Page 34 of My Ex’s Dad (Scandalous Billionaires #1)

My mother’s hand trails up, smoothing over the already immaculate slicked back ash blonde bun at the nape of her neck.

The only variation between her daily outfits are slacks or skirts and what color sweater she’s going to pair or wear over a white blouse.

She always wears black pumps, and she sports enough diamonds to make her a rather outstanding target to be mugged.

Not that anyone would ever have the chance.

She doesn’t go anywhere without her driver, a big beefcake named JOHN, because that’s exactly the way he pronounces it in his deep, booming baritone voice, with more emphasis on the H than the N.

Today, I got the more professional take no prisoners, no bullshit, and none of your progeny’s excuses black pencil skirt, black hose, black pumps, crisp white blouse, and cream sweater slung over her shoulders combination.

“ Darling ,” she sighs testily, changing tactics like playing nice might actually work.

I brace for it, which makes Amalphia stiffen. I can see her pulse throbbing in her wrist in the hand extended to hold her mug. Nothing good ever comes from my mother starting a sentence with that word. The way she says it, it might as well be: Listen up, you little fucker.

“Do you really want to screw up your life again?”

Told you.

Amalphia snorts, letting the obviously rhetorical question bounce right off of her. “Record number two for rudeness. I’m starting to think you’re not a morning person, Mrs. Beanbottom . Could I get you a coffee? They’re excellent.”

My blood is at the point of boiling straight over, but I’m going to keep my composure long enough to see my mother out of my house. And change the combination for all the doors so she can’t come back in.

“You might think I’m making bad decisions.” I punctuate that with a grind of my molars that I just can’t help. “You might see it as screwing up. Truth is, though, you never really cared what I felt one way or the other. All you cared about was the family name.”

My mother gasps as if I’ve just told her that I’m going to start a new career narrating audiobooks, but only if they involve refrigerator smut.

She’s not going to get it unless I go straight to the point that I’ve never been brave enough to circle back around to. Not since the first time I went to her. One glance at Amalphia’s gently encouraging look gives me the courage.

“I wish you would have believed me when I came to you, needing you more than anything. Needing you to be a mother and to see me, hear me, and love me.”

“I protected you!”

“You did, in a way, but you never believed me, and that mattered .”

“You’re being ridiculous.” Her brows are sharp enough to cut all the glass in here and send them shattering around our feet in a bunch of brightly lit shards.

“I don’t think I am, but that’s not the conversation we’re having.

Amalphia is a beautiful person, so I’m going to ask you once, and once only, to please refrain from making judgments and saying horrible things.

I won’t have you or Dad in my life if you both can’t stop being toxic human beings instead of loving parents. ”

“Excuse me? Now, listen here, Warrick, I—”

I have to cut her off because she’s not listening.

I expected it, but even so, it’s still a horrible feeling to have my heartfelt, extremely hard-won words bounce right off of her like she’s wearing a protective trampoline suit.

“Even just regular parents would be alright. I’m exhausted, Mom.

I’m tired of being controlled. I don’t feel loved, and half the time, I don’t feel like a part of this family.

There’s a lot we have to work on, but we can’t do that if you’re not willing. ”

“You’re being ridiculous,” my mother repeats, indicating my coffee mug like it’s the cause of all the world’s wrongs. She quickly changes her mind and snaps her fingers in Amalphia’s direction. “She’s a…a…nothing more than a coochie.”

“I think you mean hussy. This is a coochie.” Amalphia makes a whistling noise as she points down to her jeans and then back up. She can’t control the humor underscoring her tone.

My mother can’t control stamping her foot on the hardwood floor either. “She’s got your head in a mess, just like Candice did when you were sixteen, and look how that ended up.”

I think all three of us knew she was going there. No one’s surprised. “I’m not sixteen anymore, Amalphia isn’t Candice, and it could have all ended up quite differently if only you had just listened and had an ounce of compassion.”

“I listened. We saved you.” Red is the new red when it comes to my mother’s scarlet face. I almost ask her a second time if she’s sure she doesn’t want some coffee.

On that cue, I take a deep pull of my own. Ahhh. The deliciousness hits me, but not as hard as Amalphia’s soft eyes, offering me all the support in the world. They’re like a hug on their own. A silent, it’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.

