Page 91 of Hungry Hearts

“Guess your balls aren’t as big as you like to brag about.”

I give Avery the side-eye. “My balls are plenty big.” If not a little blue after thinking about and missing Maia.

“If you had balls, you would have punched your fist through that shower door and grabbed fucker Flynn by the neck and smashed his face against the tile.”

“You would have cut off his dick and shoved it down his throat,” Nora adds.

Fuck, those pregnancy hormones are making her brutal.

“You would have sliced off his balls and put them in formaldehyde and kept them on a shelf. No, given them to him to keep onhisshelf.”

We all stare at sweet, innocent Ella.

“Hell, girl. What has my brother done to you?” Avery shakes her head.

“You built a princess castle for that little girl. Don’t tell us you don’t care about her. She deserves at least a goodbye from you.” Nora jabs my ribs with her finger.

“I’m not calling her. I can’t.”

“Why?” They all ask.

I cover my face with my hands and rest my elbows on my knees. The tequila swims in my head and spills the truth. “Because I miss her too much. I’ll accept her apology even though I can never trust her again, and I’ll fuck things up for her and Ruby forever. Like my parents did to me.”

Avery and Nora’s hands rub my back in comfort. I don’t think they know about my fucked up childhood. Maybe Avery, since Nolan tells her everything.

“You’re not your father,” she says in my ear.

Yeah. She knows.

But I’m still not calling Maia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKSof me consoling Ruby over Ryder’s sudden disappearance from our lives while also trying not to freak out. I called all the area hospitals, checked his restaurant’s social media pages, and heard nothing about an accident or him being missing.

Then, a week ago, Flynn showed me pictures of Ryder with a woman draped all over him at some bar. Two different photos, two different women. This past week has been harder for me to speak kindly of him when reassuring Ruby that he’s okay but really busy.

Yeah. Really busy entertaining women all over Boston. I’ve gone from worried and praying for his safety to angry and praying I don’t do something drastic like murder him. Ha! I’d have to see him again to murder him.

And he’s done an excellent job ghosting me. I even camped outside his apartment door one night, but he never came home. Makes sense now that I learned he’s been sleeping around. We promised each other to be monogamous and to let each other know if we wanted to move on.

Apparently, his promises are empty. No, not empty. Lies. He’s a player and he played me. What I’m most angry about is that he played Ruby. There was no need to string her along and get her attached to him if he wasn’t planning on sticking around for a little bit. Maybe not forever. I get Ryder isn’t the marrying type. But long enough for us to grow tired of each other.

Not that I could imagine tiring of him.

Until now.

I’m tired, frustrated, exhausted from keeping up the positive charade in front of Ruby. Flynn has been a godsend, coming by at night with dinner and trying to entertain her, but Ruby’s been sulking and either plays quietly in her room or sulks in front of the television. She hasn’t touched her castle once since Ryder left us.

Kaitlin pops her head into the prep room where I’m folding towels. “Your last appointment of the day just showed up.”

“I thought MaryBeth canceled?” And I was hoping to leave after this last load of laundry.

“She did, but you had someone on the waiting list. I called her this afternoon and she said she could leave work early.”

“Oh. Who is it?”

“New client. She called last week and when I told her you were booked for two months out, she said she’d take the first opening you had.”

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