by R. K. Lilley
That was the night she made good use of her new lingerie.
The best part came at the end, though, just before they were about to head home.
They’d just shared a wonderful night and were lingering over a passionate kiss good-bye in the resort’s circular driveway when Travis pulled back and said breathlessly, “I’m going to divorce her, Kristin. For you.”
She couldn’t believe it. He’d finally said the words she’d been longing for. Her heart was pounding hard, her smile radiant as she looked up into his eyes. “You mean it?”
“Yes.”
“When? Are you going to tell her when you get home? Will you move out immediately? You can come stay with me, of course.”
He tugged at his collar, eyes aimed over her head, avoiding direct contact. “I can’t do that. Not right away. I need to be more tactful. I need to proceed carefully…and slowly. Celeste is still in a delicate state.”
Kristin wanted to stomp her foot in frustration but made herself take a deep breath and summon patience. They were finally on the same page. She’d console herself with that. Even if it took some time, Travis Salt would be hers and hers alone.
CHAPTER SIX
Dakota Alvarez woke up feeling better than she had in ages. The best she’d felt since her father had left.
She smiled and stretched. He’d come back. Moreover, they’d found out that it had never even been his choice to leave her. That bastard sheriff had forced him to, and she just knew her daddy would find a way to get even.
She had faith in him. Daddy would make everyone that had wronged them pay, even if it was a long list.
She was in too good of a mood to focus on the negative. Her daddy was back for good. That was what was important. He was here for Dakota, and her life was starting to feel right again.
Any day now, she’d hear back from Courtney, the owner of Pink. She figured she pretty much already had the job. Any idiot could see that she was perfect for the position. Who better to sell clothes than someone who looked damned good in them?
Dakota got out of bed, noting that it was the earliest she’d done so since she’d been fired from the bank.
This was a new chapter. Daddy was home, and things were finally going to start going her way again.
She showered and dressed.
She could smell bacon cooking, the aroma filling the house. Good. At least her worthless mother was trying. Joanne was a screw-up, but even she seemed to have gotten the message that she needed to step it up in the wife department. Her mom hadn’t been such a loser while Hector was gone. Maybe she’d put some of that energy into being a decent wife and they’d all be the better for it.
“Where’s Daddy?” Dakota asked her mom as she entered the kitchen. She’d only come out to see him and instead was greeted by her tired-looking mother.
“I’m not sure. He stepped out.”
She studied Joanne with a critical eye. The woman looked awful: no makeup, hair a mess, face swollen, and eyes red.
Just when Dakota had been giving her the benefit of the doubt, thinking her mom was actually trying by make things better, she found her like this. “You look awful, Mom,” she said bluntly, annoyed. Her mom always ruined everything. “Why don’t you ever try to look decent for Dad? You had no trouble putting yourself together to go to work every day when he was gone. Did you have to let yourself go the instant your husband comes home?”
“I didn’t sleep well,” Joanne mumbled, stirring a large batch of eggs on the stove and not looking at her.
Dakota sneered, more than ready to lay into her again, when her phone rang.
It was Courtney from Pink.
Dakota smiled, mood improved instantly, and strode out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into her bedroom.
She answered with a bright, “Hello.”
“Hello, Dakota,” Courtney’s polite voice responded. “How are you?”
“I’m great,” she said. “Do you have some news for me?”
“I’m afraid so,” Courtney replied. “I just called to let you know that I will not be hiring you at this time.”
“What?” Dakota said sharply into the phone before she could think better of it. But hell, if she wasn’t getting the job, what’d she have to lose anyway? Might as well let the snob on the other end of the line know what she thought. “Why not?
“Thank you for the interest, but I feel at this time that you’re just not the right fit. Have a nice day. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Wait a second! Don’t you hang up on me! What the hell does that mean? Not the right fit?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, but eventually Courtney responded with, “Do you really want to know?”
“I asked, didn’t I?”
“Well, since we’re on the subject, the attitude you’re showing me right now is a part of it. Whether you get a job or not, that’s no way to speak to a potential employer. Very unprofessional.”
“That’s bullshit. You’d already told me that I didn’t have the job.”
“That’s beside the point,” Courtney disagreed coldly. “Though you have proven that I made the right decision, so thank you for that.”
“That’s your whole reason for not hiring me?” she asked, growing more agitated by the second. “A bad attitude?” She’d been counting on that job.
“Well, to be frank, I saw your family’s…altercation in town and I was put off by the way you handled it.”
“The way I handled it? What did I do?”
“I was not impressed with how you in particular behaved, the things you were saying…how you were treating your mother, all things considered.”
Dakota was incensed. “Are you kidding me? What does my family have to do with anything? You’re, what, punishing me for being an Alvarez?”
“As I said, it’s become apparent that you aren’t a good fit for us. Good luck.” The bitch had the nerve to just hang up after that.
Dakota stared at her phone for a few beats, rage welling up inside of her. Through no fault of her own, she’d been snubbed for that job. A job that she’d wanted. That she’d deserved. And the more she thought about it, the more there was only one person to blame.
