Page 62 of Sold to the Single Daddies

“Tell me again what happened.”

He sat forward and rubbed his hands over his face.

“No. I’ve already told you three times. I’m not repeating it again.”

West walked over from the kitchen with a glass of whiskey.

“Why the fuck were you touching Melanie?”

Mills growled and shoved off the couch to go face to face with him.

“I hugged her back. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. How the hell was I supposed to know that touching her would set Reagan off?”

“How would you feel if you walked up on someone shoving their hand down Reagan’s pants? While she held them?” I stood up and walked over to the stairs. I just wanted to go up and force my way into her room so I could hold her. “I fucking know how I’d feel. I would’ve ripped the guys’ arms off.”

“I fucked up! I get it. I fucked up in multiple ways. I don’t know what to do. I tried to apologize.” He tugged at his hair and paced. “I don’t know how to fix this. She won’t even talk to me.”

“Try harder! Go up there right now and make it right.” I heard the knock at the front door and glared at it. We didn’t need company right then. We needed time alone with Reagan to makeshit better. Before I could yell at them to go away, the door swung open and Maxie let herself in.

She looked at us, standing at the bottom of the stairs like a bunch of kicked puppies, and put her hands on her hips.

“What happened?”

A sinking feeling washed over me. Had Reagan already called our sisters to tell them about Mills’ fuck up? I was feeling as sensitive about our sisters as Mills lately and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of them hearing bad shit about us from Reagan. The relationships with them were already strained. They already didn’t seem to care for us all that much. If we ever hoped to repair those relationships, Reagan couldn’t tell them every single fuck up we made.

Movement at the top of the stairs caught my attention and I looked up to see Reagan standing there with a forced smile on her face and a scowling Lucky in her arms. She let out a fake laugh and rolled her eyes.

“Nothing happened. I’m just pms-ing and I think your brothers were debating how to approach the dragon lady upstairs.”

She was lying. I wasn’t sure why, but she was.

Maxie laughed easily and hurried over to take Lucky from her as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“All of our brothers used to disappear when one of us got our period. I thought they’d grow out of it.”

“Are you going somewhere?” Mills subtly moved closer to Reagan but she was so closed off that it was useless. With her arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, she was blocking all of us out.

She looked uncomfortable at his question and cleared her throat. Before she could answer, though, Maxie jumped in.

“Actually, yeah. She’s coming with me to dinner with Nellie and Vera.” Maxie bounced Lucky against her hip and grinnedwhen he glared at her. “She tried to get out of it but no one can say no to chicken pot pie night at the diner.”

Reagan shifted from foot to foot and stared at the floor.

“I’ll just grab his bag and we can go.”

“Is everyone going?” West’s quiet question made Reagan’s shoulders stiffen but Maxie was so busy playing with Lucky that it didn’t seem to register to her that West sounded upset.

“Um, I don’t know. Maybe?” Maxie laughed at Lucky’s grunt of disapproval and finally looked up at us. She waved us off as she backed away. “Should we send some pie back home to you?”

Reagan cleared her throat again.

“Actually, Vera asked me to stay over at her place tonight so I’m not coming back here. If y’all want chicken pot pie, you should probably come to the diner.”

Maxie shrugged.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you want. Come on, Rea. Let’s get there before all the good tables are taken.”

I was still trying to process that Reagan wasn’t planning on coming home that night when she slipped past us and left without another word. The sound of the front door shutting was loud in the suddenly silent house. I felt like I was being hit from multiple sides as I walked over to the couch and sank into it.

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