Page 14

AVERY

M y mind had refused to shut off, resulting in another night of crappy sleep, and the exhaustion clawed at my mind.

As I sat in front of my computer, I tried to focus on the tasks I needed to get done, but that was proving difficult.

All I could think about was the awkward dinner from the night before.

When we got home, I’d collapsed into bed early, but I tossed and turned and repeated the scenes in my head again and again.

I’d thought I could handle being around Cole again. As a grown woman, as a mother, I should easily overlook irritations and other issues. I’d spent the entire day before psyching myself up for the dinner. By the time we arrived, I’d truly believed that I was ready for it.

All my attempts to prepare myself went out the window as soon as Cole opened that door.

Seeing Trent again was nice, but that also made the whole evening feel like some kind of surreal time-travel experience.

I could almost picture the three of us sitting around the lunch tables in high school, joking and laughing.

Except we were in our thirties now, and there had been a fourth person in attendance last night. Ashton.

Every awful thing I’d gone through had replayed through my mind all evening. Every second caused more and more hurt and regret to bubble up to the surface. And when Cole brought up stuff from the past, it had been too much. I’d needed to get out of there.

Ashton had noticed my weird behavior and had been pretty quiet on the drive back home.

“Why did you freak out like that?” he’d asked as we pulled back into our neighborhood.

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“You know what I’m talking about. He said something about doing wolf stuff, and you freaked. You got all quiet and stuff.”

Wolfy shit . That was what Cole had said. A cute name I’d used to refer to his shifter customs. I think I was around Ashton’s age when I came up with it. Any time he went and did anything with his pack, I’d say that to him. Two words I hadn’t spoken or even thought about for years.

When Cole said those words—as dumb as they were—a flood of emotion overcame me, and it had taken everything in me to finish dinner.

“I kinda wanted to talk to Cole and his friend some more. Maybe watch the game,” Ashton said as he fingered a hole in his jeans.

That had depressed me even more. Because I couldn’t handle being around my ex, I’d disappointed my son. Great. When we’d gotten home, he’d locked himself in his room, that shifter puberty making the kid moodier than ever.

My makeshift office was set up in my bedroom, the laptop and printer sitting on a desk near a window so I could look out at the woods beyond.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to get to work.

The only bright side about our last-minute cross-country escape was that, as a writer, I didn’t have to worry about finding a new job.

My job was wherever my computer was. I had several outstanding assignments with a couple deadlines approaching, but I tended to work pretty fast, and it wouldn’t be a problem—if I could focus, that is.

By mid-morning, I’d gotten some work done. A few notes on current projects, a couple thousand words written on my most recent assignment. And I actually managed to finish editing another assignment and send it in. Thoughts of Cole faded as I got into a groove.

My phone rang, pulling me out of the zone, and I glanced at the screen in irritation.

The number was unknown, but from the area code, I knew exactly who it was.

Perry. Gritting my teeth, I declined the call and blocked the new number.

Ever since I’d left, he’d tried to make contact with me—texting and calling from different numbers, emails sent to my personal and work emails, even pings on my social media messaging apps, begging and pleading for us to come back.

Every message had an explanation that it wasn’t as bad as it had looked, or he’d messed up.

The best one had been an email he’d sent the second night we’d been gone.

It was so ridiculous, I’d committed it to memory:

B abe, please come home. I fucked up. I know. Please!!! I didn’t mean it. I’ll do whatever you want me to do. We can move away like you wanted. Find a pack or whatever for Ashton. I swear to you, what happened with Shawna was a complete and total ACCIDENT!!!

A n accident? In what way could the scene Ashton and I walked in have been anything like an accident?

What happened? Shawna had come over for a cup of milk, they’d tripped over each other’s feet, and somehow while falling, all their clothes had flown off?

Then, oopsie - daisy , he fell on top of Shawna and his dick had accidentally slid into her? What a crock of shit.

A few minutes later, another call came through. Same area code, but different numbers. I rarely gave my number out to anyone. Perry must have bought a bunch of prepaid phones or something, hoping I’d answer one of them. Asshole. I declined that call as well.

