Page 24 of Bittersweet Redemption

As I start to shift in my seat, my stomach growls. I am hungry, and there are an awful lot of pancakes in front of me. It’d be rude to let it go to waste.

We all help ourselves. Roman starts asking questions about what I did last night, what I drew on people (his words, not mine), and if I think the pancakes are the best I’ve ever had.

The kid isn’t shy about talking, that’s for sure. But I answer his questions before his mom tells him to stop being so nosey and eat his breakfast. He frowns, which earns a chuckle from me. I don’t mind him asking questions, but it’s probably best if we don’t get to know each other too well. They’ll be gone soon enough.

After breakfast, we move to the living room, where Roman has all his cars lined up like they’re driving on the road. Willa gets on the floor with him and moves the cars around the carpet like they’re going somewhere.

Roman looks up at me, and without realizing it, I sit on the floor next to him and pick out a car to play with. We race our cars down the hallway to see whose is fastest. Roman runs after them, giggling until he announces who won. Then he chases my car with his car until we end up crashing into the couch.

After a while, Roman lays his head in Willa’s lap, and she runs her fingers through his hair. I realize I’m smiling like a fool watching these two. And that’s just not ok. What am I doing here? I stand abruptly from the couch, and they both look at me.

“Are you ok?” Willa asks.

I look down at her on the floor, hair up in a messy bun, big green eyes filled with concern, and perfectly plump lips making my cock twitch, and my jaw clenches. No, I’m not fucking ok.

“Yep,” I reply before striding out of the living room and down the hall to my room. What kind of person is attracted to someone who literally ruined their life? How can I think she’s attractive? How can I like that she’s here in my house? What is wrong with me?

I put myself in this situation, so I’ll just extricate myself. I’m not kicking them out; I couldn’t do that to the kid. I’ll just make myself scarce. With my work schedule, I’ll rarely see them. And then, whenever we’re here together, I’ll just stay locked in my room.

Yeah, this will work. It has to work. Because I can’t want the woman who had me locked up for no fucking reason. No, I’ll never touch her. Never cross that line with her.

It’d be a lot easier if we weren’t living in the same eighteen-hundred-square-foot house.

Chapter 12

Kai

I’ve been trying my hardest to stay out of my own house, but today is my day off. A day I typically enjoy, but now I can’t. So, I’m running every stupid errand I can think of to keep myself away from Willa. It’s pathetic, but I have to take extreme measures at this point.

When I woke up this morning, Roman was already at school, and Willa must’ve been at work because the house was back to its usual comfortable silence. This is what I craved when I was in prison—silence. Not having to worry about anyone randomly screaming out stupid shit in the middle of the night or hearing the keys jangle on the guard’s belts as they walked past our cells. The silence is a welcome relief.

But the afternoon starts creeping up, and I know Roman will be getting off the bus soon. I’ve watched them from my front window enough to know that the bus stops in front of our houses at exactly three-fifty.

And Willa is always there. Sometimes she still has her black apron on, which I assume is for work, almost like she drove as fast as possible to make it home in time to greet him. It reminds me of shit my mom would do for us when Kellan and I were younger. After my dad left, she had to work her ass off to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. But she never missed a single school event or wrestling match. We had a perfect little family—in my young eyes—because Mom made sure of it.

Everything changed when I got arrested. Mom took her anger and frustration out on Kellan, which wasn’t fair to him. She wanted him to find a way to get me out and figured since he was in law school, he’d be able to do it. I hate that she did that to him. It wasn’t his problem. It was mine for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For being in Willa’s line of sight the moment she pointed her finger. For being too fucking drunk to realize what was happening when that cop put me in the back of his car.

Which is why I’m now wandering the aisles of the public library, looking for a book to read because I don’t want to go home and face Willa. My guard drops a little more every time I see her, and I can’t let that happen. She’s the enemy. And it seems I constantly have to remind myself of that these days, and the reminders are starting to lose their effectiveness.

Unfortunately, Kellan and Riley are coming over for dinner tonight, so I do have to go home eventually. I wait until the last minute, giving myself just enough time to make sure the house is clean. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue because I keep my house pretty clean, but who knows what state it’s in right now with my two new roommates playing around. Not that Kellan and Riley would care if my house was a disaster, but I still like to make sure it looks good.

My plans are derailed when I walk through the front door. The sight before me makes me freeze in my tracks. What the fuck am I looking at, and why is it making my cock twitch in my jeans?

Willa’s ass is up in the air, and she’s wearing the shortest cotton shorts I’ve ever seen. One foot is on a green circle, and one foot is on a blue circle. Her hands are on a yellow circle at the top of the plastic mat, which is why her ass is on full display. To make matters worse, her oversized T-shirt is falling around her shoulders, and I have a perfect view of her black bra-covered tits.

Fuck me.

How am I supposed to get this woman out of my head when I come home to situations like this?

I clear my throat. “Twister?” I ask in a hoarse voice, surprising myself that I could even get a word out.

Roman jumps up when he notices me standing in the doorway. “No. This is called ‘Twist Around.’ It’s the dollar store version.” He holds up the lid of the box to show that it is, in fact, called Twist Around and not Twister. Clever, Dollar Store.

“Ah, I see. My mistake,” I mumble as I cross the living room to the kitchen, trying my best to keep my eyes off the perfect round ass I want so badly to grab. I wonder if she’d like that? You’ve got to watch out for the quiet ones, and Willa is very quiet. At least around me. But lately, I’ve noticed her lingering glances in my direction, making me wonder what it’d be like to be with her. It’s a dangerous thought, but I can’t stop imagining it.

I put my bags and new library book on the table. I had a plan before I walked through the front door, but now I can’t remember what I was going to do. My brain has stopped thinking rationally, and I’m thinking with my cock instead. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten laid, but I went ten years without pussy, so a few months should be no big deal. Why is my body acting like a hormonal teenager?

“Do you want to play with us, Mr. Kai?” I peek out to see that Willa has moved one of her feet to another color so her ass is down, but her legs are spread open. I bet if I tilted my head in a certain direction, I’d be able to see her. . . No. No. Jesus Christ. What is wrong with me?