Chapter 14
I always loved Saint’s house. From the moment he moved in, I was envious. He had my dream home. Not only was he in the city, but it was the design of my dreams.
Tucked away on a residential street with big oak trees, where Spanish moss dripped from the branches like solidified raindrops, sat a two-story house with iron fenced balconies and open windows that sang when the light shone through.
It stretched several lots, making it look like a mini-mansion in a land of shacks.
A light tan exterior with white trim, dark shutters, and a gray roof made up the outside.
It always made people stop on their walks to admire, questions in their eyes.
Who lives here? What did they do to get such a home? What does the inside look like?
If only they knew about the man who lived inside, they wouldn’t give a single damn about the house.
Not when he was designed in the stars by an architect with a vengeful streak. Too striking for this earth, too cold to welcome people in.
A snake ready to dig his venom into your veins, poisoning you with passion before leaving you to perish alone.
Don’t come.
His text burned in my brain, punctured my heart.
Fueled my anger.
The moment I read it, I wanted to scream, wanted to throw my phone out the window of the car as we raced ninety miles per hour toward him.
I wanted to send him the middle finger emoji.
I wanted to do a lot of things in the moment, but in the end, I did nothing except sit in the back seat of my father’s car, stoking the roasting coals of my anger.
Saint was radio silent for days, and the first time he decided to turn communication back on was to say that?
Don’t come.
No.
Fuck that.
And I hope when Saint saw the dress I was wearing tonight, he’d regret his words as well.
I was wearing a short, skintight red dress that hugged my body in a way to trick the eye that I actually had curves instead of the boyish twig figure that I did have. I even exchanged my combat boots for another pair of boots. These ones had a heel and ran all the way up my thighs.
I wanted to make Saint crazy when he saw, knowing he wouldn’t be able to touch me.
Now the little torture number felt even tighter.
I hoped when he saw me, he got down on his knees and ate his words.
I wanted groveling. The deepest and sincerest apology.
But as we walked through the side gate that led to the private courtyard of Saint’s main and guest houses, where a lap pool stretched between them, I knew I wasn’t going to get any of it.
The stewing anger inside me shot higher when I noticed it wasn’t a dinner party after all.
It was just a party.
People littered the backyard. It wasn’t a casual event either. Guests were dressed up as they moved around the pool, and even the ones in swimsuits dripped with expensive accessories.
Uniformed waitstaff breezed past us as music spilled out of hidden speakers.
I searched for him in the people lounging with drinks in the pool, searched for him in the people that clung to the perimeter exchanging gossip like favors.
The coward. The liar. The heartbreaker.
Don’t come.
Too late. Should’ve texted me sooner.
Now the message made sense.
There were too many people. Too many gorgeous people that he’d probably much rather spend his time with.
He didn’t have to hide with them.
He could fuck them without consequences.
He could leave them without seeing them again, without remorse and reminders.
Through the window that spied into the kitchen, I saw even more people. More waitstaff working.
This wasn’t a last-minute decision. It couldn’t have been.
Those soft embers rose to violent flames.
“Small?” Jessa mirrored my thoughts, shaking her head. “We should’ve known better. Saint doesn’t know how to do small.”
I nodded in silent agreement, too wound up to speak. He didn’t.
He was boisterous and braggy, shoving it into everyone’s face that he was not his father.
He wasn’t a fraud. He was worthy.
And his house was one of his favorite things to flaunt.
Two girls in bikinis ran by us, squealing as they got chased by a built man in a mankini.
My sister blinked, eyes dazed. “That was a lot of man ass.”
“And not a lot of bulge.” For the first time in hours, my lips twitched upward. Poor guy.
Jessa cackled, knocking her shoulder into mine.
Here was the thing about my sister—her laugh wasn’t delicate or dainty. Instead, it came out sounding like a witch brewing over a cauldron.
My lips twitched even higher with the sound.
I loved her laugh. She hated it, which made me love it even more.
“Want to go inside?” Jessa asked me.
Our dad abandoned us the moment we walked through the gate, heading straight to the open bar on the other side of the pool, where a pretty young woman bartended.
Jessa didn’t wait for my answer before walking to the house. Not finding Saint out here, I followed her.
Saint’s downstairs had an open layout. The perfect party setup.
The same music that played outside floated in here, but it was barely audible over all the talking.
I searched through the throngs of people, looking for wicked eyes and a sinful stare.
Where are you hiding, Saint?
“ What’re you doing?” Jessa gave me a weird look as I craned my neck like a deformed swan while pressing up on my toes.
“Nothing.” I dropped down. “Stretching.”
