Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(25)

She’d just grinned and said, “So she knows about five hours before she would have known. No skin off my nose.”

Mike had to admit, after Audrey’s unrelenting bullshit and Vi’s unrelenting but unintentional drama, the laidback Dusty was a breath of seriously f**king fresh air.

“Debbie’ll get home, get involved in her life and cool down,” Mike told her. “It’ll all be good.”

“Debbie’ll carry this shit to her grave,” Dusty muttered then winced because she herself had struck close to the bone.

“Honey,” he whispered.

She sighed.

Then she said, “I’ll leave it a week. Give her a call. Try to smooth things over.”

“Maybe you two should just figure out how to be family at the same time avoiding each other,” Mike suggested.

“Uh…do you know my Mom and Dad?” Dusty asked, Mike grinned and gave her a squeeze.

“Yeah, I do. But they don’t have to live her bullshit. You do. She’s a successful attorney. She’s gotta know how to broker a deal. Find a way to make it so you two are kosher in front of the parents but you keep strictly to your corners all other times. She’ll see the advantages of a deal like that and go all in.”

“I’m not sure family works like that,” she muttered. “But I’ll give it a try.”

Truthfully, Mike wasn’t sure either. He was an only child. His Mom and Dad were functional. Good, solid parents he loved and respected who gave him a working moral compass and a decent upbringing. Great grandparents who doted on their grandchildren in a way that only skated the edges of spoiling them rotten. They had his back through the divorce with Audrey and they had his back when he fought for full custody but they didn’t have it in a way they were in his face. He just knew they had it which was all they needed to do. His family didn’t have dramas. Just lots of love and good times.

And, with the shit Dusty told him that came out of Debbie’s mouth, it was clear Debbie had cast herself firmly in the role of the black sheep of the Holliday family. This included a variety of imaginary slights and insults most of which she figured were delivered by Dusty all because Dusty was being Dusty.

It didn’t take a family psychologist to study the Hollidays and see that Debbie’s career drive was her being hell-bent to earn the respect of her family. Or she was simply different than them but instead of just finding herself and going on to find happiness, she wanted it all and was pissed they wouldn’t shoehorn her into their world where she simply didn’t fit.

Mike was thinking the latter. The last twenty-four hours he’d spent more time with Dusty than Debbie since he broke up with her two and a half decades ago. But she’d been his girlfriend for two years. What Debbie Holliday wanted, she found a way to get and she was perfectly willing to expend a goodly amount of energy and her considerable brainpower conniving a way to get it.

Frankly, in the end, he couldn’t wait to get quit of her but he’d never told that shit to anyone. Before he hooked up with Debbie, Darrin was a friend and remained a friend after their breakup. He respected the Hollidays too much to talk trash about their daughter. And then there was Dusty.

“Right,” Dusty broke into his thoughts, “I gotta go take off my shoes and prepare to be strip searched because I’m a blonde and they’ll need to use someone to prove they aren’t racial profiling and it’s my luck they always use me.”

Mike grinned down at her even as his arms got tighter.

Then his grin died as his eyes moved over her face.

Fuck, she was beautiful.

“I’ll call,” she whispered and his eyes came back to hers to see hers weren’t smiling anymore. The light was gone but the warmth, as ever, remained.

“I will too.”

“I’ll fix another visit home soon,” she promised.

“Good,” he muttered.

“Hunter will take care of me,” she went on and his arms got tighter.

“I know.”

She stopped talking but didn’t move. She stayed pressed tight to him, her arms wrapped around his back.

Then a smile curved her lips she didn’t commit to and she remarked, “Seriously, glad you’re a dick, babe.”

He smiled back the same way and whispered, “Me too.”

Dusty tipped her head to the side and asked, “You gonna order me to kiss you so I can get all tingly or are you just gonna stare at me?”

He knew his smile hit his eyes when he muttered, “Kiss me, honey.”

Her arms moved from his back to wrap around his neck, she got up on her toes and did what she was told. He took over and they went at it like teenagers.

He pulled away first and whispered, “Go.”

She nodded, eyes bright and he f**king loved that, how she let it show she didn’t want to go.

Then she broke away and walked to the security line.

He watched her show her tickets. He watched her take off her belt, coat and shoes. He watched her go through the metal detector. And he grinned when he saw them pull her from the line to have a female pat her down. When they turned her to do her back, she caught his eyes, rolled hers and Mike started chuckling.

Then he watched her put on her shoes, belt and coat and start to walk down the terminal.

And he watched her when she stopped, turned back and threw him a kiss. It was a grand gesture, dramatic, attention-getting but she didn’t give a f**k anyone was watching. It was all for him.