Coming Back To You (20 page)

“What the hell is that?”

Karma rubbed the tips of her fingers against
her temple.

Brad’s gaze shot to the rearview mirror.
“What have I told you about the language, Jade?”

A derisive snort came from the backseat.

“They’re chocolate truffles,” Karma said,
glancing over her shoulder as Jade pulled the container out of the
cooler.

“Truffles? That sounds like something pigs
eat.”

“Jade.” Brad’s tone held an unspoken
warning.

The beginning of a headache sprang to life
behind Karma’s eyes. “That’s a different kind of truffle.”

Jade tentatively picked out one of the treats
coated in powdered sugar, spit her wad of gum into her other hand,
and took a bite. A moment later, her face screwed up. “Ew, it feels
like sand.”

Karma faced front and pinched the bridge of
her nose.

Brad reached across the seat and laid his
hand on her arm. “That’s enough, Jade. Karma worked very hard on
those just for you. The least you could do is thank her.”

“For what? They’re, like, yucky. And they
taste funny. Not like real chocolate.”

That would be the coffee she’d added. Big
mistake. Twelve-year-old girls didn’t like coffee. Neither did
Karma, but when she ate the truffles, she could barely taste it.
Apparently, Jade’s taste buds were more attuned than hers.

“Jade. Enough!” Brad squeezed Karma’s hand as
tears stung her eyes.

I will not cry.
Sometimes Jade
reminded her of her old childhood classmate and former coworker,
Jolene. Jo had bullied her all through school, reducing her to
tears more often than not. As an adult, Jo had channeled her
bullying personality into walking all over Karma at work. At least
until Mark came along. Mark had helped Karma find her voice and
shut Jolene down once and for all. But how did you shut down a
contemptuous, ungrateful twelve-year-old?

Thirty awkwardly silent minutes later, except
for the wet chomping noises of Jade chewing her gum with an open
mouth, they arrived at the zoo. Karma’s headache had amplified, and
the sun and heat didn’t help as the three made their way from
exhibit to exhibit.

If only Jade had brought a friend along, they
could have gone off to do their thing to give Karma a break from
all the mental hatred spewing her direction. As it was, Karma was
stuck with the brooding preteen, and all the girl did was complain.
One long, nonstop litany of complaints. It was too hot. She was too
thirsty. The zoo was lame. It smelled like monkey poop. She wished
she’d gone shopping with her friends. She had a bad taste in her
mouth from the truffle. The exhibits stunk. The animals weren’t
active enough. She had to pee. Her stomach hurt from eating that
nasty truffle.

By the time they wound their way back to the
exit a few hours later, Karma felt like she’d been through war. Her
body ached, her head pounded, and emotional
and
nervous
breakdowns sat just at the edge of her sanity.

And she and Brad still hadn’t told Jade they
were engaged, which had been the whole point of today’s trip.

When Karma had begun to think Brad was going
to back down yet again and not tell her, he cleared his throat.
“So, Jade, Karma and I have something we need to tell you.” He
squeezed her hand.

This was it. Get ready for the damn to break
loose. If Karma had thought the past few hours had been hell, the
next sixty seconds were going to be like a star exploding.

Jade’s suddenly wary gaze shifted back and
forth between them. “What?”

Brad hesitated, met Karma’s gaze with a glint
of worry mixed with a dash of hope, then looked back at his
daughter. “I’ve asked Karma to marry me, and she’s said yes.”

Silence. The kind you hear in a vacuum or a
soundproof room. But the stream of insults and accusations Jade
threw from her glare was deafening.

“We’re getting married,” Brad said with
finality.

“No.” Jade turned and stormed through the
parking lot.

Karma and Brad practically had to jog to keep
up, which made Jade trot away even faster. She was practically
running.

“Jade! Stop. Get back here.” Brad let go of
Karma’s hand and ran after his daughter.

Jade finally stopped then spun and pointed
blazing, tear-filled eyes her direction. “I hate you! You’re not
good enough for my dad! And I hope your eye hurts! I hope it hurts
like hell and falls out!”

Karma gasped and covered her bruised eye with
her hand.

A couple of rows away, a family of four
stopped and stared. All Karma could do was shake her head and look
away. This hadn’t gone well. Worse than Karma thought it would.

Brad corralled Jade and knelt in front of
her. He spoke in hushed but heated whispers, gripping Jade by the
biceps. Whatever he said met with a lot of frowning, glares, and
tears.

“She’s young enough to be my sister!” Jade
screamed. “I hate her! I hate her! She’s nothing but a
SLUT
!
A nasty, skanky
slut
!”

Karma’s mouth fell open. Oh, hell no. She
would not stand here and take this shit, even if Jade was only
twelve. And if Brad didn’t put a lid on that kind of talk, like
instantly, let World War III begin.

“Stop it, Jade. Just stop it.” Brad sounded
like he was at the end of his rope.

“No! I hate her! You can’t marry her! No!”
Despite her tough exterior, Jade broke down in brutal sobs. “She’s
only using you!” She slapped her hands over her face and
bawled.

Brad pulled Jade into a hug, leaving Karma
standing like an abandoned dog beside the car. Really? He’d let his
daughter call her a skanky slut and throw insult after insult at
her, and now he rewards her with a hug?

“Ssshh, honey,” Brad said, smoothing his hand
down Jade’s long black hair. “How about we go home and order a
pizza, just the two of us? You and me, just like we used to.”

