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“Try again, loser. If you didn’t want to grow up, then you should have worn a condom. Your daughterhad no business being here in the first place. There’s not one other child around. Why? Because this is a grown folks’ party. You didn’t even invite half these people, yet you had the nerve to have her sleeping in that room alone with the doorunlocked.”
“I told you I thought I locked it!”
“And I told you to do better.”
Well, damn.
It was hard to believe that Demi and Roc hadn’t created Halo together. They weren’t even dating, fucking, or anything in between, yet they insisted on upholding this weird dynamic where they argued incessantly to hide the sexual tension so thick it was almost stifling.
Unfortunately, Demi was loyal to the bone, and Roc had fucked up any chance they might have had when he knocked up her best friend. Now, I think the two of them punished one another for the other’s perceived mutual transgressions by constantly finding a reason to stay in each other’s orbit.
The way Demi told it, she hated the air Roc breathed yet never balked at stepping in whenever he fell short as a parent. Meanwhile, Roc, who was agreatfather and a single one at that, constantly placed himself in her path and even resorted to using his daughter as a pawn.
Halo, who was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, must have grown tired of listening to their bickering because she started looking around until her sleepy gaze traveled in our direction, and she began squirming to get down.
Demi let her down when she started to whine, and before either of them could tell her to stay put, Halo darted away.
“Uncle O! Uncle O!” she screamed right before colliding into his legs.
Rowdy pretended to almost fall over before scooping her up and tickling her belly through her jumper, making her laugh uncontrollably.
“Aye,” he said once she quieted down. He was frowning deeply now as he held her up by her armpits until she was at eye level. “You still owe me six lollipops for that race I won last week.”
“Uh-uh! You cheated!” Halo shouted back.
“I what?” He darted to the railing before flipping Halo upside down and holding her over it. “Let’s try that again, you little gremlin. I gave you a week and not a day more to pay up. Where’s my candy, Killa?”
“Daddy!” Halo could barely call out for her father from laughing so hard. She looked so comical with her long curly ponytail damn near touching the ground.
“You better stop,” Rowdy warned when she started to wiggle around. “I might drop you.” The asshole pretended to let her slip, making her shriek and call for her father again.
“Okay! Okay!” she finally agreed when she realized her father was still too preoccupied with Demi to pay his daughter any mind.
Rowdy lifted her back over the railing before setting her on her feet. “I’m waiting,” he told her when all she gave him was a playful pout.
“Um…I don’t have any candy. Not really,” she confessed with a shrug. Rowdy reached for her again, but Halo shrieked, darting out of the way and running to me, of all people, for protection before wrapping her little arms around my leg. “Atlas, help me!”
“I don’t know. He seems pretty serious.” I played along. “Maybe if you got a dollar from your dad, Uncle O could buy his own lollipops?”
Halo’s eyes brightened a second before she dug into the pocket of her jumper.
I watched her pull out four crumpled bills and wondered just how strong a spell Rowdy had me under that I was willing to help him extort a four-year-old. I didn’t even think it was possible to dig myself into a hole this deep.
“Here you go!” Halo said, handing over her fist full of cash. “You buy lots of candy!”
“Bet,” Rowdy said after pretending to think it over. He took the cash from Halo and counted it out. “Yeah, this should be enough. Oh, wait. I owe you change.” He went into his own pocket and pulled out a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill before handing it over. “Pleasure doing business with you, Killa.”
Excited for her new prettier money, Halo jumped up and down as Roc finally wandered over, looking stressed. Demi was standing alone, staring blankly out at the lake. She looked like she had nothing left, and if his daughter wasn’t standing here, I’d slap the shit out of Roc.
“Look, Daddy. I have a new dollar!” Halo boasted, showing off her hundred-dollar bill.
“I see,” her father said while Rowdy was busy cracking up that Halo didn’t understand she had way more than just a dollar.
Remembering the lone tear Demi had wiped away before anyone could see, I crouched and whispered, “Hey, Halo. Maybe your Daddy can give you a few more dollars just like those.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” I squeezed her little nose, making her giggle.
