AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I scoff, fully prepared for the battle. “And I’ll do what I have to. I’m not letting you get away with this lie.”
A darkness settles over her features; she’s never looked more sinister. “I’ll get my father to change the name of the town.”
Her threat causes me to break out in a sweat, but I keep my expression flat and shrug, not wanting her to see how her threat alarms me. I must fail given her current smile.
“Ha. Like you don’t care.” She smugly smirks. “You know, Daddy would love nothing more than to have another feather in his cap. Think of all the powerful people he’d have to get in front of, how this would be just one more thing he’s done to better this town and our great state.”
Dot circles me like a shark, and I still, summoning everything within me to keep from telling her where to go.
She leans in, pushing up on her toes to get closer to my ear. “He wants to do it. You and I both know he does. Would love nothing more, and all he needs is a little push. And you know me.” She drops back onto her heels, hand pressing into the center of her chest as she bats her eyelashes. “I’d love nothing more than to oblige. One word from me and Winslow Grove would be a thing of the past.”
The snap of her fingers elicits a sharp inhale from me.
Behind her, my older brother, Eddie, waltzes in. “Dot. Oliver.”
Even with his silver beard, I can tell by the pinched lines around his eyes and thinning lips that he’s pissed.
“Oh, hi, Eddie.” Dot’s sweet-as-sugar tone grates on my nerves. “Did you hear our news?”
“I heard.” He doesn’t spare her a glance, pointed gaze stabbing me. “Dot, you should leave.”
“What?” She halts midfluff to her hair and glowers at him, all pretenses forgotten. “Aren’t you going to congratulate us?”
“Dot.” Like throwing a knife, her name slices through the air in warning. I may have kept my mouth shut in town, but I won’t lie to my brother. “Don’t even go there.”
Eddie brushes past her like she’s already gone. Her eyes narrow into thin slits resembling a knife blade aimed at his back. No one tells Dot what to do.
“Leave and stop spreading lies about the baby. It isn’t mine.”
Her cutting glare lands on me. Instantly, her neck breaks out in fire-red splotches and her cheeks flame. Eddie’s eyes widen, glancing from me to her. He pauses on Dot, and while I can’t see the look he gives her, she nods, presses her lips together, and hustles toward the door.
In a clipped tone, she mutters something resembling goodbye. She’s no sooner gone than Eddie spins back to me.
“What the fuck, Oliver? I thought you were done with her, then I walk into Big Sky for a coffee and everyone’s gums are flapping with news about you and Dot having a baby.” He cocks his head to one side. “It isn’t yours. Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I slam my fist onto the workbench, immediately regretting the outburst.
“Then why is she?—”
“Dot lied. She deliberately put me on the spot and announced it in town, banking on me saying nothing in front of anyone.”
“Oliver, you gotta stop this bullshit.”
“I’m going to, but she just threatened the town name change again. Said she’ll push Malone to do it, and we both know she can and he will.”
“Let him.” Eddie shrugs, but I’m pretty sure his nonchalance is all an act. He’s a Winslow too, and it’s his legacy as much as it is mine.
“Right. And you wouldn’t give a damn if this town was called Hauser or Autumnvale or, better yet, Malone?”
He shoves his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “The mayor can’t unilaterally change the name. We’d call for a town hall, a vote. We could try to stop it.”
“We both know once the horse is out of the barn, there’s no going back. I don’t want to let things get to that, and just think what Dad would say.”
“Don’t give a fuck what he’d say and don’t you give me that garbage about Merrick.” He has always called our father by his first name, refusing to acknowledge him as Dad or in any other familial way. “He’s no longer here. You don’t have to live for him, and that sanctimonious prick sure as fuck doesn’t deserve your loyalty or respect.”
Even though I had a difficult relationship with my father—as his son, he was a hard man to please—Eddie and Dad never got along. Merrick Winslow lost Audrey, his first wife and Eddie’s mother, to a sudden heart attack when Eddie was twenty. Less than a year later, he married my mother, Diana.
“I’m not living for him, and stop talking about him like that. Sure, he wasn’t perfect. Neither of us could ever live up to his exacting standards, but he was our father.”
