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He leaned up to look at her, his hair in wild disarray.
“You need a boss, Mia.”
She smiled, because she knew what he was offering, what he was asking for—a partnership. Equality. “You think you’re the man?”
“I know I am.”
“You know what you need?”
He chuckled deep in his throat and arched his hips into her, and she wiggled under him, delight soaring through her body.
“What you need more than that,” she said, laughing.
“I need a wife,” he said, looking into her heart. “I need you, Mia. I always needed you.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Epilogue
Walter heard Sandra and Lucy arguing. Sandra was trying to whisper but Lucy was screaming the house down.
The hangover Walter was nursing didn’t like the screaming.
“I can hear you!” he yelled, and Lucy ducked her head around the door to the den.
“Fine,” she snapped, stepping into the room. “Then I’ll tell you to your face. My mother and I need to leave.”
“Good,” he said, looking into his empty glass. “Go.”
“Walter, we can not leave you like this,” Sandra said, walking into the room. He looked up at her face and he could tell she did not want to be here. She was here out of duty. As a favor to her daughter. A good deed for poor, sick, pathetic Walter.
“I don’t want you here,” he told her, point blank.
“See?” Lucy said. “He doesn’t want us here.”
“I told you, Lucy. I understand you need to get back to work, but…” Sandra sighed. “I cannot leave him here alone like this.”
Lucy shook her head, fury rolling off her. “Is it just the booze?” she asked him. “Or did you stop taking your meds, too?”
He didn’t answer. He wasn’t even entirely sure what day it was.
“I’m not leaving you here,” Lucy said to Sandra. “Mia and Jack are going to be gone for two months!”
“What do you think I’m going to do to her?” Walter felt like he needed to defend himself.
“Hurt her,” Lucy snapped. “Use her. Toss her away like you tossed all of us away five years ago.”
Never, he thought. Never again.
“Enough,” Sandra said, stepping between Lucy and Walter. “I am going to stay until Mia and Jack get back from their trip. Lucy, again, I do not expect you to stay.”
“I’m not leaving you to slave over this man. You’re the one who said you weren’t going to be a nursemaid.”
Sandra’s eyes raked over him. “I’m not. I’m just going to make sure that when Jack and Mia come home, he’s still alive.”
Lucy bit her lips, radiating anger.
“Fine,” she finally said. “I’m staying too.”
Great, Walter thought. This should be interesting.
