Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(2)

If only she wouldn’t try to screw him over with custody—again—and dangle Laurel like a piece of meat over a hungry tiger. He thought she’d finally calmed down and regained her composure, because her attorney had removed some fairly harsh custody demands from her counter-motions a few weeks ago.

Their joint sessions with a counselor had seemed to help Eva understand it wasn’t her fault he needed out.

When he could no longer ignore the fact that he was definitely gay, and he’d started bringing up the subject of divorce, that was when her pain and anger had gotten the better of her for quite a while. Understandably so, but if it weren’t for the fact they had a six-year-old daughter together who needed both her parents, he could have made a clean break and walked away without a look back.

Even knowing how much it would hurt Eva in the process. But it would hurt her far more in the long term to have a husband who was miserable on the inside and unable to be all she needed him to be for her. They were both still more than young enough to forge new starts, new lives.

The last lesson he wanted to impart to his daughter was that you had to stay in a bad situation just to keep someone else happy at the expense of your own mental and emotional well-being.





After doing three more mobile jobs that afternoon, taking his work van back to his shop and parking it inside, and grabbing his personal car, Leo finally arrived home a few minutes before seven that night.

Well, what passed for a home now. It was a small two-bedroom apartment. Not the best place in the world, but at least it wasn’t in a high-crime area and the complex had a pool Laurel enjoyed during her visits with him. It wasn’t as nice as the pool at the house, but he could keep up with the swimming lessons he was giving her without having to do it under Eva’s watchful eye and making uncomfortable small talk with the woman.

He stood under the hot spray in the shower, washing off the sweat and grime from the day. It was late summer in Florida, meaning the second he stepped outside at six thirty every weekday morning to head for work, by the time he reached his car sweat was already beading on his forehead and rolling down his spine to coalesce in the small of his back.

His day wasn’t done, however. He needed to finish his shower, get dressed, and go pick up Laurel. This was his weekend with her. He’d have her until Monday morning, when he’d drop her off at Eva’s and then she would take Laurel to daycare.

In just a couple more weeks, Laurel would be starting first grade. Because Leo was self-employed, he’d become the primary parent to pick her up from school and take care of her until Eva finished work for the day.

Unfortunately, Eva’s schedule could fluctuate. She worked at a call center for an insurance company and she’d been there less than a year. They frequently shuffled her schedule around, including working some nights and weekends.

Meaning since Leo was self-employed and had two guys working for him, he at least had the flexibility to make last-minute schedule changes of his own.

When he reached Eva’s house—which had been his house with her—Laurel burst out the front door at a dead run. He emerged from his car just in time to pick her up and swing her around, getting a playful squeal from her that warmed his heart.

“How’s my kiddo?”

She threw her arms around his neck. “Daddy! We made necklaces today.”

“You did? Cool.”

“I made you one, too.”

“Awesome. Thank you, sweetheart. What else did you do today?”

Laurel eagerly told him as he headed up the front walk with her in his arms. Eva appeared in the front door, arms crossed over her chest, expression neutral. She’d drastically changed her hair two weeks ago and he was still trying to get used to it. It was a brassy, reddish color that didn’t look good on her, not like the reddish auburn she used to color it.

But that wasn’t his business and he wouldn’t say anything. She’d always tried to get him to dye the grey out of his hair, but that had never felt right to him. Yes, he was going prematurely grey, but there was still plenty of brown in his hair.

He remembered a time just a few months ago when there would have been a happy smile on Eva’s face as she watched them together.

Before he dropped the boom on her.

“She hasn’t had dinner yet,” Eva told him as he stepped onto the porch. “I gave her a light snack about an hour ago, some carrot sticks and apple slices, to tide her over.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that.” He set Laurel down and she ran into the house to get something. Friday nights were his “date” nights with Laurel. He would take her out to dinner, wherever she wanted, whatever she wanted, even on the one weekend a month she didn’t spend with him.

“Sure.”

In the initial weeks after their separation, it wasn’t uncommon for him to arrive on Friday nights to find Laurel falling sleep from a full tummy because Eva passive-aggressively fed her a large dinner shortly before he arrived, depriving him of that experience with his daughter.

Eva’s excuse had been that Laurel was on a schedule and should eat on time, because it was cruel to make her wait and be hungry.

When the counselor asked Eva why she couldn’t give Laurel a small, healthy snack, that had finally switched on his ex-wife’s mental lightbulb. The counselor finally got through to Eva that all she was doing was setting herself up long-term to hurt her own relationship with her daughter, and keeping herself locked in a cycle of pain.