a kid and I’d had to fight just to get to ride in that race. I wasn’t ready to be friends with the same people who’d tried to ban me from competing in the sport I loved.

But when I turned away from his extended hand, his father lost it. He’d started to yell at me about being an ungrateful little brat and that he’d make sure I never raced that course again. I wasn’t used to being yelled at like that. My parents had been more subtle in their parenting. Which was why I almost burst into tears when my own father defended me. It scared the crap out of me to hear his voice boom.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” he’d asked, his big mitt of a hand landing on my shoulder and putting me behind him.

“Your brat has no sportsmanship. ”

“She’s a better competitor than anyone else on this track. She doesn’t owe you or your son any more of her time.”

“He wanted to congratulate her!”

“And she didn’t want to take it. Move on.”

“Fucking unbelievable. Bitch is going to ruin the fucking sport.”

My father moved into the man’s face, not wavering an inch as he said, “Call my nine-year-old a bitch again, and you’ll be watching your son ride from a wheelchair.” A long moment of silence stretched out, my eyes pinned to his back, my hands shaking. “She can blow off your kid as many times as she wants, she’s not here to make friends. She’s here to kick his ass on the track and go home. She doesn’t owe you anything , got it?”

“Come on, Dad,” the boy had said, tugging on his sleeve. His father had gone pale. He retreated without saying another word. And my father had led me back to our truck with a slick grin on his face.

After we’d loaded my bike in the back, he turned to me. “Why didn’t you shake his hand? It seemed like a nice thing to do.”

I’d scoffed. “He’s a weasel punk who tried to ride me into the rail in the second corner. He can eat my dust.”

The laughter that had erupted out of my father was a sound I still heard in my head from time to time. It was maybe my favorite memory of my time racing. And it hadn’t even happened on the bike.

I would have loved to hear that sound come out of him again, but instead all he gave me were long sighs and mumbles under his breath as he flipped through the pages of the prenup agreement.

“I still can’t believe you didn’t have me look at this before you signed it,” he said, glaring at me from my kitchen table, his mouth in a tense line.

“It happened kind of fast.” I didn’t want to admit to him that I’d let my trust of Cory sway me away from one of the lessons he’d worked hard to instill: always read the fine print .

When I’d gotten back home, I’d pulled out the document. But I wasn’t in the right headspace to make sense of it. I was either numb or anxious, nothing else. I vacillated between the two like some sort of cruel festival ride, swinging from one to the other with a velocity that left me in a state of permanent nausea. I hadn’t even thought to tell anyone what had happened, but I wasn’t surprised when Ronnie called my parents and my father had flown down the next day. We hadn’t even talked about me quitting on Ronnie yet. We hadn’t talked much at all.

“And he had a lawyer he trusted draw this up?”

“I think so?”

With all the things Cory and I talked about, the tenure of his legal team wasn’t one of them. Still, without even the mention of his name, my chest ached. No amount of anger or frustration had been able to drown out how much I missed him.

“Why?” I asked, pacing to the other side of the room again.

“Well, there’s no way in hell I’d have let my client agree to terms like these.”

I stalled mid-step. “What do you mean?”

He tossed the papers on the table and leveled me a worried frown. “Have you slept?”

I shrugged. It had only been a couple of nights, but I’d avoided the mirror, so god only knew what I looked like.

“Eaten?”

I shook my head. Even the thought of food was too much. Sickness rose up in my throat and I turned back to the window.

“What’s it say?” I asked, trying to get him back on track.

“It says that no matter when or why, if you terminate the agreement, you get a settlement.”

My eyes drifted closed. I’d asked Cory if there was anything in the prenup that would hurt me and he’d answered so quickly, so confidently.

“And it’s not a small amount.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, a chill sweeping over me even in the warmth of the sun I was standing in. “Okay. ”

“Okay? Sky this is real money. Do you know how much?”

