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“Great. Could I have some ice, please?”
She nodded and went back to retrieve it. As she did, I scanned the ice cream shop, surprised when I saw Vinny sitting in the corner with a woman who was certainly not his wife.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I said, analyzing the situation closely. In his defense, my friend did not look to be having a good time at all. In fact, he looked downright annoyed at the woman’s company while she continued to chatter on about whatever it was she was talking about.
“He does not look like he wants her there,” I remarked to Hunter, who chortled in response.
“Exactly,” I said. “So, what do you think, buddy? You want to go put your uncle and potential godfather out of his misery?”
Hunter chortled again, so I took it as a yes. When I walked closer, I could hear the blonde woman saying, “Oh, and that was only the beginning of it. She just kept going on and on about the stupid vacation to France. You could tell she was just dying with jealousy over the new yacht Daddy bought me.”
“Excuse the interruption,” I said as both of them looked up. “Y’all mind if I join you? I gotta sit because Hunter is being restless.”
Vinny’s face was flooded with relief. “Sure. Join us.”
The woman didn’t look happy about the interruption until I smiled at her, really laying on the charm. She reacted in surprise at first, and then it was like her whole demeanor changed. She shot me a coquettish look under her lashes and then glanced at Vinny to see if he had seen it. Vinny, on the other hand, could not look any more uninterested. So was I, truly. The woman looked like the typical spoiled rich girl who’d had life on a silver platter and probably would not have even looked at guys like me when I had nothing, at least not seriously anyway. Back when I was younger and dumber, I had been into girls like her, drawn to the status symbol they represented. I had dated debutante after debutante because they helped me prove a point, which was that even though I was a dumb kid from nowhere, Kentucky, I could still get a hottie like that. And then I had almost married one.
What a disaster that had been.
So now it was safe to say that my taste had done a complete 180. Although I couldn’t say exactly what type of girls I was into now, given that my libido had been shot to hell by near-constant nightmares, the only woman I had seriously been attracted to since then was the complete opposite of a debutante—she was a tall, straight-shooter of a woman with piercings on her ear and hair of shocking colors. She walked and talked like she didn’t give a damn what the world thought of her, and she was feisty as hell but could be nurturing as well. The dichotomy was probably part of what made her so interesting and captivating, and…hell, I didn’t know. I had never met another woman like Kayla to be sure why she was my type, but all I knew was that I hadn’t felt genuine cock-raising attraction to a woman since I held Kayla in my arms that night.
And now I was hit with the realization that she was the only one who did it for me, and I had no fucking clue why. And it was doubly frustrating because she was my friend’s daughter, who was probably half my age, and she also seemed to strongly distrust me.
Perhaps I was mistaken. I just needed to move on from Kayla and try with someone else.
But the woman in here…nah, she wasn’t the one.
And not just because she never seemed to stop talking either. From the moment I sat down and began rubbing ice on Hunter’s gums, she had barely waited for Vinny to introduce us before she started regaling me with tales of her trips to Paris and the like. I made the appropriate sounds to show that I was listening, but truthfully, her voice made me feel like I was slowly gathering the urge to blow my brains out. The only consolation was the fact that Vinny was here and just as miserable as I was.
Finally, she got up to go to the bathroom, at which point it felt like I could finally breathe again.
“What the hell, man?” I asked, shooting him a look like he was crazy. “Why on earth are you even here with her?”
He sighed. “I need her father’s cooperation for a new project I’m working on, so I have to play nice for a few days.”
“Ah, I see,” I muttered. “Does your wife know about this?”
“She’s the one who suggested it,” he said wryly. “But I’m this close to giving up and just walking out of here. In fact, if you hadn’t walked over, I would have done exactly that.”
“Well then, I guess your wife has me to thank.”
He smiled wryly. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“You and Kayla. How did that happen?”
I sighed, not wanting to get into the entire tale. “It’s a long story, man.”
“We’ve got time,” Vinny said. “Jenny is known to spend literal eons in the bathroom.”
I grinned but shook my head. “Maybe another time.”
Vinny nodded and turned his attention to Hunter, who was gumming the ice and staring back at him. “Well, hey there, little fella.”
Hunter blinked his response and made a gurgling sound.
“Man, he is a dead ringer for you,” Vinny said. “Right down to the conversational skills and everything.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” I said, but I laughed, proud of my son. Vinny smiled too, but then the smile slid off his face when he suddenly looked behind me.
And that was when I heard it—Kayla’s angry voice, screaming, “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my son?”
