Page 26 of My Ex’s Dad (Scandalous Billionaires #1)

“I…I’m fine.” Other than the fact that I’m practically licking the floor at the moment.

“Erm, it’s pretty cool inside, isn’t it? Granny said to the do the stars outside, but I thought inside would be so much cooler.”

Stars?

I crank my head around and look up instead of at the ground.

The jagged lines of my panic smooth out.

Wow! Stars. They’re being projected from a little globe sphere in the middle of the fort.

The castle’s walls are tall, probably five and a half feet, and inside, the roof that spans the whole thing from one wall to the next is also probably about that tall.

The stars create a surreal atmosphere. It doesn’t seem like I’m just inside a box. It’s far more magical than that.

“Your granny told you to build a fort and get a star projector?”

“That’s right.” Amalphia sounds nervous behind me. I’m taking up all the room in the doorway, so it’s impossible to see her face. “I know it’s childish, but do you…do you think it might be okay? Even adults should have fun too. Why are forts just for kids?”

“I suppose camping and cabins are really just adult versions of that exact idea.”

“Maybe. But not as cool.”

“I would have died to do this when I was a kid. Literally given anything.” Great. Now, the words are coming when I wish I could bite them back.

She doesn’t say anything for the longest time, and then, “War? Are you stuck?”

I bite down on my bottom lip to keep from laughing. The whole I’m trapped, and I’m going to die feeling has passed.

I wriggle slightly, which makes the whole fort shake. I do it again, inching slowly this time and twisting my body at a different angle, trying to free my shoulder.

“Do you want me to shove your feet?”

“I don’t think that will help.” I imagine my knees buckling from the force and my shoulders going nowhere.

“So you are stuck.”

“I wouldn’t say stuck, exactly. More like doorway dimensionally challenged.”

Her laughter is like soft falling rain on the roof. If this roof weren’t made of cardboard, and rain wouldn’t cave it in, that is.

“I’ll get it. Just hold on,” I mutter.

I wedge and wiggle and grunt and shove with my heels against the floor, angling and rocking side to side. I imagine I look like a slug right now, but honestly, are slugs really all that bad? I think they’re kind of cute.

Amalphia’s laughter turns into full-blown giggles. “Let me get the scissors.”

Every minute of this cardboard conundrum is worth hearing her gorgeous laughter.

It flows through me like sparkling water fizzing through my bloodstream.

Great. The last thing I need is to pop a boner.

Boners and box forts don’t go together, especially not when one is wedged in the doorway and making his best worm-wannabe impression.

Extra friction doesn’t seem like a good idea.

With one final shove, spurred on by the dubious proclamation about scissors, I pop through. I give the roof and all its starry glory a triumphant grin.

Amalphia walks away for a minute. I can hear her footsteps receding, but then she’s back and popping through the doorway gracefully, bearing scissors and a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I’ll make adjustments so you can actually get out of here.”

I crawl to the far corner and sit, crossing my legs in front of me. She faces me, assuming the same position.

“Your granny was pretty dead on. This is awesome. Although props for the execution. Where on earth did you get this much cardboard?”

“Granny suggested a moving supply store, or she said I should buy a freezer, but to make a fort this size, I figured I’d need at least eight freezers.

Who needs eight of those, and who has that kind of money?

Err, well, I don’t. But it made me think that all those huge appliance stores are probably unboxing their floor models and doing away with the cardboard, so I went to one, and sure enough.

” She points to the wall behind me, then to the sides.

I didn’t even notice the pictures of freezers and all the writing.

I was too captivated by the stars. “I was in business. They said I could take as much as I wanted.”

“How on earth did you get all this into your car?”

“I rented a truck. It was only thirty dollars an hour, and I thought sixty bucks was a pretty sweet trade-off. You can’t put a price on awesome.”

This .

This is what makes this woman so freaking special.

She would never even think of putting a price tag on anything, and certainly never on anyone .

I could buy anything in the world, but I can’t buy this feeling .

I can’t buy tenderness or true kindness.

There’s no price tag for the way Amalphia is looking at me right now.

She’s so beautiful, the starlight sweeping across her delicate features.

