Page 31 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
“YES!” they shouted.
I bristled. All my careful words from earlier to prepare them for an eventual loss went out the window. Of course, Rhett Baldwin wouldn’t bother himself with any of that. He wouldn’t think about two little boys and how disappointed they’d be when we didn’t win. He was just here to stoke them to a blaze of excitement so he could seem like the fun, generous benefactor that he’d convinced everyone he was.
I’d have to pick up the pieces, just like I always did. I’d have to take the boys home and comfort them when someone else won, and explain the way of the world. I’d be the one in their bedroom, stroking their heads, reminding them we had each other and life was good.
But for now, Nate and Alec bounced up and down andpointed at the huge banner on the opposite wall showing the house that we weren’t going to win.
“We’ll get our own bedrooms!” Nate exclaimed.
“Really?” Alec asked, whipping his head over to me. “My own bedroom, like back home?”
A dagger in the chest would have hurt less. We rented a two-bed townhouse near the center of town, the boys sharing bunk beds. It was a far cry from the sprawling Texas estate that Jacob had insisted we buy—and that we’d had to sell off in the divorce. Most of my proceeds had been eaten up by lawyers’ fees during our long custody battle, but Jacob had still managed to secure a house big enough for the boys while I struggled.
And Alec had called it “back home,” which told me just how much he thought of the move. Maybe the boys weren’t adjusting as well as I thought.
I was clinging to my freedom, my life, with the very tips of my fingernails, my feet dangling into an abyss below. Alec’s words threatened to make me slip and fall.
I snatched the twenty blue tickets from his hands and scowled at him. “Thanks for that,” I said, and I could tell he knew I wasn’t talking about the scraps of paper that I divided between the boys. With one last withering glare over my shoulder, I guided the boys away from the ticket booth and toward the carnival games—and I resisted the silly, nonsensical urge to reach into my bag and touch the cursed raffle ticket.
ELEVEN
RHETT
There hadto be something wrong with me. Why else would Piper’s glares make me feel like I’d just gripped an electrified fence with both hands? I watched her walk away, a hand on each of her sons, and wondered what exactly I’d gotten myself into.
Because I didn’t want to force her to quit once the lodge was open. I wanted her to stay. I wanted to see her every day of the week and have her share a sliver of that brilliance with me.
She had a way of cutting through the world and seeing what really mattered. That was why she’d stuck to her design and pitched it to the team so perfectly. It was why I felt like such a fucking fraud every time she looked at me like she could see the mask I’d worked so hard to create.
“Shift’s over! I’m here to relieve you,” Rita Campbell announced. She smiled at me, tugging the hem of her volunteer shirt as she hip-checked me out of the way.
Handing over the roll of tickets, I ceded my place behind the booth. “Big turnout this year.”
“It’s a cute house on a big lot in a great location,” Rita answered in her typical no-nonsense way. “I bought my tickets the very first day they went on sale.”
We glanced over the crowd, and my eyes were drawn to brown hair and dangerous curves. Piper was talking with Mila, looking more animated than she ever did with me. She laughed at something Mila said, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she shook her head.
She was beautiful. It struck me again as I watched her glowing brighter than anyone else in the room. I wanted to stand next to her just to soak up some of her light.
“How’s the new hire?”
I blinked at Rita’s question, realizing she’d followed my gaze. There was a glimmer in her eyes, which I ignored with a shrug. “She’s challenging my ideas for the direction of the job.”
“Oh-ho!” Rita laughed. “Rhett Baldwin being challenged by a slip of a woman like that! Bet that grinds your gears.”
“I welcome it,” I answered, side-eyeing the laughing bar owner.
“Uh-huh.” She smiled at a dad who came up to buy a wad of game tickets for his kids. While they did the exchange, my gaze was drawn back to Piper.
She’d moved to a new town on her own with two kids in tow. She was brave in a way I’d never been able to be. I’d chosen to come back to the town where everything was familiar, even when it was familiar in a bad way. I could have taken my moneyand moved anywhere. She had the courage to do that—to start over. All I did was hide behind myself and pretend I was someone I wasn’t.
I wondered what had happened in her marriage. I wondered if she’d been hurt. Or maybe the man she’d married hadn’t been able to handle a woman with as much stubbornness and mettle as her.
“I’ll leave you to it,” I told Rita, not liking the way her lips curled in a knowing smile when I turned to meet her gaze again.
“All right,” she replied. “Good luck! Not that you need it,” she added with a half smile. “You live a charmed life already.”
“Ha,” I answered, clearing my throat to dislodge the lump that had settled there. She wouldn’t call it a charmed life if she’d lived it from beginning to now.
