42. Hunter
42
HUNTER
Eleven Months to Decision Day
“ D o you think Taurin and Alyssa will want to come to my birthday party?” Riley asks as I pull into the driveway of her mom’s new place and cut the engine.
The rental is a one-story ranch-style house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which Rae says is more than enough space for her and Riley. They’ve only been in it for a few weeks, but they both seem to like it. I guess it helps that Dee, Jayla, and Sonia are just around the corner.
“I’m sure they’d love that, Ri.”
“So, should I have Mommy send the invitation to Taurin’s house, Alyssa’s house, or both?”
“Uh—” I pause when I see Rae’s front door open, and Aaron walks out. His car isn’t in the driveway, so his appearance has caught me completely off guard. When he pauses on the bottom step of the front porch and glares at my car, I can tell that I’ve caught him off guard, too.
Riley, who has a concerning lack of spatial awareness, continues to chatter about the invitations as she clambers out of the truck and slams the door. The sound catapults me into action. I grab her weekend bag and yank my keys out of the ignition, catching up with Riley just as she’s meeting Aaron on the short path to the front door.
“Hey, Aaron,” she says, all casual cheer as she breezes by him and moves into the house. He doesn’t speak to her, and he doesn’t look at me. I don’t really care about him paying me dust, but it burns me up inside to see him ignore Riley, which means I have to address it.
I step in front of him, blocking his path. He tilts his head back, glaring at me with unrestrained hate. This is the first time we’ve seen each other since I helped Rae move her shit out of his house. He looked at me then the same way that he’s looking at me now: like he wishes he could beat my ass. I smirk, inviting him to try, so I can have a reason to lay him out.
“Get out of my way, Hunter.”
“Believe me, the last thing I want to be doing right now is breathing the same air as you, so I’m going to say this and let you get on with your day. The next time my daughter speaks to you, make sure you open your mouth and speak back. I don’t care how you feel about Rae or how you feel about me, but she—” I lift my hand, using one finger to point at the door Riley just passed through “—she doesn’t have anything to do with our bullshit. You were a part of her life for seven years, which means you’ll always mean something to her, so if she speaks, you speak back. If she calls because she wants to converse with you for some odd reason, you’ll answer. You got me?”
If I had it my way, Riley would miraculously forget that the piece of shit in front of me exists, but I know that probably won’t ever happen, so I’m left with no choice but to make sure he understands what’s expected of him if he ever finds himself in her presence again.
“Yeah,” he says through clenched teeth. “I got you.”
I step to the side. “Then you can go.”
With one last hateful look, he leaves, clearing the path to the front door, which I take with a smile on my face. When I step through the door, I’m deposited right into the living room and the chaos that is Rae trying to build furniture. She doesn’t even look up, probably because she knows it’s me.
“We’ve have to make sure Riley remembers to close the door behind her when she comes in the house.”
“She said you were coming in behind her.”
“I was; I had to pause to talk to Aaron for a second,” I tell her, crouching down to grab the instructions she’s squinting at.
Rae looks up, searching my face to see if I’m upset. I’m not, but I appreciate her concern. “He just came by to drop off some mail that came to his place by mistake.”
I shrug. “I don’t need an explanation, Sunshine.”
And I really don’t. Even though we’re not together yet, I know Rae isn’t going back to Aaron. She’s too focused on moving forward.
“Okay,” She says, reaching for the instructions in my hand. I hold them out of her reach, which makes her narrow her eyes at me. “I need those, Hunter.”
“Why? We both know you’re not going to follow them.”
Rae is one of the smartest women I know, but she sucks at reading instructions and is even worse at building things. Something about the words, letters, and tools just don’t click for her. I’ve built every piece of furniture in her place, so I’m not sure why she’s chosen today to act like Mrs. Independent.
The corners of her lips quirk. “I can follow instructions.”
A month.
It’s been a month since I’ve kissed her, since I’ve tasted her, since we’ve done a single thing to act on the heat that is always coursing between us. I know she can follow instructions. Just like she knows I’m good at giving them to her. That shared knowledge passes between us in an invisible wave of passion we can’t act on because we decided that taking sex out of the equation was the best way to ensure we kept our heads on straight during this year of waiting and working our way back to each other.
I end our staring contest first, dropping my gaze to the instructions for the TV stand and holding out my hand for the drill Rae has clutched in her fingers. “Give me that. I’ll finish this up while you get started on Riley’s hair.”
“Aww, man,” Riley whines from the kitchen, having heard me sick her mother on her. “I don’t want my hair done.”
Rae rolls her eyes at me, handing me the drill before she rises from her spot on the floor. She rubs her hands down her thighs, which are bared by the short-ass shorts she’s wearing, and starts to make her way to the kitchen.
“Fine, Ri, let’s just cut it all off,” she jokes, which makes Riley giggle. They have this conversation every Sunday afternoon when I bring Riley home, but it never gets old for them, and it never gets old for me.
While Rae takes down Riley’s previous style, I undo the little progress she made on the TV stand, because it’s wrong, and then put it together the right way. It takes me fifteen minutes to complete the job, which I’m a little sad about because it means I don’t have a reason to hang around the house any longer. After I put the finished piece on the wall Rae told me she wanted the TV on and set the seventy-inch behemoth on top, I put all the trash in the box and set it by the door so I can take it with me when I go.
“Alright,” I say, walking into the kitchen to see Riley hopping up on the counter to get her hair washed. “I’m out of here.”
Rae glances over her shoulder at me. “Did you finish with the TV stand?”
“Of course.” I give her a look that asks her if she’s forgotten who she’s talking to, and she turns away from me to hide her smile. I still see it, though, because I’m walking up to her to give Riley a kiss on the cheek before her head goes under the running water. “Have a great week, Nugget.”
She giggles and squirms as I tickle her armpits, splashing water everywhere. Rae swats me away. “Alright, alright, that’s enough of that.”
Not wanting to get myself or Riley in further trouble, I back away with my hands up and a smile on my face. “Goodbye, Ms. Prince.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Drake,” Rae says, her voice all sass and humor that makes my chest fill with warmth.
“Goodbye, Daughter. I love you.”
Even though her mom is currently drenching her head, and a little bit of her face, in water, Riley waves. “Bye, Daddy. I love you too.”
Her little voice, and those three words, stop me dead in my tracks. I look to Rae for confirmation that I heard right, and she’s already looking at me, tears in her eyes as she nods.
We agreed that when Riley finally said I love you to me, we wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, but now I want to make a big deal. Now, I want to scoop her up off the counter and spin her around in circles to make her squeal with joy while I beg her to say it again and again.
I don’t do any of those things, though. I remain calm. I back out of the kitchen with tears in my eyes, a hand over my heart, and a look on my face that thanks Rae for the precious gift that is our daughter and the chance to have both of them in my life.