When she shuffles to get comfortable, her face gets near the ceiling, and she’s painted almost entirely in stars.

I thought I was going to die from being stuck in the doorway, but no. This is how I’m going to die. From being bowled right the fuck over by this woman who isn’t like anyone else I know.

“How long did it take you to build this?”

She arranges her legs under herself and traces a pattern on the hardwood floor. “Errr, well, all day.”

“That was an excellent use of time.”

Her lips turn up in a sassy smirk, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from causing an issue in my pants. Forts don’t need tent poles, no matter how much my dick would like to offer itself up for the cause.

“Granny’s other option was to tie myself up in ropes and present myself on your bed.”

My tongue nearly falls out of my mouth.

“Yeah, I thought that was a hard no too.”

“I l-like the fort,” I stammer. “It’s exceptionally creative.”

Her eyes light up, looking extra shimmery because of the projector.

“It might seem like my granny is a wild woman, one who says whatever the heck is on her mind at the time, but I know she’d never give bad advice, and she’d take any and all secrets to her grave. She’d never want to see me get hurt.”

“Seeing as it’s not the ropes, have you decided this won’t work? I’m okay with being friend-zoned.”

She laughs like that’s the funniest thing she ever heard.

Her head flings back, and her eyes tear up.

She literally has to wipe a few tears away from her cheeks after.

“Oh, goodness, no. I’d very much like to date you.

” She sobers quickly. “Just not if it’s going to cost you those dearest to you or wound you irrevocably.

It’s nice to say that living balls to the wall without worrying about what other people think is the way to do it, but it’s quite another to actually put it into practice. ”

I don’t know what to say. I’m too quiet for too long, studying the way the stars dance on the box roof.

“Are you really okay with being friend-zoned?” she whispers.

“No,” I admit.

She cups her face in her hands and groans.

“You’re exactly the right person in the wrong body, wrong circumstance, wrong time.

” She lets them fall away and faces me with all the naked longing in the entire freaking world right there for me to read.

She’s completely unguarded and so utterly breathtaking that I feel like I’m being wedged in that doorway again.

“But if we wait for all those boxes to be right, right, right, we’ll probably be waiting forever.

Wasted time and regrets is a pretty garbage mound to take a stand and die on. ”

I suck in a breath, warmth cascading over my head as though the box roof truly is leaking or the stars are falling from the sky. I imagine neither cold rain nor a star dropping out of the sky and smashing straight into you would be pleasant sensations, but whatever it is, it feels good.

I can feel it seeping into the crown of my head, trickling down to bathe my shoulders, sweeping through my veins, and pooling right in the center of my chest.

Honestly, it’s been so long since I was truly happy or anything approaching it that the feeling catches me off guard.

I bend over double like I have the world’s worst stomachache.

Amalphia misunderstands. She’s on her hands and knees in an instant, crawling over to me. She cups my face, tilting it up. “Are you okay? Are you having a relapse, or is the shock of this too much? You look like your internal organs are shutting down!”

Her hands on my face feel good. I reach up and bracket them with my own. She gasps, the air hissing out of her like a slow leak from a punctured tire.

“It’s okay,” she whispers, her fingers patting my cheek lightly beneath my hand.

It makes a little plopping noise. “I know this is scary for you. You’ve been through the worst of multiple kinds of hell.

No one should have to endure what you’ve endured.

You don’t know that a relationship can be a safe space.

” She laughs humorously. “Then again, neither do I. I want to believe in the love my parents have, though. They’re the reason I haven’t given up entirely.

I know it’s possible to fall more and more in love with someone every single day, to change and grow in the same direction.

I know it’s possible to be together and to keep each other from harm, to truly care about another person’s happiness. ”

“What did you mean when you told Reginald that they even broke your teapots?”

She blinks, her cheeks turning pink. “Nothing. I…it’s nothing.

” She studies my face and caves. “Those thugs smashed some teapots that I’d been collecting over the years when they overturned my place, but hey.

It’s better than having my bones snapped.

I was sad about it at the time, but they were just things.

They can be replaced. Half the fun was going on hunts to thrift stores and antique stores to find them anyway. ”