HADES Read online

  That earns him a huge snort. “My dude, that is not the vibe I was getting off Mom.”

  “Okay, maybe your mom hated me,” he admits. “But things change. Relationships change. We cleared up some misunderstandings—”

  “What kind of misunderstandings, exactly? Because like any nosy teenager whose birth parents hate each other, I’ve asked both of you what was up with that several times, and neither of you ever told me. Does that mean you’re going to tell me now?"

  “No, that subject is still off-limits for a while, I think.” Benjamin tugs at the collar of his Boston Hawks tee. “I’ll have to check with your mother.”

  “And what if she says no? Do you expect me to just sit by quietly while you two keep on having grown-up sex and go to Boston like it’s not bonkers that you went straight from hating to dating while I was in France? I’m so confused. Maybe y’all should just forget about going to the Boston ceremony and date behind my back until you’re sure this is real. I say y’all because I still haven’t fully lost my Louisiana accent. Also, how married are you to this nickname Daph? It kind of makes me sound like that duck from the Looney Tunes cartoons.”

  Benjamin stops walking and looks down at his conversation partner to say, “I know I missed a lot, but I’m pretty sure those Looney Tunes cartoons were before Daph’s time. And just so you know, Daph has never complained about me calling her Daph before. Know what else? I really don't think she would give me the third degree like this.”

  Tess breaks character to harrumph and answer, “That’s because you've never given her any reason to grill you like that. Trust me, our daughter is going to have a lot of questions, especially after getting burned by Stephanie’s secret husband. She's not going to just accept things like she did when she was twelve. And, we’ll just have to agree to disagree about Daph.”

  Despite Tess’s grumpy tone, her use of the word “our” when referring to their daughter makes a smile tug at Benjamin’s lips as he starts them walking again.

  “Or maybe she’ll be happy for us, no questions asked,” he suggests. “Ever consider that possibility?”

  Tess twists her lips to the side. “Half my job is talking girls out of magical thinking and into practical plans for their futures, so I tend to go for worst-case scenario in these role-play situations.”

  That makes complete sense. But as they come up to her building, Benjamin has to ask, “Is that what you’re doing here? Worst-case scenarioing us? Because you said you’d come to Boston to be my date if I broke the news to Daphne myself. Now it’s kinda sounding like you’re trying to back out.”

  “It’s just…” Tess slumps her shoulders like a criminal caught in the act. “We moved way too fast the first time, and we just fell into bed all over again a few days ago. I appreciate your honesty, but I don't want to make that mistake again.”

  “It wasn’t a mistake,” Benjamin insists, cupping her cheek around the back of her neck. “It was a misunderstanding. And if anything, it’s killing me to go slow this time. I knew what I wanted then, and I know what I want now. You.”

  She wraps her hand around his wrist with a soft gaze, but she still insists, “We were just kids, Benjamin.”

  “Yeah, we were just kids, but sometimes when you know, you know. I knew. And I spent the last sixteen years regretting that I didn't trust my gut. I’m not doing this thing in the shadows again. Not for Daphne. Not even for you. I want to be with you, and I want everybody, especially our daughter, to know I’m with you.”

  Tess throws her head back with a groan. “Okay, you’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what?” Benjamin asks with a confused shake of his head.

  “Saying romantic things, and making it hard for me to see reality, even though my whole mission in life is helping girls who made the wrong decision because they let some boy get into their head.”

  “I'm not a boy,” he points out, a little bit more of his hard Boston accent creeping back into his voice. “Not anymore. I'm a man. But I don’t want to tell our daughter that we’re back together by myself. I want us to tell her together. Let’s do it right this time."

  He’s right. He knows he’s right, the same way he knew from the start that Tess was the best thing that ever happened to him.

  But she stubbornly shakes her head. “You want to tell her were full-on back together after just a week of me pretending to be sick when I was really holed up in your apartment?”

  “It’s only been a few days of calling in sick for you. But it's been sixteen years of regret for me,” he answers, his voice just as stubborn as her headshake. “Look, Tess, I want to come up to your apartment, and I want to be waiting here with you when Stephanie brings Daphne home from the airport. I don’t want to rehearse anymore or wait until tomorrow to have this conversation with her. I want to tell her with you. I want us to do this together.”

  All sorts of conflicted feelings are passing over Tess’s face, but he refuses to give in to her second-guessing.

  He knows their relationship is new. He knows it’s fragile as a freshly bloomed flower in the early spring. But he has to do things differently this time, even if he raises the possibility of messing everything up between them again.

  “If you’re not on the same page. If you honestly think this second chance isn’t the best thing to happen to either of us since Daphne was born, then fine, you don't have to come to Boston,” he tells her, taking a step back. “We'll keep our relationship behind the scenes until you’re comfortable sharing it with our daughter. But if that's not the case. If you’ve been secretly yearning for me, the way I yearn for you, then invite me up. Let’s wait for our daughter to get home. Together. What do you say?”

  Benjamin tries to turn his grin down a few watts as he follows Tess up the shelter’s back stairs to her apartment.

  They just spent the week before Daphne was due home pretty much rolling around in bed with breaks to do urgent remote work and order from various door delivery companies.

