Misadventures with a Manny Read online

  Charlie scoffs. “Then hey, maybe you should date Mom,” he teases.

  I look up, rolling my eyes. “Charlie, cut it out.”

  He laughs as I meet Lincoln’s heated gaze, his lips pursing toward me. “On that note, I’m getting out of here. You guys have a nice weekend.”

  Charlie mumbles something along the lines of having to go to his dad’s, which I feel for him, but I’m excited for my weekend because it involves that man right there.

  When the boys come barreling down the stairs to say bye to Lincoln, I reach for another envelope as Charlie leans on the island. “Do you need help?”

  I smile. “Unless you have money for all these bills, then it’s my job.”

  He smiles weakly, and I return to what I’m doing. I glance at him a few times, surprised he is still sitting there when usually he’s hiding from me. “Everything okay, love?”

  He looks up to me and nods. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Okay.”

  “It’s just…”

  He pauses, and I glance up to him once more. “Just?”

  He struggles with his words as he moves his fingers together. “Do you miss Dad?”

  I pause what I’m doing. “No, love, I don’t.”

  “So you don’t think you two would ever get back together?”

  “I don’t,” I say without hesitation. “He’s moved on.”

  “But you haven’t.”

  I blink in confusion. “No, but I’m busy with you, Louis, and Elliot, and my job.”

  He slowly nods. “But are you happy?”

  A smile pulls at my lips. “Oh, Charlie, I’m so much happier now than I was before. I can promise you that.”

  “I feel like you are. You’ve been smiling a lot.”

  “I have a lot to smile for. Three wonderful boys, a great career…”

  And a really great man who seems to really like me. I can’t say that, though.

  Not yet.

  “But don’t you worry about me, my love. It’s my job to worry for you, not the other way around.”

  His eyes cut to mine, and the love in them rattles me to the core. “I’ll always worry for you. You’re my mom.”

  I reach out, taking his face in my hand. “I love you so much, Charlie.”

  He leans into my hand and nods. “I love you too, Mom.”

  When he gets up, I ask, “So you tongue-kissed Crystal today?”

  His head falls back as he groans. “I’m going to kill you guys!”

  When he runs off and the twins start screaming, I just shake my head. It’s almost like old times. The kids being crazy and trying to kill each other. It’s refreshing. I can’t help but grin at the fact they said I should date Lincoln. Did they suspect something? Should I be worried? I don’t know if they’re ready for that. Or maybe I’m stalling because if I tell the boys, then this is real, and it being real scares me.

  Because I can get hurt.

  But all that goes away when I see a letter from the boys’ school.

  I know that letterhead; it’s from the financial department.

  Opening the letter quickly, my heart pounding in my chest, I feel nothing but pure rage.

  Simon told the school I was to pay half of the boys’ tuition.

  “That son of a bitch.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Vera

  I didn’t sleep.

  I was so angry, I couldn’t.

  Simon is lucky the boys were home when I got the letter. When they went to bed, though, I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer.

  Fucking coward.

  But I knew his work phone.

  Lincoln told me to talk to my lawyer first, but there is no need. I am not obligated to pay this, and I won’t. Lincoln tried to calm me down; he even gave me a back rub until he heard the boys coming, but it didn’t help. I was furious. Especially after talking to someone at the school that morning.

  As the phone rings, I tap my toe to the floor, my eyes wide and full of anger.

  When he finally picks up, my voice drops an octave. “You are delusional if you think I’m paying for half the boys’ school.”

  “Vera. How nice to—”

  “Fuck you, Simon,” I bite out. “How dare you? I called the school. You gave them all my information and told them to come after me for the money? That I was a deadbeat mother who didn’t want to pay for my sons’ tuition? It’s not my fucking job!”

  “I can’t afford it.”

  “Then we pull them! That’s what normal people do. They don’t call the kids’ school and badmouth the mom to them! I have to face these fucking people more than you do. How dare you?”

  “You’re blowing—”

  “I am a great fucking mother, Simon, and you know it. That’s why you’re doing this, because if I won’t pay it, it’s more change the boys will have to go through. You know I don’t want that, so you’re trying to make me the bad guy.”

  “I mean, if the shoe fits.”

  “You son of a bitch. I’m not paying! I will pull them and blame it all on you.”

  “And I’ll say it isn’t my fault. Since you’re doing the pulling, I’m sure they’ll believe me.”

  My jaw drops. “Why are you doing this to me? I wasn’t the one who left you; you left me. I don’t understand why you are making my life so hard.”

  “Because I hate you.”

  I hate how surprised I am at the statement. It is so out of the blue. “Well, please, don’t fucking hold back.”

  “You were never there for me—”

  “Because you were fucking anyone with tits, Simon. Instead of being with me—”

  “You worked all the time!”

  “After the fifth time you cheated, yeah, I did go to work. I had to, but even so, I’m a good mom just as you’re a good dad, and I don’t know why you want to do this. Why you want to fight with me. Can’t we just raise the boys?”

  “No, because you’re trying to replace me!”

  “Oh, for the love of God.”

  “I bet you’re fucking him.”

  “Jesus, Simon. Are you that jealous of him? He doesn’t want to be you. He doesn’t even care about you. All he cares about is the boys.”

  “They’re my boys, and all they do is talk about him. Lincoln this, Lincoln that, Lincoln loves this. It’s fucking annoying.”

  “So because the boys actually like the nanny, you are treating me like shit? I don’t understand why. He isn’t replacing you—”

  “You have to be fucking him to back him up this hard.”

  Pinching the bridge of my nose, I inhale deeply. “Even if I were, I wouldn’t admit it to you. And another thing—none of this has anything to do with the fact that you have to pay for the school if you want them to go there. I’ll have Lincoln homeschool them. I don’t care.”

  He scoffs. “He isn’t qualified for that.”

  “Actually, he is. If you read all the paperwork I sent you on him, you’d know that.”

  “I won’t approve that.”

  “Well, I won’t take them out of a school and put them in a new one when I have the option. So you can pay this, or Lincoln can homeschool. The ball is in your court.”

  He growls in frustration. “You’re the one making this hard.”

  “No, you are, and for the first time, it’s my turn to say, I’ll take you to court over this.”

  “You fucking bitch.”

  I glare. “If that’s all—”

  “You know what? I don’t know why I thought he would fuck you—you’re awful. Boring. Worthless. Which is why no one wants you. They never have. That’s why I had to always take care of you. Out of fucking pity.”

  I press my lips together. “We have nothing else to say—”

  The line goes dead.

  Biting on my lip, I close my eyes as I let my head fall to the desk.

  Why do I let his words hurt me so badly? I know none of it is true, but I can’t shake his nasty words. And what bothers me the