she peeks around me to look into the saucepan I’m stirring.
“I know. Winter thinks food is supposed to be black before you serve it. Don’t you, babe?” I call out to where she’s tossing a salad.
“Yeah, fuck off,” she sings back.
Landon laughs from the living room. My daughter hugs me from behind and stands on her toes to whisper to me.
“I’m glad you’re happy, Dad.”
I set down the spoon to pat her hand. “The happiest.”
She pulls away and heads into the living room where Landon is watching a baseball game. Once Winter and I are alone, I tug her over to me.
“Graduation is next month. Maybe we should have you applying to culinary schools,” I offer with a smirk.
She rolls her eyes and mutters in a dry tone, “So funny.”
“I’m kidding. You’re the best cook in this house,” I tell her, kissing her nose.
Her smile is wide. “That would be a compliment, but considering the other three people in this place can’t cook for shit, I think that was still an insult.”
As I press kisses to the face of the girl I’m super fucking crazy about, I realize I fall deeper and deeper with her each day. We’ve been playing house for a while now and it’s the happiest I’ve felt in years. She brings light and joy to my dark world.
“I love you, Winter.”
Her body freezes and she pulls back, her brown eyes darting back and forth as she searches my face. “Don’t fuck with me, August.”
I reach up and swipe a strand of hair from her cheek. “I’m not fucking with you, baby.”
Years ago, she’d fallen helplessly in love with me from afar to the point she got her ass kicked out of her house. She never stopped. Her feelings for me were always there. As time passes, so damn quickly, I realize I’m right there with her. Falling. My feelings may have come later, but it’s no less intense. I’ve claimed her and I’m never letting her go. It’s a promise I made with my lips now. One that is carved into my heart.
“I guess you’re going to keep me now?” she says, grinning happily.
“I wasn’t ever going to let you go.”
I hadn’t realized until I had this girl in my arms that she’d been the thing I was searching for these past two years. Bitterness and anger ruled my every thought and action. I’d been looking for something that didn’t hurt. Something that felt good for a change. Winter felt better than good. She peeled off those awful layers and found me again.
“Oh, God, I love you too,” she murmurs. “I always have.”
Graduation Night…
“I’m so proud of you,” I tell Winter, squeezing her hand. “Top of your class. That’s my girl.”
“And I’m chopped liver back here,” Callie says with a laugh. “Three point four GPA isn’t that bad.”
“It’s not that good either,” I say with a smirk.
“Punk,” Callie mutters back playfully before growing serious. “You guys going to be okay tonight?”
I will be. I’m used to my cunt ex-wife. But Winter is who I worry about. If that bitch so much as thinks about ruining Winter and Callie’s graduation night by running her fucking mouth, I’m going to lose my shit.
“We’ll be fine,” Winter assures her. “It’s just one dinner.”
“Yeah, and you’re not cooking, so nobody will die,” Callie chimes in.
“Pity,” I grumble, earning giggles from both girls.
We talk about a summer trip to Italy I’m going to take them on before they have to go to college. After this summer, they’ll officially part ways. Where Callie is going off with Landon across the damn US, Winter is going to the same local university I went to. It was where she wanted to go long before we ever started dating, and frankly, I’m happy she’ll be close.
I pull into the steakhouse where we have reservations for the five of us. Although, if all goes well and no one kills each other, we’ll pull up an extra chair for Landon who may show up later. Callie thought it best we dined on neutral grounds. I can handle seeing them, because I don’t give a shit about Tony or Jackie. I just hope Winter is as strong as she thinks she is.
“Oh boy,” Callie grumbles, her face lighting up in the backseat as she texts. “Mom’s in a mood.”
What the fuck else is new?
“Hmm,” is all I say.
“All they do is fight lately,” she grumbles as she responds.
Winter and I exchange curious looks as I pull into a