AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The fucker smiled.
A soft smile. A gentle smile. Like heunderstood.
He didn’t understand shit.
“Please.” He gestured to the chair.
For a split second, I thought about picking it up and heaving it across the room.
But I wasn’t with my team. I wasn’t surrounded by people who knew me, who knew the man I was underneath the horrible urge to lob objects when shit knocked me sideways.
So I closed my eyes again and thought about that cute little shit who pinched my nose to make me growl, and then I yanked the chair backward so I could sit down. Beside me, Zoe took a slow, deep breath.
I bet she wasn’t thinking about breaking chairs.
When I pulled mine closer to the table and calmly rested my folded hands on the surface, her shoulders relaxed incrementally.
I’d done that. I’d made her tense.
The realization tasted like acid in my throat, burning all the way down.
Byron nodded again. “Good. Keep in mind that figuring out the best way to do this will take time and honesty on both your parts.” He gave me a steady look. “It will requirepatience.”
I cocked an eyebrow and clenched my jaw.
Byron didn’t so much as blink. Somehow, the skinny lawyer with wire-rimmed glasses had bigger balls than half the guys on my team.
He continued. “And if you’re willing, I’d highly suggest meeting with a counselor—together and separately—to help you navigate the inevitable stresses that will come with the two of you sharing guardianship of Mira.”
“No.”
They both looked at me.
Byron was unsurprised. Zoe was annoyed.
Good, because I was annoyed too.
“That’s it?” she asked. “You’re just gonna say no to whatever you don’t feel like doing?”
I crossed my arms and studied the table. “I don’t need a counselor, because I’m not fit to be anyone’s guardian.”
“On that we agree,” Zoe said sweetly. Then she smiled.
It was not a nice smile. The sweet friend might not have been into throwing chairs, but she sure as fuck was thinking about punching me in the nuts.
“Regardless,” Byron said, “your best friend and his wife felt that youwerefit. Both of you.”
Briefly, I flicked my gaze over to Zoe. Then I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t seem terribly surprised by any of this.”
She swallowed. “Amie and I ...” Her voice trailed off. “We had a conversation about it when they were making their trust decisions. She told me there were only a couple people she could imagine trusting with Mira, and I was one of them.”
I tilted my chin up and stared at the ceiling for a beat. But I could feel her golden bloody eyes fixed heavily on my face.
I turned back to her and met those eyes unflinchingly, a zing sliding down my spine when she didn’t look away.
“Me being the other,” I finished.
“Apparently.”
