All He Ever Desired by Shannon Stacey Read Free Book Online Page A

If you don’t mind eating just a little later than usual, he could work a couple of hours before you pick him up.”
    She just wasn’t sure. On the one hand, she didn’t have almost a thousand dollars to pay for her son’s stupidity. On the other, that would be a pretty grueling schedule for Nick. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t want him too tired to pay attention in class.
    This was serious, though, and even if she had to be in contact with his teachers every day to make sure he was keeping up, he had to learn this lesson. What he’d done was criminal and she wanted to make sure he didn’t forget it for a good, long time. “That would work. I can make it work.”
    “I think Tuesdays and Wednesdays would be enough,” Ryan said, looking at Nick. “Mondays always suck enough, and Thursday you’ll need to hang with your mom and get your stuff ready to go to your dad’s Friday after school, right?”
    Nick nodded. “Yes, sir. But I’ll come Mondays, too. It’s a lot of money and I’ll do the three days a week.”
    “Fine. I’ll see you Monday after school. Make sure you’re here.”
    “I will be.”
    Lauren would make sure of it, no matter how much it messed with her schedule.
    “I’m going to temporarily file this as resolved,” Drew said. “But if you don’t get off that bus here on Monday afternoon, Nick, I’ll be knocking on your door.”
    “I’ll be here.”
    Drew left then, and Lauren told her son to go sit in the car. Once he’d closed the door, Lauren faced the lodge and blew out a breath. It was such a pretty house—a huge, white New Englander with a deep porch and dark green shutters. It was definitely looking a little ragged around the edges, though, and she was so disgusted her son had been sabotaging their efforts to restore it.
    “I know it seems bad,” Ryan said. “And it’s not good, but it’s not like he kicked my dog and set the house on fire, either.”
    “Do you have a dog?”
    “No. Do you?”
    As if it mattered. Here they went with the awkward conversation again. “I’m really sorry he did this, Ryan. I don’t know where it came from.”
    “Why isn’t he with his dad today?”
    She saw where he was heading, but it was the wrong direction. “The kids—Nick’s little brother and sister—are sick. Yeah, Nick’s disappointed when Dean cancels, but it doesn’t happen that often. He wasn’t a great husband, but he’s a good dad.”
    He held up his hands, as though surrendering. “Okay. Was just curious.”
    She couldn’t believe she was defending Dean. Maybe it was just a knee-jerk reaction to the one person who’d known years ago that she and Dean were a bad idea. “Is this where you say I told you so?”
    The question hung between them and she wished immediately she could take it back. It would have been so much better for them both to pretend that day had never happened. But she’d said it and now he stared into her eyes, his expression unreadable.
    “You think I’m happy you’re divorced? Because I’m not. I’d rather be wrong every day of the week than for you to be unhappy.”
    She believed him, but she told herself it didn’t matter. “It was a long time ago.”
    And she knew that during that long time between then and now, he’d gotten married, then divorced. Built a successful business. It’s not as though he’d spent his life pining for her.
    “I should go,” she said quickly, before he could continue the conversation. “Thank you for giving Nick the chance to make things right. Let me give you my cell number in case you have any problems with him. Not that I think you will, but just in case.”
    He punched the number into his phone as she read it off, and then she did the same with his number. Then she started toward the car because it had to be getting stuffy in there by now, which was as good an excuse as any to get away from Ryan.
    “I’ll see you Monday night when you pick him up,” he called after her, and she