Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 47819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
I’m not sure what was the usual protocol for shit like this, but I know that as the man in her life it was up to me to rectify any hurt she’d suffered. And as far as I can tell his was the most damaging. Asshole!
I’d got quite a bit of info from Janine so I knew what moves I wanted to make and this was only the beginning. If I weren’t so set on giving her time, her ass would be in a house somewhere with both our names on it already.
ILENE
“Mark what are you doing here?” I was more than a little surprised to see my ex at my door since he’s never been here before. I searched my feelings to see if there was still that lingering bit of familiarity that had kept me prisoner even after he dogged me, but surprisingly there was nothing, not even a blip. Okay maybe a little resentment, but not the burning hurt from before.
“What do you mean? My daughter lives here doesn’t she?” Was he serious? How many times in the last six months would I have given my eyeteeth to get him to acknowledge the fact that he even had a daughter?
I was a little suspicious of his sudden interest though, and couldn’t help but wonder if word of Dane’s existence had gotten back to him somehow.
“Well Alana’s not here at this time as you well know, she’s in school.” Speaking of which, I checked my watch, it was only an hour or so ‘til school ended and her soccer match begun.
“I wanted to talk to you about how she’s doing in school; how has she been getting along lately?” Did he really want me to answer him? I felt the anger that had been missing from this equation bubble up inside of me.
For the past year since he’d started his mess, or when I found out about it rather, I’ve done everything I could to get him back. Today for the first time I looked at him with nothing but contempt, but for my daughter’s sake I will bite my tongue and play nice. It was not my place to make her relationship with her dad whatever there was of it, more difficult, even though he’s the one who’d flaked on us.
“She’s doing very well thank you, as a matter of fact she’s been acing all her classes lately and her soccer team has made it to the state finals.” Which you would know if you ever took the time away from your teeny bopper to attend a game.
He didn’t seem too pleased to hear that she was doing fine without him and I was sure he’d have a cow if he knew that I had really moved on, and not just superficially either.
It was a great feeling as I stood there before him, to realize that I was totally over him, and from the way he was looking at me I was sure he was shocked by my nonchalant behavior towards him.
I was about to cut the meeting short because some of that old anger that had lain dormant for so long was about to resurface when he reached out his hand and touched me.
My mouth fell open as he ran his finger down the outside of my arm, but before I could address him one way or the other I saw a now familiar truck pulling into the driveway.
Mark got a look on his face that told me he knew exactly who Dane was, and that pretty much answered the question as to what the hell he was doing in my face after all this time.
As the door slammed and Dane exited the truck, Mark without uttering another word, turned and left. The two men didn’t say anything to each other in passing, though Mark seemed to check Dane out from head to toe. But I was too nervous by the look on Dane’s face to give it much thought. I’ve heard the expression ‘if looks could kill’ but never saw it in action. Whoa!
I tried backing up from the ire in his eyes but I wasn’t fast enough. My eyes widened when his hand came around my neck. He wasn’t quite choking me but it was only a fraction of a degree off.
Oh hell, talk about pissed. I wasn’t sure if to be turned on or scared out of my mind. I didn’t have any experience with this sort of thing. In my marriage when there was an issue, Mark usually sulked until he got his way, but this one didn’t strike me as the sulking type, good grief.
***
DANE
“What…the…fuck…was he doing here?” I think it’s going to take a minute for the red haze to clear from my mind. I was looking forward to picking her up and the two of us going to the kid’s game together for the first time, only to see that asshole with his hands on her. The fuck was lucky he’d left when he did or I would probably have snapped the shit in two. But since I had no fucking use for him anyway she was the one who was going to pay for that little scene I drove up on.