Page 124 of Learn Your Lesson

My heart pinched. I didn’t know how much I really needed to hear about my father until Mom said those words.

“They may not have been all bad,” Mom said sharply, like she could see my daydreaming eyes. “But they left. Theyleft, Chloe May. At the end of the day, that’s what speaks the loudest of their character. It doesn’t matter if Grandpa loved to paint or if your daddy loved adventure. They walked away from their partners, from their children.”

“Which just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how great you think a man is. They’re all selfish in the end. Only looking out for themselves.” Grandma shook her head, draining the last of her drink. Her eyes held mine when she finished. “Which means you better look out foryou.”

The Monster

Will

It was late by the time Chloe got home.

Ava was long asleep, and with an early practice tomorrow morning — I should have been, too. Instead, I was watching video of Jacksonville, who we’d play on Saturday, pretending not to have half my focus on the pool house.

I was making mental notes of how one of the team’s forwards attacked on goal when a light flickered on. I’d missed her making her way through the gate and across the yard, but looked up just in time to see her dropping her purse and keys by the door before she disappeared inside.

I needed her tonight.

I needed to touch her, to hold her, to smell her and hear her sigh.

That fact alone scared the ever-loving fuck out of me, but it was true. I’d needed her more in the past month than I’d ever needed any woman in my life.

What was most surprising was that she showed up without me even having to voice it.

Just like when I was sick, she’d stepped up in every way as I focused on the team and our playoff race. She was running this house and this family like it was her full-time job.

I used every chance I could to thank her for it.

I told her with words — though they were feeble and insignificant.Thank youjust didn’t seem like enough. So, I told her with a weekly bonus, too.

But my favorite way to thank her was by making her come.

I had memorized it now, the series of events that led to her release. I could close my eyes and picture her flushed skin, her fluttering eyes, the shape of her body as she spread and opened and invited me in. I knew the sound of her sighs, her whimpers, her deep moans as she drew closer and closer. I could feel the way her nails would rip into my flesh, could never forget the precise way she tightened around me in little pulses when she finally gave all the way in.

She was all I thought about other than hockey and my daughter these days.

When I had a great game, I couldn’t wait to celebrate with her. When I had a shit practice, she was who I wanted to get lost in.

Every waking moment, every sleepless hour — it was her.

I forced myself to wait twenty minutes before I shut my laptop, turning out the kitchen light and making my way across the pool deck to her door. I knocked softly, letting myself in when I didn’t hear a response.

“Chloe?” I called out, making sure I didn’t surprise her.

“Back here,” was the answer, a soft, almost sad reply that came over the gentle sound of a bathtub filling.

Nacho ran right up to me, circling my feet with his bushy orange tail. I smirked, bending to pet him behind the ears until he was purring, and Pepper was coming over with a croakymeowto demand his own pets.

Coconut sat on the back of the couch, eyes narrowed, tail flicking. I wasn’t trying to win over those asshole cats, but the other two had warmed up to me quite nicely.

Still, I counted it as a win when Coconut let me pet her once before she meowed and hopped off the couch, sauntering away with her tail high.

I made my way toward the sound of the water next. When I stepped into the bathroom attached to Chloe’s bedroom, I found her staring at her feet propped on the edge of the tub, the water pouring between them and bubbles covering her all the way up to her collarbone. Only her neck, head, knees, shins, and feet were above the water line.

She didn’t startle when I entered. Her eyes were hollow and empty as she turned to look up at me, and she forced the most pathetic attempt at a smile before her eyes were on her toes again.

My chest tightened.

You should go.