Page 79 of Keep Your Guard Up
Her silhouette on top of the hill stood tall. She must have been wearing those ridiculously overpriced heels that cost all of my fight winnings from the main card I’d been on over in Perth last year. Even from halfway down the driveway, I still tensed at those icy eyes on me. Not in the way Sunny made me tense, from heat and eagerness to touch her. No, this was like having a snake dance in front of you. You knew it was going to strike, but all you could do was anticipate and attempt to dodge.
I chose to dodge.
I kicked myself back into motion, moving on the path Sunny had taken. The street was empty, and JJ’s ute was gone.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Chance, love! It’s so good to see you! I’ve missed you!” Talia screeched, weaving that faux silky voice through her tone.
It was all fake. I knew that now.
Ignoring my shitbag of an ex-wife, I took off down the street towards Sunny and Marilyn’s house. The fact that she was walking down the driveway in those stupid heels would buy me a few minutes at least.
“Chance! Chance, baby! Come back!”
My stomach, along with every other organ inside of me, recoiled at that voice,.
I spotted her Mercedes on the street, black and shining proudly under the orange sky that didn’t feel as beautiful anymore.
No.
No, no, no, no.
Soggla was my home now.
JJ, Al, and Marilyn were part of that.
Knock’s and the locals were too.
Sunny is part of that.
Shecouldn’t be.
I didn’t want her to be.
“Why are you here, Talia?” I yelled back at her.
“What do you mean, darling?”
I flinched at the name I had called Sunny — a name I’d only ever used in love.
“Don’t call me that,” I growled as she finally reached the bottom of the driveway.
She huffed out a breath, clearly not impressed with the conditions of the gravel she had had to navigate.
“Why on earth are you here, Talia?”
“Because I’m here to bring my husband home,” she defended. “You just up and left—no note, no text, no goodbye—nothing. I thought you were dead!”
“Bullshit. I left you notes, a lot of them actually,” I replied, referring to the divorce papers I’d left on the kitchen counter.
She narrowed those soul-sucking eyes on me, a move that would have had me anticipating a fist coming my way before. But she knew better than to throw down now, onmyhome turf.
“You made your point with your little tantrum. I’m willing to forgive you,” she replied, lifting her chin as ifshewas the bigger person here.
“Good for you, Talia. ButI’mnot willing to forgiveyou.”
“You know what this means, Chance.” She pulled out her phone, a new bedazzled case covering the huge screen. “The world will have to know who you really are; how youreallytreat your wife.”
