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“Please tell me you didn’t call him.” When she didn’t say anything, I groaned. “Shaw! What happened to not giving him a second of my time? And you go and cuss him out?”
Her lips pressed together in a straight line. “If it makes you feel any better, he has one hell of a hangover this morning. He was blowing chunks while I told him what I think of him.”
My heart clenched at the thought of Luca sick. “It doesn’t make me feel better.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t.”
I reached for my phone, but she slapped at my hand. “No, ma’am. You are not going to have a self-pity party by looking at that atrocity over and over again.” She nodded her head in the direction of my house. “Besides, here comes your dad.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Does he look mad?”
She shifted her head, but I couldn’t read her eyes behind her sunglasses. “He looks like he’s going for a run,” she said after a moment.
I glanced his way and realized she was right. He was dressed in basketball shorts and a
tank top. Our German shepherd, Oscar, was by his side. As they walked toward us, Oscar ran ahead to me and licked my face.
I hugged his neck, kissing his furry face. Oscar was the grandson of our first German shepherd, Ranger. When Ranger died a few years ago, we’d all grieved, and it took a while for any of us to decide we wanted to open our hearts to another animal. But then Oscar was born. When Mom saw him and how much he looked and acted like Ranger, she’d been helpless to say no.
Oscar wasn’t even a year old yet, and he was still pretty hyper at times, but running with Dad every day was starting to calm him down a little more.
“We’re going for a run,” Dad said as he reached us. “But I wanted to warn you that Jesse is on his way with the boy.”
I flinched at the way he practically spat the word “boy.”
“If you don’t want to see him, then maybe you and Shaw should find something to do.”
“Like go to school?” I asked with a lifted brow. We were skipping our morning classes, and for once, Dad was completely fine with it. He called it a mental health day since I’d been so upset the night before and still in tears when I woke up that morning.
“Nah,” he said. “Go shopping. Take a trip to the spa. Have lunch with Mom.”
“I’m good here,” I told him as I turned my head to look out at the ocean.
“Vi,” he started, but I held up a hand to stop him.
I hugged Oscar again and kissed his snout. “I’m not running away from this. I did that last night. Today, I’m going to face it head on.”
“But you’re hurting,” he grumbled.
I swallowed the lump that constantly seemed to be trying to choke me this morning. “Hurting doesn’t make me a coward.”
“No one would ever think that.”
“I would.” I stood and pulled a wrap on over the bikini I was wearing. “I’m going to go home and get dressed.”
“Want me to come with you?” Shaw called after me.
“No…” I paused and glanced back at her. “But don’t go far. Okay?”
She gave me a small smile and promised, “I’ll be right here.”
“Violet,” Dad called after me.
“Go for your run, Dad,” I told him. “It’s probably better you’re not around for this anyway.”
“Damn it, Vi.”
“Don’t make me call Mom,” I threatened and kept walking.
