Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(76)

My father returned with a fresh glass and plopped down on the couch. “Did I miss the victory speech? What a shame.”

“No victory speech. We were just looking for a truce,” I said.

My father sputtered a laugh. “A truce? How about a son who doesn’t look at me like I’m a worthless sack of air all the time?”

There was a twinge of real emotion in his voice. My eyebrows pulled together. “Since when do you care what I think of you?”

“You think a father wants his son to think he’s useless?”

“Harper,” my mother said softly, “you’re drunk, sweetheart. And you’re embarrassing yourself.”

“Maybe he’s being honest,” Kira said.

“You’re damn right I am,” my father barked. “I’ve always wanted your respect, Richard. Clearly, I fucked the pooch on that one.”

I snorted a surprised laugh. “It’s screwed the pooch. And I’m not making any promises, but if you can manage to stop hatching maniacal plans, we might be able to work something out.”

“No more maniacal plans from us,” my father said.

I reached over the coffee table between us and squeezed his shoulder. I knew I’d never have a picture-perfect relationship with my parents, but I could live with that. For once, it seemed like my dad was actually trying. My mom was my mom, of course, but it was enough to know that we weren’t directly at odds for once.

“How touching,” my mother spat. “And I’m supposed to promise I’ll behave and be a good little girl from now on? Fuck. That. I’ll do as I please, and I’ll do it when it pleases me.”

Kira was like a dog on the scent of prey when it came to my mother. Just the sound of her voice seemed to set her off, and I could feel the tension building in Kira before she spoke.

“Then you can watch your back, assuming you’re flexible enough to turn your neck that far. Old hag,” she muttered under her breath.

I choked back laughter. “Well,” I said before my mother and Kira could get into a full-blown shouting match. “This has been productive, Mother,” I said icily. “And Dad,” I said, pulling my dad in and giving him the first hug—albeit a quick one—I’d given him in as long as I could remember.





Epilogue





KIRA


One Month Later

I parked my new car at the top of Overlook Point. Despite weeks of protest, Rich had finally had my old car towed and bought me a reasonably priced new car. He claimed my old car was “a deteriorating death trap.” Even marriage hadn’t completely taken away my weirdness about the whole billionaire thing.

I knew if I pushed too hard to keep our finances separate, it would cause more problems than it would solve. So I didn’t. I let him pick up the tab when we ate out together, and I let him give me rides on his private jet—small consolations, I know. But I still worked every day. I paid for everything I could on my own. I got the groceries, and I still kept a budget. It was important to me to live something like a normal life, even though Rich and his money let him live outside the rules most normal people had to live within. I just wasn’t ready to fully dive into that. Not yet, at least.

Rich got out and came to stand beside me. “This is, uh, underwhelming?”

Our view was pretty much as I remembered it, if not a little worse. The school blocked most of everything, meaning we could see only some stars overhead and a few lights from downtown if we craned our necks to the side.

I shrugged. “If you lean just right, the view is kind of nice.”

Rich tilted his upper body until his head was sideways. “Hmm. Yeah, I guess so.”

“I still can’t believe the play went so well,” I said. I couldn’t help smiling when I thought about it. Rich had helped convince Principal Lockett that neither my parents nor Rich’s would try to crucify him for rehiring me. I’d had two weeks to get the kids back on track and make sure the play still happened.

“Yeah,” Rich said. “It’s almost like it couldn’t have possibly happened without such a talented codirector.”

I laughed. “I really did appreciate your help.”

“Yeah. Without my back rubs, which incidentally always seemed to lead to sex, there’s no way you could’ve pulled it off.”

“Right. Can you imagine how hard it would’ve been to put on the play if my sex-crazed husband hadn’t been dragging me into every dark corner, closet, and bed he could find at all hours of the day?”

Rich pulled me in close and kissed the top of my head. His voice was a low rumble that I could feel through his chest. “I’ve never had you on the hood of a car, you know.”

“Not tonight. Not yet, at least. I actually brought you here because this was where me, Iris, and Miranda made our little oath to stay away from you and your brothers. I realized I’d never taken you up here. It felt like I should, just to break the spell or something.”

“Break the spell, huh? You don’t think marrying me broke it?” He leaned in a little closer until his lips tickled my earlobe. “And you don’t think fucking me all those times might have been a slight violation?”

“Ass.” I laughed.

“Please,” he said, reaching and squeezing two handfuls of my rear.