Shaking my head I turned back to him. “No. But it’s probably too much.”

He laughed, “If Cory were my client, I’d agree with you. But since you’re my daughter, I think it’s a good start.”

With a heavy sigh, he shoved up from the table and came to stand beside me. It was just the two of us in my quiet apartment. Tommy had agreed to keep Micah for an extra couple of days so I could move my stuff back into my place. I hadn’t told him why I needed the time. Whatever his reaction was, I didn’t need it. If my father hadn’t shown up, I’d probably still be in sweats on the couch, staring at the wall and wondering how things had unraveled so fast.

“Talk to me, Skylar.”

My throat throbbed painfully, words refusing to push past the ache.

“Sweetheart, you’re making big decisions. And maybe they’re the right ones, but are you sure?”

A watery laugh burst out of me. Was I sure? I wasn’t sure about anything. Everything felt so broken, so ruined.

“I just wanted to do something for me.”

His big hand wrapped around my shoulder, tugging me against his chest. “I get that. You’ve been in the position to support others for a long time. Ronnie, Micah, your mom and me. I don’t think any of us gave enough thought to what you want.”

He paused, his chest rising and falling on a deep breath before he went on. “But there was one person who seemed to want to focus on you. Just you.”

His tone was cautious, as if he expected an outburst in response. But I was too tired. Instead of getting angry at him for bringing up Cory, I melted into his arms. Because he was right. Or at least that’s what I’d thought two days ago. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

“But then why did he do that? Why couldn’t he just let me have one thing? ”

“Why do you think?”

I’d wracked my brain for forty-eight hours thinking about this, so I had some ideas. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to admit to any of them.

“Because, Skylar, no matter how wrong it might be to meddle in someone else’s business, I have a hunch he didn’t do it to hurt you.”

“But he did hurt me.” I pulled out of his grasp, walking to the other side of the room to grab a tissue.

My dad took a seat on the arm of the sofa, lacing his fingers together in his lap. It was the way he always sat when he was patiently waiting for Ronnie or I to see something he thought we were missing. I rolled my eyes, walking into the kitchen to toss my tissue in the trash.

“Okay. So, hurt him back. Take him for all the money in that agreement,” he tipped his chin at the kitchen table, the papers spread out across it like a storm had blown through and left them in disarray. Just like my life.

Sickness returned, rising hot and thick in my throat. I didn’t want to hurt Cory. I knew how hard he’d worked for his money. The lengths he was willing to go to win so he’d never be without it.

“I don’t want his money.”

My father’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “No? I thought that was why you took that modeling job. So you could earn more money. On your own.”

Eyeing the contract I shook my head. “I don’t want it like this.”

“He wants you to have it. The language is clear.”

The logical thing would be for me to take it. It would set me and Micah up for whatever came next. But it felt like declaring defeat. Like, this really was the end. And more tears came as that idea broke my heart.

“Talk to him, Sky.”

I shook my head .

“He fucked up. But who hasn’t?”

When I opened my mouth to argue, he held up his hand. “I understand you wanted to do something different. I’ve known that for a while. You should be doing more. Lord knows you’re capable. But modeling? This move didn’t make any sense. So, whatever else is going on here, you owe it to yourself to figure it out, before you end things with someone you clearly care about.”

I didn’t just care about Cory. I loved him. Still. That hadn’t changed.

“And who clearly cares about you. That prenup puts him on the line for a sizeable portion of his assets. That hardly seems like a move someone would make if they didn’t have your best interests in mind.”

The look in his eye was all I needed to see; my father respected Cory. Not necessarily because of who he was, but for how he’d treated me. How he’d tried to protect me, and take care of me.

That prenup had been signed before Cory and I knew each other. We’d barely begun to peel back the layers of who we were, who we wanted to be, the life we could have together. And yet he’d made sure, way back then, that I’d be okay—even without him.

But he was wrong. Because no amount of money could ever make that okay now.