me for a moment. “They may not approve, but you’re still moving in,” he snaps.
My lips twitch into a smile. “Let’s try to get their approval first?”
He grunts. “Yeah, let’s try.”
We watch one another silently for a few more moments, then his lips curve up into a big smile. “Tomorrow, your job is to go furniture shopping. I want this place ready for us, the sooner the better.”
Pressing my lips together, I try to hide my giddy smile. “Okay, Landry.”
He leans forward, his mouth touching mine with a brush of his lips. “Okay, honey.”
LANDRY
Thirty-one days until this fucking divorce is final. I can’t hardly goddamn wait for it either. However, I can’t think about my divorce right now, not when I’ve rented a private dining room at the country club and all three of my children are sitting across from me, staring at me.
Laurent is grinning like a fool, Lawrence is watching me with suspicion in his eyes and Lucinda looks as though she’s ready to carve my heart out and feed it to the nearest animal. Essentially, a normal evening.
Tennessee is arriving in thirty minutes with Holden. We decided, well she decided really, to give me some time to tell my kids before she was shoved in their faces. Kids. As if the three humans sitting across from me aren’t full-grown adults.
“You have something to speak with us about?” Lucinda asks, an accusation clear in her tone.
Clearing my throat, I wrap my fingers around my glass of whiskey. I don’t drink, not yet. I can feel the cool glass beneath my touch as I look at each of my children before I speak.
“I’m sure you’ve already figured out why I’ve brought you all here tonight.”
Lucinda leans forward, her lips curling with either anger or disgust, I can’t quite tell. “I want to hear it,” she hisses. She sounds almost exactly like Susan, at least when Susan was sober.
“I’ve been seeing someone and I’ve asked her to move in with me.”
Laurent barks out a laugh. Lawrence’s lips part in surprise and Lucinda stands immediately. She tips her chin down, her eyes finding mine and holding my gaze.
“You’re disgusting. You are vile,” she grinds out.
“Lucy,” Laurent admonishes.
I shake my head once. “I’m sure it appears that way. I’m sure that a lot of things look odd about the situation, or off,” I say, attempting to explain.
“It looks like some little gold-digging whore slid right on your dick and instead of being the smart headstrong man that I thought you were, you let her manipulate you with her young pussy,” she snaps.
It’s my turn to stand. I will take a lot of shit, from Susan, from anyone really. I’ve always been the type of man to bide my time and make my own moves, never speaking out and doing things quietly and strategically.
Not with this.
Not right now.
“Enough,” I roar. “Sit.”
Her eyes widen, unused to me speaking to her that way and she immediately plops back down in the chair. My eyes flick to each of them, wondering if they all feel this way. Then when I really look at them, I see that they do, all except Laurent. He thinks this is hilarious, probably because the heat is finally off of him for a change.
“Tennessee is kind and gentle. A nice change from the marriage that I had with your mother. She’s young, but she’s never asked me for a single thing, not ever.”
“She asked you for a job,” Lawrence murmurs.
I shake my head once. “Her mother called yours. Susan asked me to interview her. In truth, I’d planned on giving her a mailroom position, just to appease everyone.”
“What happened? Your dick get in the way?” Lucinda mutters.
I watch as she crosses her arms over her chest, sliding her eyes to the side. I decide to ignore her little snide comment in hopes that she’ll just fucking stop them altogether.
“It doesn’t matter what happened. All that matters is that this didn’t happen with immediate intent on either party. We’ve grown close and she means a great deal to me.”
“I can attest that I don’t think it was intentional. I asked her out several times and she didn’t want anything to do with me,” Laurent announces.
Lucinda’s eyes widen and she presses her lips together, but it’s Lawrence that turns his head to look at his brother before shifting his gaze back to meeting my own. He watches me for a moment and I think about telling him to shut his mouth too, but