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Her brows pulled together. “Why?”
I motioned with my fingers for her to just do as I’d asked. “I want Lily’s number.”
The way her shoulders relaxed told me I had to do everything I could to get Lily to say yes. Axe was right that she would help Skylar’s anxiety.
She passed her phone as she swiped more tears from her face. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I know I’m a pain in your ass and that I don’t make any sense with all my worry, but I’m really grateful for everything you’re doing.”
“Fuck, if it wasn’t for the shit I’ve got going on, you wouldn’t have been in that accident, Skye. This is all my fault.”
She sighed and rested her head against the wall. “I don’t blame you, King. And you’ve really gotta stop taking the blame for every bad thing that happens in our lives.”
Before I could respond, Annika joined us. “How’s the patient?” She smiled at Skylar. “The kids are dying to get in here, but I told them you need some time to settle in first. I’ll do my best to keep them away for as long as I can, but I can’t promise anything. They’re going a little stir-crazy being cooped up here.”
A smile tugged at Skylar’s lips. “Oh God, please let them come in. We can go stir-crazy together. And besides, I need some little slaves to do stuff for me.”
Annika laughed. “Perfect. It’ll get them out of my hair. I might even get a nap in this afternoon.” She glanced at me. “What are you taking the blame for now? I heard you guys talking when I came in, but I didn’t hear what it was about.”
“Nothing,” I muttered, not wanting to get into that conversation again.
“It wasn’t nothing,” Skylar said. “I was
telling King he needs to stop taking the blame for the bad stuff that happens to us.”
“Oh,” Annika said, nodding. “She’s right. I mean, you might be the almighty King, but you’re not responsible for everything.”
I ignored them and held up the phone. “I’m going to call Lily.”
As I stepped out of the room, Skylar called out, “We’re going to finish this conversation one day.”
It wasn’t a productive conversation, so I had no desire to finish it, let alone engage in it. Instead, I dialled Lily and waited for her to answer. She didn’t pick up, though. It went to message bank, which I didn’t bother with. I dialled again. Same thing happened. On the third try, she finally answered.
“Shit, sorry, Skye, I was in the middle of dealing with a teenage girl who thinks it’d be a good idea to follow in her mother’s footsteps and give up her virginity at an age where she doesn’t fully comprehend that babies can come from sex. And an asshole ex who still doesn’t understand that he wouldn’t get as much hell from me if he just held up his end of this parenting gig. I’m going to need copious amounts of wine tonight to get through this day. Why do men make our lives so hard some days? I know that if he backed me up on this with her, she’d be more inclined to listen to what I’m saying.”
Her outburst cut through the shit in my head in a way not much did. I didn’t know what the fuck it was, but she somehow managed to jolt me from my thoughts, easing some of the tension in my body as she did so. It was a welcome fucking distraction. One I didn’t have time for, but one I would indulge just to have a few minutes of peace from my thoughts.
“Take something from him that he values. He’ll do whatever the fuck you want after that.”
Silence. And then—“King? God, I thought it was Skylar calling. Just ignore everything I said. I’m rambling. Shit. Wait. What do you mean by take something from him?”
“What does your ex get from you that he values?”
A few moments passed in silence where I figured she was thinking about my question. “He likes to come over to my place a freaking lot, but there’s no way I can take that from him. I’ve tried telling him to stop, but he just keeps coming whenever he wants. Besides that, I don’t know…” Her voice drifted off before suddenly she said, “Oh, I know! He still has access to the couple’s gym membership my sister got for me years ago. I’ll take his name off it.”
I frowned. “You let your ex use a gym membership you pay for?”
“I don’t pay for the membership. It’s her bestie’s gym, so they give it to me for free. Linc is vain as fuck, so it’d kill him if I stopped letting him use it.”
I had zero clue what would possess a woman to let her ex use her like that, but in my experience, people did shit for the strangest fucking reasons, so I wasn’t touching that. “Cut him off. He’ll come crawling back to you begging for it back and willing to do whatever that takes.”
She turned silent again before saying, “You’re a smart man. Thank you.”
I’d been called a lot of things in my life, but smart wasn’t one of them. The compliment felt odd, but fuck, it put a smile on my fucking face. “I’ve dealt with enough assholes to know how to use them to get what I want.”
“Take the compliment, King. Now, what can I do for you? I’m presuming you called for a reason.”
I was unsure how her ex managed to coerce her into shit; she seemed switched on to me. But then I knew better than anyone how love led you down paths you never intended to take. “I need you to take on Skylar’s rehab.”
“I’m sorry, but I really can’t fit her in. My kids are a handful at the moment and work is kicking my butt.”