Less than five minutes later, a third call came through.

“Holy shit, Perry,” I hissed.

Enough. Apparently, blocking him wouldn’t do the job. It seemed like I’d have to tell him straight out to fuck off.

Snatching the phone up, I answered. “What the hell do you want?”

“Avery? Oh, thank God. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” Perry said, the words tumbling out in a rush.

“Yes, Perry, I know you have. Maybe you didn’t get the message. We’re done.”

“Wait,” he said in a pleading tone. “Can we talk for a second? Maybe work things out? I miss you.”

“You didn’t seem to give a shit about that when I walked in on you railing Shawna on the fucking couch.”

“Fair,” he said. “I fucked up. Bad. I can’t take it back, but we can’t throw away what we had over one mistake, can we?”

“You looked like you knew what you were doing,” I said in the same tone I’d use when speaking about the weather. “I doubt that was the first time your cock and her pussy have made acquaintance.”

“No need to be vulgar,” Perry grumbled.

I barked a laugh and leaned back in my chair. “Wow. That is rich. The guy who was caught fucking another woman is trying to lecture me on propriety.”

Ignoring that, he barreled on, “We can do counseling. I’ll go to therapy. I’ll do whatever I need to.”

“It’s too late for that, Perry. The moment you laid hands on my son, we were through. Even if you hadn’t been fucking someone else, we’d be done. I love my son more than I could ever love someone like you,” I said.

“Oh, yeah?” Bitter anger crept into his voice.

The begging was over, and the rage had returned.

“That shifter freak of a son? The one who broke my fucking nose? That one? How about this? You get your ass back here, or I’ll file charges.

Assault and battery. You know how cops feel about shifters.

Fucking freaks. They always take the human’s side when shit like this happens. ”

My jaw dropped. The son of a bitch .

“Here’s the deal, Perry,” I said, the venom in my own voice matching his. “The only reason Ashton broke your nose was because you assaulted me first. So, unless you want charges brought against you, lay off the threats. Understand?”

Silence. All I could hear were angry breaths on the other end. Time to really dig the knife in deep.

“Also, you’ve got ninety days to get out of that house because I’m putting it on the market.”

“ What ? You can’t do that. This is my house, too. You can’t sell it without my consent.”

“Oh, see, you’re mistaken, Perry,” I said sweetly.

“When we got together, you decided to move in with me, not the other way around. You sold your townhouse and moved into the house I owned. My name is the only name on the mortgage. It’s mine to do with as I please.

I don’t give a fuck about anything left in that house—Ashton and I took what we wanted.

You can call a trash company for the rest, for all I care.

If you decide to do that, it’ll be on your dime.

Otherwise, it’ll be sold as is with all items remaining. ”

“You can’t do this, you fucking bitch! Where am I going to live?!” Perry screamed.

“Not my problem. Also, lose my number, Perry.”

He was still railing on and on when I hung up.

I tossed the phone down and glared at it.

What an asshole. He hadn’t always been such a prick.

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment things changed between us, but if I had to guess, it was when Ashton’s puberty kicked in a few months ago.

The boy had shot up three inches in a matter of weeks.

At five foot nine, he was only two inches from Perry’s height.

Being a shifter, Ash had also packed on a bit of muscle.

Looking back, it should have been easy for me to see how intimidated and afraid Perry was of Ashton.

He’d always been a traditional type of man, and the thought of a boy being stronger than him probably ate away at his manhood in some way.

Even before I caught him cheating, he’d gotten more distant, picking stupid fights with me and Ashton.

That night had simply brought things to a head.

As awful as it had all been, I was sort of grateful. It felt like I’d dodged a bullet.

The fight on the phone with Perry had the strange effect of focusing my mind, and for the next two hours, I plowed through work, until my phone buzzed again. My hands froze above my keyboard, and unmitigated rage filled me. If that was Perry again, I might change my number.

It wasn’t Perry, though.

Cole: Hey. I’m sorry about last night. Would it be okay if I came by this afternoon and picked Ashton up to spend some time together? If that’s okay with you.