Hunt shovels more omelette in his mouth, chewing and nodding. “Yeah. You wanna go get dressed and come back? I mean, you can wear the dress you had on last night, I sure loved it.”
“Sure you did. Be back in five minutes.”
When I come back in my nerd-flair, hair tumbling loose around my shoulders – Hunter hooks me close to his body as he stabs the button to bring it down for the elevator.
“You feeling good?” I ask, getting into the tin box where it feels like our story began.
“Yeah. I feel good. You don’t have to check all the time. I’ll let you know when I’m good or bad, alright?”
I nod. I mean, who likes being nagged about anything, let alone their health? “Sorry.”
Hunter squeezes around my ribs, like what I did wasn’t a huge deal. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s just an adjustment for you and for me.”
I nod, snuggle closer into his side and when we get to the basement, I smile and settle myself on the passenger side. Thirty minutes later, we’re in front of the palace. We don’t even park and I barely have my seat-belt off before Matty is running down the stairs as fast as his little legs will take him to collide into my lower half, hugging me tight.
“Sera! Sera, Sera! I missed you!” He squeezes my thighs with his little-boy strength, which is considerable, if I do say so myself.Someone’s been eating spinach. His chin goes into my quad, and that black halo of hair surrounds his head, as he stares up at me. “Why did you go away? Did I do something wrong?”
Nobody said this was going to be easy, especially with a child involved.
I unwind his arms from me and crouch down low, staring into his beautiful face. “Of course not! Did somebody tell you that?”
He shakes his head after a moment’s hesitation. My money’s on the Duchess.
“Your Dad and I had a fight. It had nothing to do with you, little buddy. I still love you, and I always will.” Hunter’s hand touches my shoulder, as he crouches down beside me.
Oh, shit. Here we go.
“Matty-kid,” Hunt says, using a nickname I’ve never heard before. “how was your visit?”
“Good, Daddy. Eddie says hi.” Hunter and I both look up the stairs and see Eddie standing in the doorway waving manically. My gut hollows out in that awful feeling that means something bad’s about to happen.
Yep. Aly walks out the door, all smiles and hip swaying as she walks down the stairs towards us.
I growl like a lioness, protecting what’s mine. This ends here and now. For good.
I stand up, and grab Matty’s hand. I smile down at him when he squeezes my grip, and the three of us march up the stairs, completely ignoring Alysha. Once inside, I hear her come in behind us, but I’m too occupied trying to find where the Duchess has gotten to to really notice.
“Ms. MacLaine?” I call into the empty entryway. Nope, she’s not on the grand fraking staircase. Not even coming out of the kitchen.
“Hunter, baby, how are you?” Aly says from behind me.
I am this close from clawing her eyes out. Her skinny ass is probably so weak, I’d break her with one good punch. If she is even touching him right now, I’m going to go ninja turtle her ass and end this with violence instead of words.
Ah, there’s the Duchess, waltzing through another door to my right that might lead into a sitting room, or whatever these giant houses call a living room to impress other people. Burberry perfume assaults my nostrils and I sneeze. Hunter’s arm comes around my shoulders. I keep getting jostled as I see Hunter pushing Aly away, until Eddie steps in and holds her back. Good man.
“Yes?” Jesus, is it even possible for that one word to sound bitchy? The Duchess can do it.
“I want to have a word with you.”
A placating smile gets plastered to her lips, and she holds her hands together as if in prayer. “Dear, I don’t know who you think you are, but you are not welcome here as anything more than the hired help,” she says, ice dripping from each word. I half expect my breath to frost as I start to sputter.
What the fuck? Hired help – me?
“Mom-” I shush Hunter, and ignore the rest of our little group.
“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t say that.” Hunter kisses my temple, and my anger dissipates only a little. “I’m only going to say this once, and you’re going to listen. Hunter and I, we’re together. Deal with it. You try and foist Red on him again, you and I will have more than words. You understand?”
My jaw cracks as I try to speak through clenched teeth.
“You’ve made a giant mistake cutting Hunter out of your will. For what? Wanting a life of love for him and his kid? What is wrong with you? Can’t you see? You surround yourself with beautiful, expensive things but are you happy?