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I don’t have my dad’s one-in-a-million talent. I don’t have Haley’s relentless focus, her ability to turn ideas into real things that peopleneed.
All I do isfeel.
And most of the time, I feel way too fuckingmuch.
As I head for the kitchen, Sophie’s bassinet coming into view between the cavernous kitchen and living room, I hear my dad talking to Haley in hushed tones. “He’s here to work, Hales. Nothing’s going tohappen.”
“They were friends, Jax. What do youexpect?”
My breath hitches as I pause out ofsight.
“I expect if something happens, he’s out, and he knowsit.”
I count to three before making my presenceknown.
“Where’s Tyler?” I ask Haley, taking note of the three place settings at thetable.
“He took a rain check on dinner, said he had a lot of things to get ready fortomorrow.”
I look out the glass doors toward the pool house. “What’s happeningtomorrow?”
“He’s going to Oakwood. Withyou.”
My head whips between my dad and my stepmom. “Where was I while all this gotdecided?”
My dad shrugs as if I’m being deliberately obtuse. “It came together fast. We haven’t decided how long he’s staying, but it’ll be at least a couple of months. Oakwood agreed to let him in for the time being so he doesn’t miss anyschool.”
Which means my dad went to the headmaster, who probably broke every rule to keep himhappy.
“Trust me, this was news to me also,” Haley says with a narrowed gaze at my dad. “I adore Tyler, but there might have been a better time to have him here than when we have a two-month-old.”
“He’ll follow the rules and take care of himself. He’s eighteen, Hales. I was cutting records at thatage.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes. And I’m sure everyone you worked with would agree you were adream.”
I can’t hold in the snort that earns me a side-eye from mydad.
My stepmom’s under thirty, and she’s not a supermodel or an actress. She founded her own coding company and she has one foot in music and the other in science and seems to move effortlessly from one world to theother.
They’ve been together since before I learned my dad was my dad, and he’s totally whipped forher.
“Annie, do you want to take Tyler his uniform for tomorrow?” she asks. “It justarrived.”
“Sure.” I grab the garment bag lying across the back of a chair before my dad clears his throat and looks pointedly at the three plates on the table. “I had a big lunch. Don’t wait forme.”
I head through the sliding doors and out to thepatio.
It’s an oasis of stone, slate, flowers, and water. Mysanctuary.
It’s possible to forget everything happening atschool.
I pad in my flip-flops across the stone, my way lit by tiny lights that glow like fireflies around the curved edge of the pool and larger ones surrounding the base of the trees in the lushgardens.
The pool house is bigger than the house I grew up in, and typically it’sempty.
Normally I’d hit the code for the door, but today Iknock.
“Tyler?” I call, pushing the door open when there’s noanswer.
