Page 46 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)

“The thirsty neighbors are gathering to watch you clean gutters,” Tahli muttered when she reached Vin. Vin chuckled, peeking over his shoulder.

“Maybe you wanna put on a shirt and not be such a slut,” she insulted his wife-beater tank. In turn, Vin jumped off the ladder, pulling off the undershirt, baring his tattooed chest. Tahli grimaced.

“You know it’s lawn chairs in the shed if you wanna pull one up,” he taunted her with a wink.

“Yeah right. That six pack’s getting a little soft,” Tahli tapped it.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll take you inside right now and show you how hard it still is.”

Tahli pulled in her lips, shutting her eyes. On that note…

“Hey,” he called out as she walked off.

“I only came to get the mail, Dalvin!” Tahli tried to escape.

“Yeah. But we gotta talk.”

She halted, spinning to watch him approach, wiping his dirty hands with a rag. Sweating on this 80-degree morning. Still shirtless.

“What’s up with this Drew situation?”

“Huh?” Tahli pinched her brows.

“The engagement,” Vin clarified. She and Drew had been engaged for five months. Why now? “You planning on marrying him?”

“Isn’t that the point of an engagement?”

His jaw flexed. “I need a timeline. One year? Two? Five…?”

“Why?” Tahli grew defensive.

“Because Doll said something that got me thinking. You plan on moving in with him? Letting him live with my kids?”

Stunned, Tahli stammered over answers she didn’t have yet.

“That’s…obviously…a conversation we would have to have–”

“Like a mothafucka,” Vin swore. She gulped.

“We’re not there yet, Vin. I’ll talk to you when we’re there.”

He seemed to allow it. “How are you feeling? You’ve been taking it easy?”

“You text me that like every day. Yes. I’m taking it easy. Look... The barbecue is next weekend and Akemi wants you there. You’re coming?”

Akemi had graduated college after many young, wild, and pretty-girl distractions.

“Of course.”

Tahli restarted her departure.

“You mind if I bring someone?”

She snickered. “Sure. Bring Lola. I miss her.”

“Nah.” Tahli skid to a stop. “I was gonna ask Bianca if she wanted to come through.”

“A be what a?” Tahli quipped, and Vin smirked.

“Bianca. She’s a friend.”

Tahli’s head jerked with her scoff. “Oh. So, is this a tit-for-tat thing?”

The way he squinted made her feel childish. “No. It’s a human thing. You’re engaged. Maybe it’s time I accept that. I can’t be a fucking monk, right?” Tahli tried not to frown. But she was never great at hiding her emotions. Was he talking about sex?

“Yeah…whatever.”

She sensed his hesitation. The way he scraped his lip with his teeth, giving her empathetic eyes. There was something else.

“What?”

“Doll called me before you got here.” Tahli nodded. A second later, Tahli’s lips were trembling.

“Don’t do that. It’s more about her wanting her old comforts…” Vin tried to coax. So, it wasn’t heat-of-the-moment fighting words. Dali wanted to live with her father. Tahli’s face pruned in a cry.

“She fucking hates me,” Tahli choked out. “Why does she hate me so much? When did I become the bad guy? I’m Dali’s bad guy.”

Vin rushed to her.

“I’m Milo’s bad guy,” he tried to appease, his thick fingers wiping her tears. Tahli didn’t even mind exchanging the dirt on them for comfort.

“You’re everybody’s bad guy. That’s because you are the bad guy,” Tahli reminded him, and his head tilted in a real cliché acceptance. His cool pissed her off sometimes.

“Tah, it’s not personal. You’re a great mother. Girls and their mothers at this age…. You know?”

“I don’t ,” Tahli confessed. “Cree wasn’t around, and Vanessa always had these respected boundaries.”

“Well, Bianca says her and her mother–”

Her vexed laughter cut him off. Vin wasn’t scared of much, but over the years, he had learned to heed that laughter.

“I just heard this fucking girl’s name two seconds ago. Do not discuss me with her.”

“I was talking about Doll–”

“Do not discuss my kids with her, Dalvin!”

“Tahli, you’re talking about we gotta have a conversation about another nigga moving in with my kids, and I can’t even talk about my kids with my–?”

“What? With your what? This is the first time I’m hearing this bitch’s name and now she’s your what?”

Erica and a newly-arrived Keisha were tuned in.

“I didn’t cheat, Dalvin!” Tahli lost it. Her daughter hated her…and Vin was 99 percent fucking someone else. “I wasn’t the one who cheated.”

He snickered. “Heard you. I had the secret baby, so you get to do everything I can’t from now on.

I just sit here and watch you move the fuck on.

You divorced me, Tahli. That was my fucking consequence!

” he snarled. Oh, she was getting furious Vin, now.

This version of him, Tahli would have to give space to calm and sweet talk to decompress. Perhaps, suck his dick. Lifetimes ago.

“I don’t wake up to my kids every day. When Terran has a nightmare, I’m not there for her to climb into bed next to.

I can’t go downstairs when Dali is crying at 2am because her friends are leaving her out of something, but you’re knocked the fuck out, so you didn’t even hear her sniffling in the hallway.

I can’t work on making Lo forgive me because I see him every fucking five days.

That’s my consequence at my doing. Not me sitting here and watching you with this fucking punk, twiddling my fucking thumbs. ”

Tahli wanted to mute the bass in his voice for their audience.

“Get real, Tahli. This is real life.”

“Whatever. I get it.”

“Do you?” He dared, nostrils spreading. “Do you really know what the fuck it’s been like for me? This past year and a half without you? Sitting home….and this fucking quiet house driving me insane? Thinking about you…with that nigga?”

Guilt swarmed her. And she shouldn’t feel guilty. But she was human, and she loved him. Shoe exchanged, Tahli would have hated it.

“Laughing with him? Kissing him? Fucking…” Vin blew a gust like he couldn’t finish.

“I look at the clock and it’s 5:25, and I know you’re waking up.

It’s 4:15, and I know you’re getting home.

6pm…you’re cooking dinner. 8:30…shower. 9:45…

you’re praying. The clock moves slow and you’re right fucking there, but you might as well be on another planet.

Because I can’t touch you!” He bellowed.

“Every night, I have to tell myself that an eight-minute drive will cost me never holding my children again. And maybe ours together will be straight with you, but DJ needs me. Every. Fucking. Night. I talk myself out of driving eight minutes and ripping ya fiancé’s spine from his throat.

So, yeah...maybe I need to try some shit, too. ”

Mouth balled, Tahli shoveled through her best comebacks before her slumping her shoulders in defeat.

“Dali hates me because I didn’t forgive you. She blames me for breaking up the family. Not you.”

Vin eyed the lawn, a frown between his bushy brows. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“Yeah? Then what?”

“Dali is a smart kid, Tahli.”

“What does that mean?” Offense tightened her chest because it felt like an unclear insult.

“It means she wants you to be happy. But you can’t tell smart kids one thing and show them something else.”

Tahli frowned. “So, I’m not showing her I’m happy? Is that what you’re saying, Dalvin? Because I’m fucking happy.”

He headed back for the ladder while Tahli fumed.

“I’m happy!” she promised to his back and Vin turned, walking backward.

“I know,” he stated. “I know what your happiness looks like, Tahli. Remember? I used to be responsible for that shit.”

Some cryptic-ass slight as he climbed the ladder again, still shirtless. Sometimes his cool really annoyed the fuck out of her.