Page 79 of Just This Once

I’m in the middle of scrolling a list of the best family cars when I hear Taryn mutter a low curse. I glance up, noting a shiny BMW outside of her house. The sun has set, and it’s toodark for me to make out the man leaning against it, but I can guess. And as hot as it is to watch Taryn parallel park so motherfucking perfectly, all of my attention is on Craig Barrett.

All the good vibes from the day evaporate as she turns off the car. Jake lets out a loud breath before he opens his door. Maddie follows, but Taryn doesn’t move from behind the wheel.

“All right?” I ask her, and she shakes her head.

“Fine.”

It absolutely is not going to be fine. It’s a problem. I can feel it, but before I can say anything else, she steps out of the car. “Hey, Craig.”

“I’ve been waiting here for twenty minutes,” he snaps, and I shut my door as quietly as possible, though he still notices me, and I can already tell this is going to be more than a problem. He’s looking for a fight.

Taryn flops her arms at her sides like they’re so heavy she can’t hold them up anymore. “I’m sorry. We ran a little late.”

“Twenty minutes is not alittlelate, Taryn.”

I don’t like the way he speaks to her like she’s dumb, and I step around to her side. Of course, he takes note and scowls. Taryn sighs. “I left a voice mail that we were on the way.”

“Bullshit. You never called me.”

“Yes, I did, about twenty-five minutes ago, actually.”

“No, you didn’t.”

I don’t know how she dealt with this toddler for so long. He huffs out a laugh that is so grating I reflexively grind my molars. “Maybe you meant to, but?—”

“Here. Look.” Taryn pulls out her phone, scrolls through it, then holds up her screen. “You didn’t pick up, so I left a voice mail.”

He knocks her hand down, and I make to step forward, but Jake catches my arm. I hadn’t realized he had come to standnext to me. Maddie’s on Taryn’s other side. Like we’re forming a fucking army against Thanos.

“It’s my weekend with them,” he says, angry finger in the air.

Taryn spends a few seconds merely glaring at him, and I’m sure she’s calculating her words. Making sure to stay calm. “You’re right, it is your weekend with them, when you are supposed to get them at ten. But since you changed the plans last week yet again, your time is cut short by hours. So even if wehad notmade other plans, and Ihad notcalled to inform you that we were running late, why didn’t you come pick them up this morning like you were supposed to?”

“Because I was busy. Not everyone has time to jaunt off for some bullshit.”

“We went to seeThe Nutcracker,” Maddie says, in a voice so small I recognize it in myself. Trying to stand up to a bully, but the bully is the person that you were taught to always respect. That you thought would love you, no matter what.

Craig scoffs. “The Nutcracker? That’s why I’ve been waiting here all night?”

“All night?” Taryn cants her head to the side. “I thought you said it was twenty minutes. Or was it really two minutes?”

He ignores her questions, turning to Jake. “You had a good time atThe Nutcracker?”

Jake shrugs, mumbling an affirmative, which only pisses this asshole off more. “You’re kidding me with this, Taryn, forcing our son to go to a goddamn ballet!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Maddie flinch. She loves dancing and singing, and her father shitting on the thing she loves is only reinforcing what she probably fears most—that her father doesn’t really love her.

But he doesn’t stop. He goes on, shouting, “You’re turning our son into a pussy!”

“Hey, whoa, no.” I step forward with my hands up. “You can’t be saying stuff like that.”

“Who are you?”

“My name’s Dante.”

“Well, Dante—” he spits out my name “—this is none of your business. My family is none of your goddamn business.”

I shake my head. “Actually, it is, when you’re out in my neighborhood yelling at your children and ex-wife.”

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