The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2)(111)

But I was thinking I wanted to do that for my mom.

“I don’t know, Iz. I don’t . . . shit,” I muttered.

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” she decided.

“Good idea.”

“They wouldn’t ask us there if she hadn’t left something for us, right?” Izzy remarked.

“She could just have left a message, and if it’s just a message, I don’t want to waste a personal day having to listen to what that bitch has to say,” I replied.

“I hear you.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” I said.

“Yeah, Addie.” She changed the subject to one more important. “You call Dave?”

“No to the festival. But we’re going over for a visit tomorrow after.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Johnny. Obviously, we’ll go with you. Now letting you go. Love you, doll.”

“Love you too, babe.”

We hung up.

I took a sip of wine.

“So?” Toby prompted.

“We’re gonna hash it out tomorrow at the Food Festival.”

“Right.”

I looked into his eyes. “He might be there, honey.”

“You go, I’m going with you.”

I nodded.

“You don’t have to go,” he pointed out.

I nodded again.

“You told me they have money,” he remarked.

“Yes, lots of it,” I confirmed.

“If she’s givin’ some of that to you, you should take it. For you. Not for Brooks. For you. She owes that to you,” Toby said. “But if you can’t do that, then you should take it for Brooks.”

“I know,” I said quietly. “Last time I saw her, though, she was shrieking at my mother about taking us from our father.”

“If she did this just to fuck with you, then you’ll have it confirmed, like we had it confirmed with that gig with Sierra, you weren’t missing anything. And I know it sounds crazy, but when it settles in, it’s actually a relief.”

That wasn’t the first time I was happy he felt like that about Sierra.

I nodded yet again, took another sip, then moved toward Toby.

He drew me into his arms.

“Why do these women keep coming out of the woodwork when we should be all about Margot?” I asked into his chest.

“Closure, Addie.” His voice changed when he said his next, and the arms I had around him tightened. “In a lot of ways.”

I closed my eyes and did it hard.

We held on to each other for a while.

“I need to get the dough going,” he murmured.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Stay out here, I got dough and kid. You take time to get shit right in your head.”

I tipped that head back to look up at him.

“Thanks, honey.”

“Love you, baby,” he said before he dropped his lips to mine.

That was a peck too, a harder one, before he gave me a squeeze and let me go.

I watched him go inside and heard my son complain, “Daddy, Dappah Dan cirsee.”

That meant Dapper Dan and something about his circle.

It was difficult to separate kid toys from dog toys, and more difficult for Dapper Dan who in very real ways was also our kid, a kid our boy often threw his toys for so they could play.

In other words, Toby would be on his laptop that night, ordering some replacement.

I turned to the railing, put a hand to it and lifted my wineglass to my lips, resting my eyes on the brief snatch of grass we had that fed into forest.

One thing I knew, I was not taking my son to that reading.

The other thing I knew, if our father was there, he’d see Iz and me walking in on high heels, wearing nice dresses with the best men alive at our sides.

So whatever that woman had to say or do, it really didn’t matter.

She could try to shred us.

She could give us a million dollars.

It just didn’t matter.

We already had it all.



Toby was on his knees on the floor at the side of the bed.

I was on my back in it.

And his mouth was between my legs.

He ate me and he ate me and, God, God, fucking consumed me.

And when my hand was clenching his hair, almost there, his mouth went away.

God, I hated when he did this.

And totally fucking loved it.

“Baby,” I begged.

But then I was on my knees at the edge of the bed and I was taking his cock.

Okay.

Yeah.

Loved it.

“Fuck yourself,” he ordered thickly.

I got up on my hands too and did what I was told.

He let me, then took over, fucking me into the bed as he entered it. Once he got us where he wanted us, he curled over me, biting my shoulder, my neck, his arm wrapped around my chest, and he pulled me up.

He fucked me upright, both hands going to my breasts, squeezing, rolling and tugging my nipples.

My head fell back. “Tobe.”

“Mouth.”

I turned to him.

He rolled my nipples, fucked me and kissed me.

God.

I was getting there, fast.

I broke the kiss and said urgently, “Honey.”

I gave a muted cry when he pulled me off, turned me around to face him on my knees, his hand was in my hair, yanking it back, his other arm was around my waist, both forcing me to arch for him, then his mouth was at my nipple, sucking hard.