Her cool face remained impassive, seeing through my lie.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Archer.” My lie was smooth, like bourbon over ice.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I gave her a hard stare. “Know anyone else here?”
Saint. Saint. Saint.
“Since when do you care about knowing anyone at a party?”
Typically not usually, but being at this party felt wrong.
Never had I felt more my age than I did now.
Everyone here, aside from Jessa, ranged from their upper twenties, like Archer and Saint, to their early thirties.
I was the youngest person here by a long shot.
“Maybe we should go back outside.”
Jessa looked dubious. “Why? We were just out there.”
I was acting weird. I knew it.
Usually, I wasn’t one to let an unfamiliar situation throw me, but I entered a new territory tonight and I’d like to find the man who placed me on this map. So he could help guide me back on course instead of leading me astray for a moment longer.
No more games.
I needed Saint to give it to me straight. Either we did this or we didn’t. Don’t leave me dangling over this edge alone.
“I’d just rather be outside.” I needed fresh air to get an attack plan assembled. It was too crowded, too loud in here. “You know how I love the stars.”
She tried to hide it, but I saw the smile. Stars reminded us of Mom, who used to say we thrived in the night. Under the stars, we came alive.
Dad might’ve hidden all her belongings, but he could never hide her from us in the stars.
My gaze moved toward the kitchen window, only to immediately jump back to my sister. “On second thought, let’s just stay inside.”
Inside was better at the moment.
It wasn’t that crowded. I could easily think of a plan in here.
“You’re acting weird.” Jessa narrowed her eyes at me. “Why?”
With pleading eyes, I begged her not to make me say it aloud.
Her eyes narrowed farther.
Our staring contest was held until my patience shorted out and I broke our eye contact on a sigh.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I shot her a ‘ you asked for it’ look. “Dad’s flirting with the cocktail waitress. Very blatantly. Very grotesquely.”
A waitress who was between Jessa’s and my age. Young twenties. If that.
This wasn’t the first time he hit on a girl who could be his daughter. Wasn’t the first time, if he succeeded, he’d take one of them to bed.
It was that charm that people swore he had. They ate it up like free candy.
What made the situation worse was that our dad wasn’t horrendous to look at. Some might have even called him handsome. Hot. A sexy fox.
For an older gentleman, he didn’t have a beer gut. Instead, he was packed with muscle thanks to the five or six times he hit the gym a week.
He was starting to show silver hairs on the side of his head, and it seemed to draw them in even more. Apparently that was a thing people found attractive.
Maybe if I didn’t have the kind of father who would date someone close to his nineteen-year-old daughter’s age, I’d also find it attractive, but I couldn't.
Like many things, my father ruined it for me.
And for Jessa, by the way her face bunched up. “He can’t even be subtle about it.”
“She doesn’t seem mad at the attention, though.” I was always fascinated with how many women our dad could get at his age. He wasn’t up there, late forties, but his tastes leaned toward the younger side.
“What’re you two staring at?” Arms wrapped around our shoulders and we both jumped, startled. Only to realize it was Archer.
“Oh, that’s just sick.” His face scrunched up when he saw what we were staring at.
Our father had now begun phase two of his seduction plan, whispering God knows what in her ear as his palm glided dangerously low on her backside.
“I didn’t realize when I got older I wouldn’t just have Saint to compete with to get girls, but also my father.” His lips twisted farther up in disgust.
“Girls aren’t a sporting event. There shouldn’t be a competition to be had at all with them.” Jessa glared.
“It’s not like we rack up points at the end of the night. Jesus, Jess.” He gave her an incredulous look. “It’s always the girl’s choice if she wants to go home with me, Saint, or neither of us. And we’re getting away from the matter at hand. Instead of dissecting my words, let’s dissect our father’s behavior.”
“Oh my God, his hand is riding up her skirt. They’re in public!” I whispered to my siblings in horror.
“My eyes!” Archer looked away when he saw it. “I can’t watch this anymore.”
“Same,” Jessa and I agreed in unison, turning our backs to the window.
If there was one thing that always seemed to bring us together, it was our father’s antics.
As the children, shouldn’t we be the ones embarrassing our parent, not the other way around?
But despite his words, Archer still looked out the window. It was a train wreck, and he was unable to look away. “Should I just give him the key to Saint’s guest house? Put everyone out of our misery?”
Jessa said yes, and I would’ve joined her except an electric charge surged through the room, making me stand to attention.
I started looking around. And I didn’t know why until my eyes landed on him.
Saint.
I saw him across the room.
And he looked anything but happy to see me.
Surprise.