Page 91 of Sweet Wicked Vows
Selfishly, I wanted to let her wreck me.
“You do realize that when this is all done, she will never be able to forgive you?” Frederic said. “Any thoughts you have that you two will come out of this with a happy ending, you best readjust your expectations.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“We have waited a long time for this. We’ve worked too fucking hard to get this close to taking Lexington down. Love comes and goes, but this opportunity is a once in a lifetime.”
He was right.
Iknewhe was right, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Hurting Lexington meant hurting Evelyn, too.
Our conversation was ended by the arrival of my father, which was more than the perfect excuse to remove myself from being in Frederic’s presence and take a walk around the gardens.
My relationship with my father was complicated.
He was weak. He let Lexington steal everything from him. He thought that just because they were friends, he wouldn’t fuckhim over. He didn’t realize that Lexington Reynolds was a shark, circling the waters waiting for a chance to strike.
My father never fought back. He simply let all he worked for fall to crumbs at his feet and soothed his wounds with alcohol and self-loathing.
Lexington was the catalyst for our shit childhood, but my father was equally to blame.
“Uncle Jax makes the best tea in the whole world. It’s fairy tea!” Penny clapped her hands together as I approached them. “He uses a magic secret ingredient.”
“Is that so?” Evelyn smiled. “You make fairy tea?”
“I sure do.” I smiled back. “The best fairy tea in all the realms.”
Penny nodded enthusiastically. “Uncle Jax said he spoke to the fairies in the gardens, the ones that come out at night-time when I’m sleeping. They told him how to make their super-duper special tea!”
The corners of her eyes crinkled. “And what is this magical ingredient?”
I tapped the side of my nose. “I can’t tell you that. Otherwise, it won’t be a secret anymore.”
The sound of her laugh warmed me from the inside and banished my brother’s earlier words echoing in my mind.
“The fairies said only special people can know, didn’t they?” Penny’s ocean-blue eyes stared up at me with nothing but pure innocence and adoration.
“That’s right. Only the best types of people.”
“I know what it is!” Penny danced on her tiptoes. “Can I go and get some from the kitchen?”
“Why don’t you head up and get washed up for your supper,” I said. “We’ll meet you after. Then we can show Evelyn how to make fairy tea. Sound good?”
“You promise?” Penny’s eyes pinballed between me and Evelyn. “Pinky promise?”
I latched my finger on my four-year-old nieces’. “Happy? Now, go.”
Her face broke into a grin as she ran back to the house.
It was strange to think that only two years ago, we didn’t know Penny even existed. One day Frederic was his same old self, avoiding his soon-to-be ex-wife, and the next she walked through the door with a two-year-old on her hip demanding childcare allowance.
Now, I couldn’t imagine our lives without Penny.
She was the ray of sunshine the Dade family desperately needed.
Much like another certain woman in my life.