Page 96 of Silver Player

Thanks. That was fun.

I’m such an ass.

“Sadie, we should go. I need to work today.” It’s the first Roxie’s mentioned the bookstore, but I can read an excuse when I hear one. She wants to get out of here.

“Can I stay?” Sadie turns her head from her aunt to my mother, who smiles back at her, and my heart warms at how willingly my mother has pulled Sadie into the family. This is what I want. Sadie accepted. I turn back to Roxanne.

Why can’t Roxie accept me?

“I can give her a ride home later,” I suggest, but Roxanne ignores me.

“I’ll bring her to the bookstore when we finish,” Mati offers, and I look up to find my sister’s eyes narrowing on me with the classic What did you do now, Billy? glare.

Yep, it’s always me. My fault.

“I don’t want to impose,” Roxanne says to Mati, drawing my sister’s attention back to her, and Mati smiles, the pinched grin matching Roxie’s.

“It’s no imposition.”

We stand another moment in awkward silence, the tension vibrating off us when Jordan walks into the kitchen.

“Hey man, I didn’t know you were joining us today.” He pats me on the back as he passes me for the fridge. Retrieving a few beers, he steps up to his wife, kisses her cheek, and says something in her ear.

Why can’t I have that? Why can’t I find a woman who looks at me like I’ve hung the moon?

Because you walk away, my heart whispers.

Because you’re afraid to put it all out there again, my brain says.

Both are correct, and I glance back at Roxanne. Her eyes shift to the floor. “I really need to go.” She swallows before closing her eyes, and my heart pinches.

This is bad. Really bad.

“Remember you have those court interviews this week,” Jordan states as he walks toward me again, and everything in the room stops. My mother’s hands freeze. Mati’s head shoots up. Sadie stills without looking at me.

And Roxanne speaks. “Excuse me?”

My eyes close. It’s just gone from bad to worse.

“I forgot,” I say, opening my eyes and then turning to Roxanne. “I forgot.” I reach for her, but her movement away from me is more pronounced, obvious to the entire room.

“Forgot?” she groans.

I feel Jordan watching me, and I want to punch him. He’s pressed for this legal stuff when I’ve told him Roxie and I would work it out. As a man of the law, he didn’t like that answer, and he set up a series of interviews with child services to discuss Sadie’s options.

“It isn’t what you think,” I say, without knowing what she thinks.

“You said we’d work it out,” she whispers, her eyes shifting to my family. My mother is trying to round everyone out of the room, but the damage is already done.

“We can work it out. I mean that. This is just a formality. It’s a way to discuss the best interest of Sadie.”

Roxanne glares at me. “Last night, you told me we couldn’t talk about Sadie.”

Jordan slips from the kitchen, disappearing down the hallway at my back.

“Last night, I said a lot of things.”

Roxanne glares at me, the familiar daggers of years of poking at one another. Only these are the flames of someone ready to torch me in my mother’s kitchen. Her anger runs steel-fire hot.