I really want to get to the point of this so I can wrap. It. Up. “You came to talk about me leaving the company, and my answer isn’t going to change. My notice stands. I want to do something else.”

“What’s more important than carrying on the family business?”

“It will carry on whether I’m there or not. It’s not even anything that’s just in the family anymore. I want to make robot pets for all the kids out there whose parents can’t or won’t get them one. Affordable robot pets.”

“What a calling,” my mother scoffs. She’s getting ready to waggle her eyebrows at me again, so I bury my face in my coffee cup before I respond.

“I’m sure people thought that about Great-Grandpa when he was installing air conditioners and then came up with his own invention.”

“People need air conditioners. They don’t need stupid little robots.”

“We’ll just have to disagree on that. Anyway, I have a workout planned, and I want to have a nice breakfast with my girlfriend before heading into the office to give it my all before I leave. I’m going to have to ask you to head out now.”

I get a whole lot of nostril flaring to go with the eyebrows pretty much reaching the stratosphere, or at least her hairline. “Are you…you can’t be serious. This is not happening!”

“It is, and we’ll talk when you’re ready,” I say.

“I’m ready now.”

“In that case, I should say, ready to be nice.”

If I truly believe there’s hope for Candice, and I want to…

for Reginald’s sake, then I have to believe that someday, I might have a better relationship with my parents.

I communicate that silently to Amalphia.

Her eyes remain as soft as her posture. She didn’t jump straight into defensive mode.

She was prepared for this based on what I’d told her about my mom and dad.

Of course she knew that yesterday was give my notice day, and if she rehearsed this in her mind, she probably decided that, unfortunately, it couldn’t go any other way.

“You’re…you’re disowned!” my mother stutter-snaps, pointing a very long index finger in my face. She has an array of jewelry that she cycles between. Today, it’s her mother’s emerald and gold ring that wags in my face.

I know she doesn’t mean it. I’ll be un-disowned in a week, but Amalphia doesn’t know that. She covers her gasp with a hand over her mouth, but her eyes are large and shiny above her fingertips.

And not in a good way.

My mother tears out of the room, her pumps clicking so violently that they’re a good match for her brows.

I trail after her and stop her at the door.

“Mom. Wait.”

She pauses but doesn’t turn. Her hand clutches the doorknob until her knuckles are white.

She’s too proud to be the one to speak first. She won’t turn around, but I don’t know if that’s because she’s fighting with herself and doesn’t want me to see it or because she’s far too angry and disappointed in me at this very moment.

“I don’t want you to leave angry,” I tell her.

“You should have thought about that before giving your notice like a spoiled brat.”

I set my coffee down on the hall table, taking that extra second to figure out how to try and find the words for this. It’s important, and I can’t let her leave without saying them.

“I know you’ve only ever tried to protect me and the rest of the family. You’ve had your own ways and your own reasons for them. I guess I have as well.”

She still doesn’t turn, and even though every word costs me, I keep going, scraping them up from the depths of my soul. I know they’ll likely be completely ignored or thrown back in my face, but that’s not on me.

“Do you think that when everything settles down—tempers and whatnot—we should maybe all go to therapy and talk things out? I’m pretty sure we’re past the point of being able to do it on our own now. We need a professional if we’re going to fix this.”

That dreaded word, the suggestion of talking it out with a therapist, has my mother spinning.

Record number three. I think it goes without saying that it’s for the world’s highest, screamiest, most threatening brows.

“What’s to be fixed? You’ve decided to throw your family and your heritage away for the desire to make toys. And for a hussy in the most ridiculous, cheap, secondhand clothing that doesn’t even match. It’s outrageous. She’s outrageous. All she wants is your—”

“Heart,” Amalphia finishes for my mother.

She walks up behind me and rests her hand on the small of my back. I never thought the word swoon could apply to me, but that’s what I do. Every single muscle in my body goes straight into man-swoon mode. Mwoon mode?

“All I want is for his heart to be happy.” Her hand rubs a small circle along my tailbone, and I have to resist the urge to start lowkey purring. “I think we both want that. In time, hopefully, we can work on it together.”

