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“Yeah, Jamie.”
“How long you been with him?”
“About seven months. Mum and Dad hate him, but he’s amazing.”
No shit her mother hated him. I did too, and I didn’t even know the little fucker.
“What makes him so amazing?”
A defensive look crossed her face, and I guessed that came from always having to defend him to her family. “He’s the one who gave me the money to catch the bus here, and he’s always there for me when I fight with Mum.”
“He works?”
“No. I guess his family gives him money or something.”
Or something. I bet the little shit was either dealing or stealing stuff. Jesus, it just reminded me how young and naïve Charlie was.
My phone buzzed with a text, and I quickly checked it.
Tenille: Everything going okay there?
Me: Yeah. She’s okay.
Tenille: Keep me in the loop. This is doing my head in.
Me: Will do.
Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I said, “Look, I know you’re gonna drink at your age. I don’t like it, but I get it. But don’t do it here, okay? And quit the smokes. That shit’ll kill you eventually.”
I wasn’t sure how I’d managed to do it, but all the fight had left her. She didn’t argue with me, but she didn’t let me have the last word. “We’ve all gotta die from something, Aiden.”
I pointed my finger at her. “Not in the house.”
She bent and picked her drink up off the floor. Passing it to me, she said, “Now go. I’m gonna watch some reality TV and I’m pretty sure you’d hate it.”
I took the drink and left her to it. I figured I’d won half the battle for now. The fact she was still talking to me was the biggest win of it all, but hell, I felt like I’d been to war and back with her today. My respect for Tenille leapt. If this was what she dealt with day in, day out, I had mad fucking respect for her. Which reminded me that I needed to find an ice-skating rink. I was going to take King’s suggestion and do stuff with her that she loved, in order to win her over.
Chapter 13
Monroe
As I sat and watched Bree ice skate on Tuesday night, I wished I’d taken it up when I was a kid. She seemed to really love it, and it looked like so much fun. Hell, maybe I should take lessons myself. It’d kill two birds with one stone—fun and exercise. There were plenty of adults out on the rink taking a class, many of them older than me. Bree was about fifteen minutes into her lesson, and I’d spent that time watching both her and a man who had to be at least sixty. He moved like he was my age. If he could do it, surely I could.
A waitress interrupted me when she delivered my order of hot chips to the table where I sat in the tiny café at the rink. The heating in there coaxed me in. I’d rather watch Bree from the warmth than sit on the bleachers and freeze.
“Thanks,” I said as she placed the bowl of chips in front of me.
“Just let me know if you want anything else, love. I’m serving hot food for another half hour and then closing down the kitchen.”
“Will do.” I wouldn’t want anything else, though. God, I shouldn’t even be having these chips. I’d hit the gym at lunchtime, so I was probably undoing all that work. Story of my life.
As I watched her walk away, I caught a glimpse of a guy entering the café—the kind of glimpse that made me keep looking. I did a double take when I realised it was Hyde. What the hell was he doing at an ice-skating rink? He didn’t strike me as the type of man to skate.
Oh, God, my belly started doing somersaults. And all I’d done was look at the man. I needed to get myself under control. But damn, these kinds of somersaults weren’t common for me. Why, why, why did he have to cause them?
He took a few steps into the café before turning to look out at the
rink. I watched intently as his gaze stayed pinned there and his mouth curled up into a smile. He wasn’t here to skate; he was here with someone.