Her worthless mother.
She was back in the kitchen before she even realized she’d started walking.
Her loser mom was taking biscuits out of the oven, her back to the room, but as soon as she turned, Dakota let her have it.
“This is all your fault! I just lost my best shot at a job, and it’s because of you!”
Joanne just blinked, looking more surprised than put in her place. “What? I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t get the job at Pink, and it’s because you’ve dragged the Alvarez name through the mud! No one wants anything to do with us. You’ve got everyone convinced that there’s something wrong with Daddy! Something wrong with me! Always tripping, always messing up, always a victim! Why do you do it? Do you just love the pity? Any attention you can grab with your stupid, clumsy hands?”
“That’s hardly fair—” her mother began.
“No, it’s not fair!” Dakota screamed. “You ruin everything! You’re perfectly fine for months, and the minute Daddy gets back into town, you have to embarrass the whole family by tripping yourself and making it look like it was his fault. Your stunt cost me a job. Why he puts up with you I’ll never know.”
“That’s enough,” Mallory gritted out.
Dakota shot her a scathing look. She hadn’t even heard her come into the room, but it was typical of her sister to defend their mother. Typical and annoying as hell. “You stay out of it. You’d defend Mom no matter what she did.”
Mallory’s cheeks were flushed with temper. “And you’d defend Dad no matter what he does,” she shot back furiously. “Don’t you see what he is?”
Dakota rolled her eyes. “What is that even supposed to mean? Daddy does his best, and everyone’s still out to get him. Because of her.”
“I really can’t believe you’re that blind,” Mallory said in disgust.
“You’re just a drama queen, like Mom,” Dakota shot back.
“Girls! Please, stop,” Joanne tried.
“I’ll stop when you quit poisoning everyone against Daddy,” she stated.
“My baby girl has a point.” A new voice entered the fray.
Dakota’s head whipped around at the entrance of Hector. “You will not believe what she did now, Daddy!”
“Oh, please!” Mallory burst out.
“What did your mother do this time, baby girl?” he asked her.
“She cost me a job. A job I wanted! Her theatrics have everyone thinking the Alvarez name is tainted.”
“That’s very unfortunate,” he said in a hard voice.
Hector’s eyes were on Joanne, and there was something about the way he was looking at her that even made Dakota wary.
“Joanne, a word,” he told their mother. He paused. “In our bedroom. Now.”
Joanne wrung her hands. “Your breakfast will get cold. You know how you hate it when your breakfast gets cold.”
“Now!” he growled.
Joanne jumped like he’d struck her and scurried off, Hector dogging every step she took.
“Do you even know what you just did?” Mallory asked her, venom in the words.
Dakota glared at her bratty little sister. She made sure Mallory saw her roll her eyes. “Oh, please.”
There was a brief burst of shouting from their parents’ room, punctuated by a loud boom, like someone had punched the wall.
In spite of herself, Dakota flinched.
“You lost your temper with Mom,” Mallory gritted out, “and now he’s going to, but his temper leaves a mark.”
Dakota rolled her eyes again. “I don’t have to listen to this. I’m leaving.” She gave her sister her back and started walking away.
“Sure, take off now before you hear something that might puncture that little bubble of denial you live in. At least he tried to hide what he was doing before, so I get how you could convince yourself it wasn’t happening. But now that we’ve all seen how much better Mom does without him here, he can’t even control himself with us around! What are you going to tell yourself now that he’s out in the open with it?” Mallory spat at her retreating back.
Dakota spun around. “You’re so full of it.”
Another loud noise shook the house, this one sounding like something crashed to the ground, followed by the tiniest, muffled whimper.
That set her sister off again. She pointed a shaking finger in the direction of their parents’ room. “I’m full of it? I’m full of it? You’re so determined to justify everything Hector does that you’ve created an entire fake world in your head where whatever noise we just heard, and however bruised or banged up our mom ends up being as a result of it, you’re somehow always going to figure that it’s her fault? That she’s that clumsy, but for months, with him gone, she never fell once?”
“Shut up,” Dakota snapped, fed up. “Just shut up. You’d both do anything to make Dad look bad. You love the attention. Well, I’ve had it. I’m leaving.”
“You’re just like him,” Mallory snarled. “You’re a bully, and you only care about yourself.”
Dakota’s only response was to slam the door behind her as she left.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Marcus watched as his sister strode toward him, eyes flashing in anger.
“What’s your problem?” she asked him by way of a greeting, the words coming out on a snarl.
“You,” he replied, feeling his own temper rise. “You’re my problem. You and our worthless, abusive father. I’m surprised you could stop kissing his ass long enough to leave on your own. Did he need you to run an errand for him? Or are you actually doing something productive?”
“You know what I’m not doing?” she shot back. “Getting a job. You know why? Mom sabotaged it for me.”
“Sabotaged?” he asked, eyes narrowing. That only sounded like one person, and it wasn’t their mother. “Mom isn’t the one that sabotages. And are you talking about the job at Pink?”