“In time?” my mother snaps like a feral hyena. “You’ve been here for all of a month and a half. You’re as laughable as those pants.”

“I know. But I’d rather laugh than hurt. I’d rather laugh with War than be alone just because I couldn’t find the courage to risk being with him. This has been the best and hardest month and a half of my life.”

“It’s you. All these bad ideas. It’s all you, whispering them in his ears and encouraging him to burn it all to the ground.”

“Not exactly…” Amalphia pauses and then just goes for it.

“But I did once burn an entire pan of meatballs so badly that they couldn’t be identified.

I once waxed the shower with furniture polish because I thought it was lemon-scented cleaner.

I once didn’t protect my computer passwords, and some thugs tried to break my legs.

I once nearly gave War a heart attack by holding my breath too long in the pool.

And I once made a giant box fort that wasn’t exactly sturdy.

I’ve made so many other mistakes, and I’ve gotten plenty of things wrong.

But I’ve tried to learn from all of them.

A month and a half in, and I know I’ll never stop growing, challenging myself, and loving life. I know this will never be a mistake.”

My mother doesn’t know what to say. We don’t talk about feelings in our family. The barrage and the obvious light flowing out of Amalphia like the very sun is implanted in her chest is far too threatening. She gives us both one last scathing look and flees, slamming the door shut behind her.

There’s a beat of silence as even the house seems to shudder.

Amalphia spins around and puts her hands on my shoulders. My heart pretty much beats right out of my chest at the look on her face. It threatens to fully explode right here and now. There’s something in her huge, shining eyes that I’ve never seen before.

Actually, yes, I have.

It has been close many, many times, but it’s different today.

I clear my throat, but she cuts off anything I’m going to say by setting her palm on my cheek. She’s warm above the beard and warm right through it too. A massive lump forms in my throat, and the backs of my eyeballs prickle.

“I’m falling in love with you, Warrick. I know that’s a big word, but…

but…is it okay? Could you tell before I just dropped it?

Oh my god, this is…this isn’t romantic. I wanted to tell you in some dramatic way, with another box fort or doing the alternative and tying myself up in rope knots, but now I’m just blurting it out, and I can’t even do that properly. ”

I wrap my hands around her waist and lift her clean off the floor. She wraps her legs around my hips as I steer us into the wall. She’s well supported, so she doesn’t have to cling to my neck. She keeps her hand on my cheek, stroking my beard softly and petting it.

“I’ve felt seen, heard, cared for, and loved since that first hug you gave me.”

She smiles so darn wide at me that it has to hurt her cheeks. I’m stunned all over again by her beauty, just like the first time I saw her.

“I’m so sorry that I have coffee breath.”

“Me too,” I say. “And also…me too. I’ve been falling for you since the first step you took into my office. I was such an asswad. I’m sorry I didn’t even give you money for gas.”

“It’s okay. You showed up in a big way later and saved all of us. Best day of my life. Also, the best meatloaf my granny’s ever had. She told me to tell you, but I think I might have forgotten. You didn’t just become my boss that day. You became a part of our family.”

She crushes her mouth to mine and sucks on my bottom lip like it’s her new favorite candy before she starts doing the same thing to my tongue until my vision goes blurry.

“Tear my clothes off,” she begs. “And for the love of all things unholy, bang me up against this fucking wall.”

“It would be my pleasure to give you pleasure.”

She rocks against my raging erection. “This is going to be so much fun,” she says, her eyes locking with mine. “All of it, I mean. And for the parts that aren’t, I’ll be right here through it.” She kisses me fiercely. “You aren’t really disowned, are you?”

“Nah. They’ll come around.”

“I’ll never forget that your mom called me a coochie.”

I groan. “Neither will I.”

“It’s alright.” She swivels her hips just to prove her point.

I swear if my dick gets any harder, it will snap off and go walking down the street as its own entity.

“I can be a coochie. Your coochie. Just for you.” She’s quiet for a second, then she bursts out laughing.

“I’m afraid that doesn’t even make sense. ”

“Not really.” I devour her mouth and slowly start slipping her bright pants down. “But I wholeheartedly accept your offer.”