Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)(173)

This is about us. All of us.

“Daddy?” Emily frowns as I gently wake her, blinking and rubbing her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“I have to go somewhere, honey.”

She pouts. “Oh.”

“I think you should come with me.”

She perks up, blinking again and clearing the sleep from her eyes as looks at me curiously. “I can?”

“Yep.” I stand and go to her closet, pulling a backpack out and shoving some of her clothes inside.

“Where are we going?”

I grin as I turn back to her. “Well, I’ve been dying for some good guacamole, and someone once told me that they make it really good in Houston.”

It takes about half a second for her to understand what I’m saying, and her eyes suddenly go wide as her jaw drops.

“Feel like coming?”

“Yes!” She jumps out of bed and throws her arms around me.

I might be out of practice, but it’s time to jump in, and I have to make this right with her.

It’s time to cut the bullshit, break the rules, and tell Serena Roth exactly how I feel.

It’s time to stop watching the game from the sidelines, and it’s time to win.





Chapter Forty





Serena




“Did you really think I’d say no?”

I smile as I look down, shaking my head.

“You can, you know. I wouldn’t blame you,” I mumble.

Archie Jacobs, London’s dad, chuckles that rumbling laugh I remember from growing up spending at least half my time at their house

“Serena, of course you can have your job back. Hell, I’m begging you to take it back. The kid we got to replace you is a goddamn disaster.”

“Archie, I know loyalty means a lot to you, and I know me running away-”

“Stop, stop.” He sighs, waving his hand in tempo with the shaking of his head. “Knock it off, darlin’. I know and you know that you running off to Denver wasn’t any sort of backstabbing move. I get it.”

I give him a wry smile, still feeling like I’m guilty of treason or something, even though it’s clear Archie doesn’t see me like that.

“You want a drink? Let’s have a drink.”

He pushes back from the big wooden desk of his office, rising and turning to the bar cart in the corner.

“Archie.”

He turns, giving me a grin. “Yeah?”

“You know I can’t let you have a drink, not after the scare you gave us a month ago.”

It’s barely been a month actually, since Archie’s heart attack that scared the hell out of all of us. Since then, London’s had her good ole’ boy of a Texan father on the straight and narrow to start being a little healthier in his habits, which means not having BBQ five times a week, no more fried food, no more donuts, no more cigars, and definitely no whiskey drinking at eleven o’clock in the morning.

Or as Archie puts it: “no more fun.”

He sucks at his teeth, eyeing me mischievously. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Tempting. But you know London would kill me if I did. And if something happens to that heart of yours, you know she’d throw me into the hole right after you.”

Archie lets out a whooping laugh, holding his sides as he slides back into his seat. “Yeah, alright, fair enough, fair enough. Hell, at least I’d have some swell company up there if you came along for the ride.”

I snort.

“You know that fiancé of hers is trying to get me to start jogging with him?” He rolls his eyes and waves a hand dismissively.

“Aww, Archie, I think it’s sweet. He’s just trying to bond with you.”

“He’s tryin’ to damn well kill me with that goddamn cooking of his is what he’s doing.”

This time I laugh.

I have to laugh. If I don’t laugh, and if I don’t keep making the hurt inside with jokes, and empty banter, and familiar faces and smiles, I’ll lose it. It’s been a week since I left Denver. A week since I called London, took a cab directly to the airport, and came back.

Back home.

And I know I left things badly. I know I walked away from so many loose ends that there’s no way I won’t have to eventually go back and sort them out. But not now. I can’t face the music just yet.

I can’t face him yet.

Because I didn’t just run away from a failed experiment, and a board of phonies who jumped ship the first chance they got, and a mountain of lies surrounding my past, my family, and everything I thought about both.

I ran away from the first man to truly see me in a very long time. Maybe ever. I ran away from something good, and it wasn’t until the wheels touched back down in Texas that it really hit home.