This whole thing was really fucking with my mind.

With Matt’s attention diverted, I quickly looked around for Rachel. I found her standing in front of her cubby with her book bag on her back.

With a sidelong glance at Matt, I shuffled over to her as quickly as possible.

“Hey, baby,” I greeted her.

“Mommy!” she cried out, throwing herself into my arms.

“Did you have fun?” With the feel of my girl nestled tight to me, the fear of seeing Matt was a distant memory. Nothing was more important than Rachel.

“Yes!” Her enthusiasm had me chuckling.

“What did you do today?” I set her back on her feet and grabbed her hand, leading her towards the door.

With a skip in her step, Rachel started babbling. “We read books and ate snacks. Oh and we met Herman!”

“Who’s Herman?” I quirked my head in curiosity.

“He’s Mr. DiGristino’s turtle!” The thought of Matt with a turtle made me smile for some reason. He always had liked unconventional pets. Like the iguana he had when we were younger. Guess some things never change.

We were two steps out the door and heading down the hall when I heard Matt’s voice getting louder. My steps quickened, until I was essentially pulling Rachel behind me towards the school exit. All the while she continued to regale me with details of her first day of kindergarten.

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear a single word she had said. My mind was focused on getting the hell out of that building without having to face the one man that had ever truly held my heart. I wasn’t ready to answer his questions. And honestly, I wasn’t sure my heart could take him rejecting me this time around.

I heard my name being called, but it didn’t matter because I was free. The door shut behind us, and I took a deep breath of fresh air before practically sprinting with Rachel to the car.

Yes, I know. I was nothing more than a complete and utter coward.

*****

For the next two weeks, I played the same exact game of cat and mouse with Matt. Every day he sought me out, and every day I avoided him like the plague.

Dropping Rachel off just as the bell rang was becoming a habit. One that didn’t make my little girl happy in the least. Even at the ripe old age of five, she knew what she liked and being early to school was at the top of that list.

It was on a Friday morning when my carefully constructed plan of avoidance came crashing down. I had just kissed Rachel on the tip of her pert little nose, making her giggle.

“Mommy has to work tonight, so if you’re good we’ll get ice cream for dinner,” I promised her.

“Yay!” she screamed while jumping up and down.

“Mmm. I love ice cream for dinner,” said a deep voice behind me, surprising me and making me jump out of my skin.

Never—not ever—would I forget that voice. The soft whispers in my ear of what he had wanted to do to me. All the sinfully wicked ways his tongue was going to taste me. The deep rumble as he told me how much I was loved, how perfect we were together, and how we’d be together forever.

I stood abruptly and spun on my heel to face him, probably with a look of horror on my face. My attempts at avoiding him were thwarted, and that completely threw me off my game.

“Gee, not exactly the kind of welcome a man wants to get,” he joked at my discomfort. At my continued silence and wide-eyed stare, he continued. “Okay. Well, you could at least say hi or something.”

“Hi,” I croaked out, then cleared my throat. “I better get going.”

“Not so fast.” He grabbed my arm as I tried to shoot past him, completely ignoring the fact that my daughter was still standing there. Granted I had technically already said goodbye to her, but the situation had me so rattled that I actually forgot about her. That wasn’t like me at all.

“Let go of me.” I gasped at the feel of his hand on my bare skin. It was like a branding iron radiating heat through my body.

“Not until we talk,” he said low in my ear, and I shivered. I both hated and loved the way he affected me.

“You need to start class,” I protested.

“Rachel, honey, why don’t you go inside and tell Ms. O’Reilly to read everyone a story. Tell her I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Bye Mommy!” Rachel chirped as she raced off to do as he asked.

“Matt,” I began, but he abruptly cut me off.

“I’m not playing this game anymore, Miranda. I’ve been trying to talk to you for two weeks now. You owe me that much.”

“Okay,” I said with a quivering voice.

“Not here.” He released my arm and ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed black hair. “Can we get together after school?”

I shook my head. “I have to work.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I work tomorrow too.”

“Sunday?”

“It’s my day with Rachel.”

Frustration marred his beautiful face at the realization that a single mother just didn’t have time for things like catching up with an ex-boyfriend.

Welcome to my world.

“We’re going to do this, Miranda. You can keep putting it off, but it will happen whether you like it or not. So you should make amends with that sooner rather than later. I don’t like waiting unnecessarily for what I want.”

What exactly did that mean? Was I what he wanted? Or did he only want an explanation from me? To tell me to my face what a pathetic piece of shit I was for leaving him high and dry?

Fuck. I was reading too much into this. Damn him and his cryptic words.

I rubbed my forehead to stave off the headache that was threatening.

At that moment, the principal came walking down the hall in our direction. I used that as my opportunity to escape.

“I better go,” I said, before hightailing it down the hall and past the principal.

“I’ll talk to you later, Miranda,” he called after me, his words a promise of what was to come.

I knew I wasn’t going to get out of it that easily.

THREE

My car door slammed, the sound echoing into the quiet of the parking lot outside my apartment complex.

It wasn’t the greatest place to raise a child, but some of the lower income rentals in the area were considerably worse. It was a fact I reminded myself of whenever life seemed to be closing in on me, and I felt like a horrible mother who could barely take care of her child.

It could always be worse.

I climbed the concrete steps to the second level and started down the catwalk towards my apartment at the end of L-shaped complex. The shadows were a little deeper down that way thanks to a burned out light bulb that the landlord had yet to change.

With my key in hand, I reached my door and went to unlock it. Suddenly, a hand on my forearm had me screaming at the top of my lungs. In a panic, I spun around and thrust my arm out, attempting to stab the person touching me with my key. It was one of the few things I remembered my father teaching me about self-defense before he passed away.

“Whoa!” The familiar deep voice called out seconds before the key connected with his shoulder. It was too late to stop the momentum of my arm, and I stabbed him with more force than I thought I had in me.

“Matt?” I shouted incredulously, as my heart lodged in my throat.

“Yeah,” he answered, sounding far more subdued than I did.

“What the fuck were you thinking scaring me half to death?” My voice shrieked against the silent night air.

“I’ve been waiting for you to get home and thought maybe you saw me down in the parking lot and were avoiding me again,” he explained.

“Of course I didn’t see you!” I really needed to be more aware of my surroundings. That could have had a far worse ending if the person coming up behind me was a stranger with nefarious intentions.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. His hand reaching up to rub his shoulder made me wince with guilt.