  But the shelter Tess lives above has rules—made by her. So, Benjamin has to remain circumspect as they walk up the stairs and enter her apartment. If anyone sees them together, they should come off as nothing more than two parents meeting to discuss some piece of custody business.

  But Tess said yes to telling Daphne about their relationship together. Even after spending a whole week doing nothing but boinking each other’s brains out, he can think of only one way to celebrate.

  They crash into each other as soon as the door closes behind them, and all pretending comes to an end as they kiss and tear off clothes with Tess pulling him toward the couch.

  Which they might have fallen onto if Tess didn’t suddenly pull away from him. “Stephanie!”

  “Don’t worry,” he says, immediately zeroing in on that special neck spot that drives her crazy. “She and Daphne aren’t due here for, like, four hours….”

  But then he trails off when he sees why Tess stopped kissing him.

  Stephanie is sitting on the couch underneath a blanket that matches the one she crocheted for Daphne to keep at his condo. There are Uber Eats containers scattered all over the coffee table. And her face is puffy and tinged red. Like she’s either fallen sick or been crying.

  “Stephanie? What are you doing here?” he asks. “Are you all right?”

  She squints at them somewhat confusedly from the couch.

  “I’m fine,” she answers carefully. “Galen gave me a choice, and I chose to go, because unlike him, I’m not a total psycho. Sorry, Tess, I know you hate when I use insensitive words for mental health language. But maybe I’m a psycho too because I can’t stop crying like I’m going through a real divorce. And I came here because I didn’t know where else to go. I’ve been waiting for you to get back so that we could talk. But the real question is: What are you doing here with him?”

  Stephanie suddenly breaks off, and her eyes glaze over as she repeats, “Stephanie? What are you doing here? Are you all right?”

  Oh n
o….oh no….

  Tess draws back from Benjamin, her expression filled with concern for her sister, who’s suddenly started talking in the third person.

  But Benjamin’s just stills. He understands what’s happening before Tess does. Maybe even before Stephanie does herself.

  “We…um…Fine. We were just…” Tess stops and pulls back her shoulders. A warrior, who’s decided to commit to her fight for love.

  “We’ve decided to start dating,” she explains to Stephanie, her voice resolute and clear. “And I’m going to be Benjamin’s date next weekend to the Man of the Year ceremony for Boston Charities.”

  If not for the way Stephanie is looking at him, Benjamin would be beaming from ear to ear. But it’s like watching a car crash from too far away.

  You can see what’s about to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it.

  “We were planning on telling Daphne, and I guess you too, as soon as you got here,” Tess adds, completely mistaking the reason for Stephanie’s lack of reaction.

  But then, as if to confirm the sliver of dread piercing his gut, Stephanie says to Tess while looking at Benjamin, “I remember. I remember everything.”

  CHAPTER 27

  BENJAMIN

  “Stephanie? What are you doing here? Is everything alright?”

  Almost one year ago, Benjamin had said the same thing when he walked into his condo and found Stephanie standing in his living room—just standing there with her bike helmet in her hand.

  He’d given her a key for the times when she had to bring Daphne over while he was on a Zoom or when Daphne needed something she left behind in his condo while he was in Boston. But Stephanie had dropped Daphne off hours earlier since they were supposed to be flying out to spend the summer in Massachusetts early the next morning. His daughter was asleep the last he checked, and he’d just popped down to the Walgreens for a few last-minute things. But when he got back to the apartment, there Stephanie was with a weird expression on her face.

  His confusion gave way to fright, and he dropped the Walgreens bag. “Is Daphne okay?”

  “Daphne’s fine,” she answered, her voice strangely flat. “I’m here to talk with you.”

  Okay, that was a first.

  “Sure, what’s up?” he asked nonetheless, prepared to be helpful.

  “It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who found my shoebox of personal items, and you’re the one who told Vampire about that Polaroid, aren’t you?”

  He thought about lying. Of pretending he didn’t know about the Polaroid of her sitting on some biker’s lap, with his cousin Finnegan almost smiling next to them.

  But in the end, he figured that would be pointless. Her question had been rhetorical. They both knew how she’d come to suspect his involvement. Not getting protected source treatment was his punishment for clamming up when Finnegan—aka Vampire—showed up at his front door less than twenty-four hours after Benjamin called to ask him why he was in a Polaroid with Stephanie Malloy.

  “You are the only person I’m allowed to talk to when it comes to matters involving my daughter,” he explained without remorse. “Yet, Stephanie Malloy has no internet footprint, no public records….I needed to figure out who you were.”

  “So, you searched through my things?” Stephanie screwed her face up, her eyes flashing with outrage. “Stole my personal items?”

  The chance to search her apartment had come without warning. He’d come to pick Daphne up from Stephanie’s place since he wasn’t allowed to ever come to Tess’s. But she had gotten the times mixed up and had just gotten home from softball practice. So she’d needed a few minutes to shower and whatever else made teenage girls take so long in the bathroom.

  She’d left him all alone in the main room of Stephanie’s TV-less house, assuming he’d entertain himself with his phone. But another idea had occurred to him.

