Chapter 8: The Island

That night, Ingrid cleaned his lip at the kitchen island with a first aid kit she had never opened.

Posy was asleep, and the housekeeper had gone to her room at the far end of the hall.

The monitor from Posy's room sat on the counter, turned low.

The goldfish had been moved to the dining table, "so he doesn't see," Cavan had said.

"Hold still," Ingrid said.

"I am holding still."

"You're breathing."

"It's a habit."

He sat on a stool in only his jeans, with the pendant lights warm on his bare chest.

She dabbed the cut with antiseptic, and he didn't flinch at all.

That bothered her more than anything.

"Five men," she said.

"Mostly oil."

"Don't."

Her eyes dropped to the long white scar down his ribs.

Then to the one on his shoulder, round and puckered, the size of a coin.

Then to a third, below his collarbone, thin as a pencil line.

"Thursday I asked you who did this," she said. "You said later."

"I did."

"It's later."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Army," he said. "Twelve years. Rangers."

"You were a soldier?"

"A captain."

"And now you drive a Corolla."

"It runs."

"Why did you leave?"

"A convoy hit a roadside bomb outside Kandahar," he said. His voice stayed flat.

"Four of my men were in the truck."

"The plates in their vests cracked like dinner plates. Somebody had sold us bad armor."

Ingrid's hand stopped on his chest.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"I got out that winter," he said. "I came home, my wife died, and I decided I'd be somebody's father and nothing else."

He left out what came after.

She sensed it, a dark door standing just beside him, but she did not push.

She put her palm over the scar on his shoulder and felt his heart beat against her fingers.

"You let five men hit you in a garage because you wanted the cameras to see," she said softly.

"Ingrid."

"You were thinking about Posy's school."

"I'm always thinking about Posy."

"And now you're thinking about me," she said.

His eyes lifted to hers.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Loser Daddy is a Big Shot from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.