Falling for My Ex's Uncle novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Uncut

"Evening, everybody," Brice said to the party. "Don't mind us."

My mouth was still swollen.

My hair was half out of its braid.

I put my hand up to fix it, and the camera swung toward me and caught me doing it.

Wick came around Mabel behind me, tucking his shirt in.

The camera caught that too.

"No cameras in this yard," Wick said.

"It's a business," Sherrie said pleasantly. "Open to the public."

"It's closed. It's a birthday."

"We'll be quick." She smiled. "Brice just wants to talk to his girlfriend."

"Ex," said four people at once.

The judge said it loudest.

Brice walked straight past the cake to the counter window, where the light was best.

He'd thought about the light.

I could tell.

"Neva," he said. "I'm not here to fight. I'm here to bring you home."

"I am home."

"This?" He looked around at the gas station, the picnic tables, the kid's mother with her potato salad. "Babe. You're sleeping on a cot in a gas station with a man who burned down my grandfather's pit house."

The yard went quiet.

Wick didn't move.

"He was thirty," Brice said to the camera. "Drunk. Left the firebox open. My grandfather never got over it. And now he's got my girlfriend."

"Ex," said the kid, from the sink.

"Kid, stay out of it," Brice said.

"He's sixteen and he's on my payroll," Wick said. "Talk to him like that again and I'll throw you out myself."

"Do it." Brice turned to face him, chin up, eyes bright. "Go on. Hit me on camera, Uncle Wick. I dare you."

That was what they'd come for.

I saw it all at once.

They'd cut the music and the cake and the jokes, and they'd keep one punch.

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend