Page 10 of Game On

“I get that. I’m technically still on maternity leave. If you count quitting your cushy corporate job because you’re gonna be a stay-at-home mom but then you find out your husband’s a piece of shit cheater, so you have to get divorced and move back in with your mother.”

My mouth was agape at her admission. Sure, we’d played Dragonspire for years together, but we never said anything so personal before.

She sighed. “Shit, sorry. That was too personal.”

“He sounds like a dick.”

“You know what’s the worst part?”

“There’s a worst part?”

The hair on the back of my neck raised as the worst came to mind. I watched my mom take hit after hit from my dad until I was big enough to push him back. Then my sister turned around and found a man just like him. The only thing worse than a cheater was a man who laid his hands on their partner.

I touched my bicep where Veronica tattooed the rose for my sister. So I could remember her and teach Liam that real men weren’t like his father. Or his grandfather. That they never laid a hand on their partners or berated them in front of their children.

“I was the other woman, and I had no clue. The woman who he cheated on is a friend now,” Lily explained.

This story sounded familiar, but I wracked my brain for why and came up empty.

“Umm.”

“Ugh anyway! Can we kill some dragons and pretend they’re my ex-husband while my baby’s sleeping?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Hell yeah, girl!”

She laughed. “Thanks, Ginge. Sorry to unload. I know we don’t talk about personal stuff.”

“No worries. I feel you.”

“Was that weird? We’ve been friends for years, but we don’t even know each other’s names.”

“Not weird. It’s a gamer thing.”

“Agreed. Let’s do this dungeon crawl!”

“Atta girl. Let’s fuck ‘em up!”

We played for a little while until I heard a cry in the background, and she had to hop off. By the time I signed off, Liam was waking up too. With a blood curdling scream for his mama. Fuck. I was not prepared for this at all.

Chapter Four

LILY

I glanced over at Veronica lying on the couch in the tattoo shop’s office. She looked a little green, and I knew that pain of early pregnancy morning sickness. I felt for her, I did, but I was trying to work on the shop’s books, and she was distracting me.

I searched for the correct receipt in the piles she had handed to me when I came in. I rocked my foot against the stroller Rosie was sleeping in, hoping she’d stay quiet. I loved that the tattoo shop didn’t mind if I brought her in, especially if I’d be working in the office and out of the way.

The first thing I did when I started working for the shop was install accounting software and transfer the data from their manual excel report to my program. My friend was an incredibly talented artist, but she wasn’t good at numbers or keeping records straight. It took me about a week because it was a lot of manual work, but it would be better in the long run. Especially when I did the taxes for them later.

I looked up when the door opened, and Olivia, the shop manager, came into the office. The petite Asian woman gave me a smile. “Oh hey, Lily. I didn’t know you were back here. How are things looking?”

I gestured to the piles of receipts.

Olivia gave me a tight smile. “Sorry. V never lets me help. I could definitely make it more organized.”

“That would be amazing,” Veronica said.

Olivia handed her a cup of tea. “Here, drink this and hurry because you have an appointment in five minutes.”