“The lack of a job at Pink, yes, and she sure does. She’s got this whole town so brainwashed against Daddy that our name is a black mark against me. It’s sickening.”
“Mother is not the one that’s done that to our name. It’s Hector…and you. If you didn’t get the job, that’s on you, not Mom.”
“Oh, please. You all just want attention, and not only is it pathetic, it’s gotten old. Just let it go already.”
“We want attention? After all of the things you’ve done, you have the nerve to accuse someone else of that? You’re thinking of yourself there. And why aren’t you with dear old Daddy this morning?” He studied her. “You’re somehow behind him coming back, aren’t you?” He’d suspected it the minute he’d realized how happy she was to see Hector and how unsurprised.
She didn’t deny it, damn her.
“So where is he now?” he asked, glancing around suspiciously.
“At home,” she answered, and this time she smirked. “He’s not going anywhere. I just stepped out because Mom and Dad are fighting. It’s about time they had it out. Mom has a lot to answer for. I hope he gives it to her good.”
Marcus felt ill suddenly. “Do you even know what that means? Dad’s version of giving it to her good ends with an excuse about her falling down the stairs. How many times is she going to trip or fall or turn up with bruises that never make sense before you see him for what he is?”
Their conversation thus far had been hostile, but relatively quiet. At his words, Dakota’s voice suddenly raised, and he became conscious for the first time that they might be making a scene in the parking lot closest to the square.
“You’re a liar!” she spat at him. “You’re all liars. If Daddy was like that, I would know it. I know him better than any of you!”
He was suddenly too incensed to care about being overheard, but he managed to keep his voice down anyway as he responded with a furious, “Here’s what you know! A different version of him than the rest of us. Because that’s what he allows you to see, and you help him with the lie by being in denial. How do you explain that in all these months with him gone, Mom hasn’t had one ‘accident?’ Not one. But within a few minutes of him being back, she predictably ‘trips.’ Go ahead, try to explain that to me.”
“She likes to get him in trouble,” Dakota defended, but her voice was trembling. Marcus suspected, but was afraid to really hope, that she was beginning to see the truth. “She likes the attention.”
“Think about Mom. Who she is. What makes her happy and what embarrasses her. Do you really think she enjoys the type of attention she got when she ‘tripped’ and had her husband and oldest daughter berate her for it? Does that add up to you?”
Dakota didn’t respond to him for a long time, and as they stood there staring at each other, Marcus wondered why he even bothered. It was possible that Dakota was as much of a lost cause as Hector. Marcus was likely just wasting his time by even trying to convince her of the truth.
In fact, that was very likely. He couldn’t even get their mother to walk away from his asshole of a father. It still stung that Joanne had chosen that abusive bastard, once again, over her children. Over her own welfare. She’d rather live as his punching bag than leave him.
What could anyone do about that?
And Dakota had, as always, automatically sided with Hector. The blind little fool.
* * * *
Dakota stared at Marcus’s back, her temper rising. “Screw you!” she snarled.
He spun back around. “You want to know why he treats you differently? Why you see such a different side of him? Why you’re his favorite?”
Her jaw was set stubbornly, but for some reason, she was feeling more and more ill at ease. “Why?” she asked.
“Because you’re just like him, and that should worry you.”
Dakota felt disloyal
to her father, but for some reason the comparison offended her. She compensated for her mixed emotions by lashing out. “You’re the violent one! You’ve gotten into way more fights than I have!”
“Never in my life have I hurt someone that was weaker than me. Someone that was helpless. I’ve never bullied anyone, Dakota. Can you say the same?”
She opened her mouth to retort, but he wasn’t done.
“You’ve alienated everyone around you except for Hector, and vice versa. What does that tell you?”
She really didn’t like the way those words made her feel, so she lashed out again. “You’re just upset because once Daddy came home you were booted out! You don’t get to stay at the house anymore! I’m not the outcast here! You aren’t even allowed to come back.”
“You think I want to stay there?” he asked her, eyes wide, voice incredulous. “It’s toxic when he’s around, and I can’t get far enough away. Good luck to you. You’re going to need it.” With that parting shot, he strode away.
Dakota glared at him even after he’d left her sight. “Insufferable, self-righteous prick!” It had taken some time for her to muster up a comeback, but better late than never.
“Whoa!” a voice with a smile in it said behind her. “I hope that wasn’t directed at me. What’d I do now?”
She turned to meet the amused eyes of Patrick Murphy. She lifted an imperious brow at him. She couldn’t forget for a second just who he was related to. His brother Dillon had unfairly and unlawfully run her daddy out of town.
Still, Patrick was always pleasant to her; in fact he was one of the few people in town that was actually nice. “That was for Marcus. Ugh! He pisses me the hell off.”
“Brothers do that sometimes. All of them do. Trust me. Even the good ones.”
“Well, my brother is never on my side, no matter how much I’ve been wronged. Do you know how frustrating that is?
“I don’t. But it sounds rough. Hey, are you in a big hurry? I was about to grab some lunch. Would you like to join me?”