Page 4 of Ignition

“I wasn’t aware we were running a fucking halfway house,” I interrupted. “You’re really going to bring another stranger into our home? What will Mom think?”

“Your mother doesn’t make decisions around here anymore. She doesn’t live here. The sooner that you get that through your head, the better. Sadie’s not a stranger and neither is Ivy. And, while we’re on the subject, I’m not asking permission. So get with the program and get to know the girls. They’ll be around a long time, Caleb.”

“A couple of months isn’t a long time,” I shot back. “And certainly isn’t enough time to know someone.”

I’d known Mom, technically my step-mom, my entire fucking life—at least as much as I remembered of it—and still it was like I didn’t actually know her at all.

Cheating? What the fuck even was that?

“Son, I know you’ve never felt the way I do, but Sadie and I just… clicked. It’s hard to understand, but I hope you’ll get it someday. Sometimes people come into your life, and you know that they’re supposed to be there forever. Someday we’ll even stop being the Brayes and become the Braye-Kings.”

I rolled my eyes. He’d been feeding me this ‘love at first sight’ crap since the stranger came into the picture. He felt so deeply like he’d found his scent match, hisperfectpair, but I was pretty sure his wires were crossed, too fucked up from the sudden divorce to realize that he was making a huge mistake.

And now he wanted her daughter to live here, too?

No.

Fuuuuuck no.

I wouldn’t stand for it.

“She’s not fucking moving in here,” I said, shaking my head. “Send her somewhere else. A convent, maybe? Since you seem to think she’s a saint or some shit.”

“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “She’s got her ticket and will be here in a couple of weeks. Andyouwill be on your best behavior.”

“Orwhat?” I asked. I sounded like a petulant child, but I was sick of never having a choice about the changes in my life. About not deciding who was in it. “Going to cut me off?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

I scoffed, glancing at my phone face down on the table.

Even now, after everything, there was only one person I wanted to talk to. And I wasn’t even sure he wanted to talk to me.

“This is fucking bullshit, and you know it,” I said, grabbing the device as I stood, shoving it into my pocket.

Fuck this. I wasn’t going to stay here and listen to him spouting this nonsense.

Not while the old man’s pussy psychosis was running the show.

At this rate, I should just get my own place before I was totally outnumbered by gold-digging betas with nothingbetter to do than scam sad, lonely divorcees. I’d only bothered to stay because I didn’t want my dad to feel like I’d abandoned him, but now it seemed he was going to have a charming new family to keep him company, so why the fuck did he need me?

“Where are you going? We aren’t done talking.”

“You might not be, but I am.” Mostly to prove that someone in this house knew how to clean up after themselves, I tossed the rest of my drink into the sink and my leftovers in the trash before loading the dishwasher with my own plate as well as the stragglers. Meredith deserved to come back to a semi-clean place after her vacation. “I’m going to Nick’s.”

My dad’s expression totally changed, the thin band of his patience clearly run through. “I don’t like you hanging out with him.”

“Don’t care,” I said, banging the forgotten cupboard door shut as punctuation. “Never had a problem with it before.”

Nick and I had been friends since we were kids. His dad was our driver, and since he was the only one around my age that lived in the neighborhood, it just made sense that we hung out. Sometimes, when we were feeling charitable, we’d even let his kid sister join us.

It wasn’t our fault Mom started screwing his dad and tore both our families apart.

But since the divorce and Nick’s dad got fired, there was no one left for my father to take his anger out on other than Nick. It was petty and childish. Nick was also left in the dust by this situation. But instead of commiserating, my dad turned him into public enemy number one.

“You should care,” he grumbled. “You should care about this family.”

I scoffed.