  He wasn’t proud of what he’d done in an effort to get information. But he told Stephanie the same thing he told himself that previous night when he found the shoebox under her bed. “I had a right to know. Tess and I are entrusting you with our daughter’s care. And you refused to say anything about yourself other than you grew up with Daphne. I had to make sure you were safe. So, imagine my surprise when I came across a picture of you and my cousin, who, last time I checked, was a biker gang criminal. And if your friends were going to cause any trouble for Daphne and Tess, I wanted to make sure—”

  Stephanie cut him off with a disbelieving snort. “Don’t act like this had anything to do with trust or security. Or that you're any different than your criminal cousin.”

  She pointed an accusing finger at him. "This is about you not being able to stand that Tess put up boundaries with you. You just couldn’t abide the custody agreement she made you sign. You think I didn’t notice the way you’re always asking after her? Acting all concerned about how she’s doing? You think I thought for a second that was because you were some nice, charitable guy who wanted the best for everybody?”

  Stephanie lets out an ugly chuff. “I lived in your cousin’s world for years. I know how guys like you operate. You want Tess, and she wants nothing to do with you. So you tried to find dirt on me so you’d have an excuse to weasel your way back into her life.”

  Her words hit so close to the truth he’d hidden even from himself that he took a step back from her.

  And Stephanie wasn’t finished. “If you were really concerned, you would’ve just asked me why I had that Polaroid. But no, you had to call Vampire behind my back because you were so…” She paused to make quotation marks in the air. “Worried.”

  Stephanie looked him up and down, her eyes filled with disgust. “Did it ever occur to you that I was staying hidden for a damn good reason? That you might have been putting me and everyone I know in danger because you just had to find out who I really was behind my back?”

  “Are you saying Daphne and Tess are in danger?” he demanded, unable to hear anything beyond that main point. “If they are, you have to tell me.”

  “Oh, Daphne and Tess will be fine. I’ll make sure of that, just like I always have.” She drew herself up like a queen and glared down her nose at him. “And I don’t have to tell anyone anything except for Tess. Once she finds out how low you’re willing to sink to get your way and that I’m no longer willing to ferry Daphne over to her tattletale father, I’m pretty sure she’ll reconsider that full-summer split custody agreement. So, have fun with Daphne in Boston because by the time you get back, you’ll be lucky if you get to see Daphne one weekend a month.”

  She was threatening his relationship with his daughter, and that put him on the cold defensive.

  “Men with my kind of money don’t have to depend on luck to make sure we don’t get screwed over for custody,” he informed her, proving he wasn’t that far removed from the Keane brother with the asshole reputation.

  But instead of cowering, Stephanie sneered, “We’ll see about that. I refuse to let my sister get manipulated by a man with your kind of money.”

  “I’m not trying to manipulate her!” he insisted. “I love her. And I just need her to give me a chance—to let her prove I’ve changed.”

  Every word he said was true, but Stephanie regarded him for a few long seconds before declaring, “Men like you don’t ever change. They can’t. They never will—no matter what they prom—”

  Her voice suddenly cracked on the last word. Along with her cool façade.

  And the troubled look on her face felled Benjamin from his high, defensive horse.

  Jesus Christ. What kind of history did she have with the man whose lap she was sitting on in the Polaroid?

  Guilt washed over him, and he reset his voice to a reasonable tone to say, “Stephanie. If you’re in trouble, let me help you. Please, tell me what I can do to help—if not for yourself, at least for Daphne and Tess.”

  She replaced the troubled look with a hard one in an instant. “Just leave me alone. Leave all of us alone. Tess is a good p
erson, and she doesn’t deserve whatever you’ve got planned for her.”

  “What do you think I have planned?” he asks. “Do you really believe I’m trying to hurt her? That all men are out to hurt the women they care about? Because that’s simply not true—”

  She flipped the hood up on her bulky sweatshirt and slammed out of his condo before he could finish defending himself.

  Leaving Benjamin with nothing to do but wait for the inevitable angry call from Tess.

  And here was the really sad thing about the situation. He actually found himself thinking, At least it would be some form of contact from her.

  But the call from Tess never came. And he didn’t realize Stephanie had left her helmet in his apartment until the next morning when Daphne noticed it on the couch.

  “Do we have time to drop it off to her?” Daphne asked. “I know my mom has the car at the hospital for a couple of the girls who went into labor last night. And Steph shouldn’t be riding around without a helmet.”

  “No, we don’t have enough time to drop it off,” he answered. “But tell me her favorite color. I’ll send her another helmet same-day through Amazon.”

  Little did either of them know, it was already too late.

  They received the news of Stephanie’s car accident and her secret husband just a couple of days later. And the next time he saw the man in the picture, he was introducing himself to Benjamin and Daphne as Galen Fairgood.

  When Benjamin had returned from Boston with Daphne without any angry texts from Tess, he thought the universe had given him a reprieve.

  But as Stephanie rose from the couch to stare at him with the same expression she wore that night, he realizes the universe didn’t let him off. It simply moved his court date.

  “You asked me if everything was all right, then I got into the accident.” Stephanie seems to realize what really happened at the same time she speaks the truth out loud. “I got into that accident after talking to you!"