Boarlander Beast Boar (Boarlander Bears #4)(13)

“Because it’s important, and I have paperwork.”

“Robbie, I swear to God if you’re taking me to court for primary custody—”

“No, it ain’t like that. I’m good with a month in the summer.”

She huffed a soft noise and shook her head. She wished she could reach through the phone and strangle him. A month? He would probably spend five days with his son out of that month. She’d made a huge mistake with her ex, and Ryder was always the one who got hurt by her bad decision. “I just don’t understand why we can’t talk about it now.”

“You got better shit to do than talk about your kid, Beck? You’re the one always actin’ so high and mighty, perfect parent. Are you just having so much fun partying while he’s away, you can’t give up one night to focus on him?”

This time she counted to five so she wouldn’t say a bunch of words to Robbie McFartFace that started with “Fs” and ended with “uck yous.” He’d always been the partier, not her.

“I’m not up here partying. I’m working. You know, for money? That’s the green stuff I need to raise our child, and if you call him ‘your kid’ one more time, I’m going to explode. He’s ours. Ours, ours, ours!” Because her dumb ass hadn’t insisted he wear a condom when he was a whiny twenty-year-old who didn’t like using them. She loved Ryder. Loved him more than air, but damn it all, she wished she’d had him with a man who cared about people other than himself. “I can’t raise him on hopes and dreams, Robbie! And you don’t pay child support. You give me no help, so yeah, when you have him, I have to go lady-balls to the wall working my ass off so we can be okay. So I can afford our apartment, so I can pay our bills, so I can save up for the puppy he’s been begging for the last six months, so I can feed him and take him on vacation someday.” And here came the waterworks because Robbie always did this. He always made her feel completely alone.

“I want to talk about his animal!” Robbie yelled into the phone.

Beck gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth to keep her sobs inside. He’d never wanted to talk about Ryder’s shifter side before. He’d always avoided it like the plague and cut her off anytime she mentioned it.

“You want to know why I’m not with your kid? I left for work because the day I was supposed to take him to a park, he got mad at me and Changed. And what am I supposed to do with him when he’s like that? Huh, Beck? You want me to stick him in a little animal cage and take him around with me? Introduce him to the other little normal kids? Explain to everyone why I’m carrying around a f*ckin’ pet to the kiddie park?”

God, she hated how he talked about Ryder’s shifter. “How long was he Changed?”

“All f*ckin’ day!”

“Well, did you make him upset?”

Robbie got real quiet, and that was answer enough. He knew better than to lie. He knew she could tell if he did. Poor Ryder. Beck would bet her bones Robbie had been shaming him for the tiny animal in his middle, and Ryder had escaped the rejection the only way he knew how. Twin tears streamed down her face, and for the first time since she’d met Robbie, she admitted to herself that she hated him. But all the hate in the world didn’t change the fact she had to co-parent with this person. No matter her feelings, Ryder needed a relationship with his father.

“Fine. Where do you want to meet?”

Robbie sighed a relieved sound and said, “I don’t know the area. You pick.”

She didn’t really know it either besides what she’d researched. “Okay. There’s a bar the locals like to hang out at. Sammy’s.”

“Boring Beck meeting at a bar?” he asked in a baiting murmur.

“Don’t call me that. I’m not boring. I’m not yours anymore, Robbie. You don’t get to put me down like that.”

“Pissy, pissy. Meet at Sammy’s then. Nine o’clock is good with me. I’ll be staying the night at a bed and breakfast outside of town.”

“I have a big photoshoot scheduled for that day, so keep your cell phone on in case I’m running late.”

“Well, don’t run late!”

Arguing with him was pointless. Everything was on Robbie’s schedule. Her life had orbited around his convenience, and he would never change, so utterly defeated she said, “Okay. I’ll be there.”

Robbie ended the call, and she set her cell phone down gingerly. And then she allowed herself to do something she had desperately been trying to avoid. She cried. And not the soft kind either, but the curled on the bed, arms wrapped around her stomach kind. She missed Ryder, and she worried about the way Robbie was treating him. She was here in a strange place with a shifter culture she didn’t know. How did she feel this lonely around people of her own kind? She’d thought it would be different if she was around other shifters. But now all she felt was this immense pressure to help them, which put a barrier between them. She was the publicist, the employee, other, and they were a close-knit crew whose friend-cards were all filled up.

And Mason…

Her animal was pining for him, which made everything harder.

A light hand touched her back, and she jerked and gasped. And then as if her thoughts had conjured him, Mason was there, right beside her on the bed, his eyes dark and sad. “Are you okay?” he asked.