Page 45 of Dash

“All I’ve ever tried to do, Dayna, is help you. You think it doesn’t break my heart to look round your life and see how you’re surviving? I just want the best for you. I don’t want you to struggle like I did trying to raise you, but if you can’t see that…”

She pushes around me, heading for the door, and everything inside me clenches in anger. This is what she always does. She makes me feel as if I’m in the wrong after she emotionally eviscerates me.

Usually, I would go after her, but when the door slams, I flinch but don’t chase her.

Then I smell it.Burning.

“Shit… shit, shit, shit!”

I rush into the kitchen, my heart squeezing so tight, it leaves me breathless. I drag open the oven door and black smoke billows into the room, choking the back of my throat until I’m coughing.

Fuck.

I grab a tea towel, wafting it in front of the oven to clear it, even as my stomach sinks.

When I lift the dish out, it’s charcoal.

I slide the dish onto the side, slamming the tea towel next to it.

My fucking mother.

My phone rings, and I reach into my back pocket to pull it out.

Katie.

“Everything is fucked,” I say before she can utter a word.

“Do you need me to come over?”

I take a steadying breath, trying to douse the anger and disappointment flooding my body. “What I need is the fire brigade and an exorcism. Also, a hitman.”

“Who are we killing? And do you want me to bring snacks?”

I rub my temple, which is pulsing beneath my fingers. “My mother, and always.”

“What’s Evelyn done now? Though I’m relieved it’s her and not our fairytale man letting you down. Because if he does hurt you, me and Ivy have already decided how we’re going to kill him.”

I blink. “That’s terrifying. And Evelyn has done what Evelyn always fucking does. Interfered in my life right when I needed everything to go perfectly. And now, my lasagna resembles the bottom of a volcano, and I don’t have time to make something new. He’s going to be here soon.” My voice cracks.

“Okay, take a breath. We’re just going to brazen it out. Tell him you changed your mind about the food and go out for dinner.”

“I spent my last twenty quid on this. I don’t have the money to take us out.”

“Plan B? Just fuck him until he forgets what food is. Genius, right?”

There’s a knock on the door, and my heart crashes against my rib cage. “I think he’s here.”

“He’s early. We like a timely king.”

“What do I do?”

“Maybe start by getting off the phone and answering the fucking door. Good luck.”

The line goes dead, and I slide my phone onto the counter before I go to the door. It could also be my mother back for round two, but I’m not gonna manifest that into the universe. I’m not that much of a sadist.

Hesitantly, I open the door, and relief floods my body when I see him standing there.

He is so breathtakingly handsome, it makes my breath hitch to look at him. All that blond hair, the layer of scruff over his jaw that could descend into a beard if he let it, and that body hidden under his clothes. I know how it looks, how it feels to be on top of it, under it.

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