The Will (The Magdalene Series) (Volume 1)(147)

There was a pause and I bit my lip before he powered on.

“And get it outta your head that we’re reconciling. That shit is never gonna happen, Donna. How the f*ck you can think that, I have no f*ckin’ clue. It’s been f*ckin’ years since I shared a bed with you and, straight up, when I left it the last time, I haven’t even thought of goin’ back. Now, forced to think of it through this shit, woman, you cannot believe after you’ve taken so much twenty-somethin’ cock I’d ever go there. The thought turns my goddamned stomach. Get this and get it now, that shit is not gonna happen. Not ever. Now do you get that?”

He was being quite brutal, therefore I wrapped my fingers around his bicep and whispered, “Jake—”

He ignored me and kept speaking.

“You have f*cked up royal with your kids. You want me to help you sort that, you get your head outta your goddamned ass. Until you’ve proved to me you aren’t livin’ in a f*ckin’ fantasy world, totally f*ckin’ clueless to pretty much everything, you got no help from me. They’re not slippin’ through your fingers, Donna. They’re gone. Con tries to be cool with you because he’s a good kid. Amber, you’ve lost. You pull your shit together and find a way back in that works for her and for me, I’ll back that play. But not until you pull your shit together. You hear me?”

He stopped speaking and I decided to say nothing and get closer. He didn’t move away but I knew he was concentrating on whatever she was saying because, even though he was still looking at me, his eyes had gone unfocused.

Finally, he spoke again.

“This shit, these tears, they mean nothing to me, Donna. We’ve been done so long, I don’t even think about you unless I look at my girl when I know she needs a woman for whatever shit that’s f*ckin’ with her head and I do it pissed way the f*ck off that her mother is not there for her. She’s got Josie now and you need to wake up. A girl, I would expect, can’t have enough good women in her life. But it blows my goddamned mind you’d walk up to Josie at Wayfarer’s feelin’ funny for her that she’s got somethin’ good you think she’s gonna lose when she’s got everything and she takes care of it in a way she’s never gonna lose it. Everything you lost because you didn’t take care of it, you aren’t takin’ care of it, and if you don’t sort yourself out, you’re never gonna get it back.”

He paused to take a breath but kept right on going.

“Now, we’re done. Think on this shit, Donna, and please, God, f*ckin’ wake the f*ck up.”

He was indeed done for he disconnected and shoved his phone in his pocket.

His eyes were still on me and before I could say a word, he did.

“You got any understanding of that bitch now?” he bit out.

“Would you, perhaps, like a hot fudge sundae to calm you down before we discuss this matter further?” I offered.

“We walk back into that house, babe, this shit is behind us and we eat hot fudge sundaes enjoying them, not thinkin’ about Donna’s ridiculous bullshit.”

As this was what he wanted, and I wanted Jake to have everything, I gave it to him.

“I would assume that most of her lovers look like you or, perchance, behave like you,” I stated.

He jerked up his chin in an affirmative even as his jaw clenched but said only, “Least the ones I’ve seen.”

I nodded.

“Then she’s attempting to live the glory days with these men who matter very little to her, thinking inaccurately that those glory days will return when the real thing does.”

“That’s whacked,” Jake declared.

“Yes, it is,” I agreed.

“She’s whacked,” Jake went on.

“Yes, she is,” I again agreed.

He studied me a moment before asking, “She get in there with you?”

“Pardon?” I asked back, confused.

“She f*ck with your head with this shit?’

My brows drew together as I informed him, “Certainly not.”

“She and I are done,” he announced.

“I know that, Jake,” I assured him.

He studied me another moment before his expression cleared and his voice gentled to say, “Sorry that shit happened to you.”

“I’m not,” I returned immediately. “If this is the precursor to her getting her finger out of her ass, then I’m delighted it happened. Those children need their mother. Perhaps she’ll deal with her shit and finally give them one.”

I got another moment of study before a slow, attractive grin spread on Jake’s face and he moved so he could wrap his arms around me.

“Deal with her shit?” he asked.

“Indeed,” I answered.

His grin got bigger and his arms got tighter. “As much as this pisses me off, wish like f*ck I was at Wayfarer’s watchin’ you give her the honesty.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I replied. “It was most irksome.”

“Irksome,” he murmured, still grinning but now doing it looking at my lips.

My belly fluttered, but my lips said, “Yes. Irksome.”

His arms got tighter as his face got closer. “Irksome,” he repeated in a whisper, his word sounding on my lips since his were that close.