And the rewards for bad behavior continued.
It was like Karma wasn’t even there. Brad was all about Jade. Poor
Jade. His poor little spoiled brat of a daughter. She threw a
temper tantrum and instead of making a statement by not giving in,
Brad had just enabled her to throw even more tantrums in the
future.

Jade sniffled and nodded as she wiped her
palms over her cheeks. “Okay.”

Awareness slammed into Karma so hard, she
almost gasped. This was what she had to look forward to with Brad.
A life of second place. Brad would always put his daughter first.
Always. He would always bend when Jade cried…always give in and
push Karma aside to tend to Jade, regardless of how badly Karma
needed his emotional support.

What Jade needed was for Brad to show her
that she couldn’t twist him around her little finger and control
him. That he had a life of his own and adult needs that were just
as important as hers. Instead, he caved. He fucking gave in.

Karma turned away, feeling like a fifth
wheel. This is what she had signed on for when she put Brad’s
engagement ring on her finger. This was the choice she had made.
She’d thought Brad could provide the security and commitment she
wanted, but now she felt brutalized, which was about as far from
secure and safe as she could get. Was this the kind of commitment
she wanted? One where she never took a priority in Brad’s life?
Where she would always stand in line behind his daughter? She
deserved to be number one in her husband’s life. Maybe not all the
time, but at least part of the time. With Jade, it was clear Karma
would never be number one.

Brad managed to get Jade into the car, and
the three drove back to Karma’s apartment in silence. Brad grabbed
her cooler from the backseat and walked her up to the outer
door.

“Here, maybe you should take these. I think
they’ll just upset her.” He handed the cooler to Karma.

“Sure. Because we wouldn’t want to upset
Jade, now would we?” She gave him a hardened glare.

His eyebrows crinkled into a frown. “What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” She looked away, too frustrated to
look him in the eye.

“Karma? Why are you mad?”

“Because every time she gets just a little
pissed off, you drop everything—especially
me
—to bend to her
beck and call. I wanted to spend time with you tonight.
Me
.
Your
fiancée
.” She slapped her palm on her chest. “But no,
Jade’s angry that we’re getting married, so off you run, leaving me
alone.” She flapped her arm toward the car. “Again.”

“You’re being unreasonable. She’s my
daughter.”

“Yes, and she needs to know that you have a
life to live, too. She needs to learn how to respect that. And
me
. She needs to learn how to respect
me
. She called
me a slut today, Brad. A skanky slut. She said some really hurtful,
insulting things. And you did nothing to stand up for me. Instead,
you walked away from me and coddled her. And when you walk away
from me and give in to her tantrums, you’re teaching her that it’s
okay to
disrespect
me. That
my
feelings don’t
matter.”

“I don’t see it that way.”

“Really? You don’t? She cries and throws a
fit and you give in. Every damn time, Brad. You’re empowering her
to behave like a spoiled brat every time she doesn’t like something
or doesn’t get her way, because every time she throws a fit, you
give her what she wants. Maybe I need to throw a fit so I can get
what I want once in a while.”

Brad huffed and thrust his hands onto his
hips. “Look, we need to talk about this later. You’re obviously too
upset to discuss this rationally right now.”

Damn straight, she was upset. She’d held her
tongue far too long as it was.

“Just go. Your
daughter
needs you, and
I need to figure out an alternate plan for dinner since I thought I
was eating with you tonight. But seeing that I’m not welcome around
your daughter…” Karma threw him a pointed glare then yanked open
the door and stormed inside.

Maybe she was being irrational and maybe she
wasn’t. Right now, she didn’t care. She had a blinding headache,
she was hungry, and she’d just spent the entire day with the human
version of fingernails on a chalkboard. Even grownups had their
limits, and Karma had reached hers.

She unlocked the door of her apartment,
stepped inside, slammed the door, then just stood there, glaring
out her window as she watched Brad back his Camry out of its
parking space and drive away.

Damn him! And damn his entitled, spoiled
daughter!

She spun around, marched back out, locked up
behind her, and stormed down the stairs to the exit, not realizing
she was still carrying her cooler until she got to her car.
Climbing behind the wheel, she set the cooler in the passenger seat
then pulled out. If she was going to eat alone tonight, she was
going to do it at her favorite restaurant, Greek Tony’s.

Chapter 23

The newspaper lay on the left side of the table, the
half-eaten meatball sub Mark had ordered for dinner clutched in his
right hand. After viewing houses this morning, he’d spent the
afternoon at the office organizing his space, hanging pictures, and
going through reports before calling it a day and stopping by Greek
Tony’s for dinner. There was a lot of catching up to do at work,
but things were coming back quickly from when he’d worked at Solar
a year ago.

Well, most things were. Karma was still
holding him at arm’s length.

He glanced up as the chimes on the door
jangled.

Speak of the devil.

Mark set down his sandwich and watched Karma
beeline for the counter. She didn’t notice him sitting in the
corner, but then she appeared distracted and frazzled—maybe even
upset—her hair pulled into a haphazard ponytail, her face drawn and
pale.

“Hey, Andrew,” she said in a tired voice to
the kid behind the counter.

“Hey, Karma. Whoa! What happened to your
eye?”

She halfheartedly lifted her hand toward her
face. “I got hit with a softball…and my fiancé’s daughter hopes my
eyeball falls out.” The last she said with an edge of sarcasm.

Andrew’s eyebrows shot into his forehead.
“Ooookaaaay. That’s not right.”

“Tell me about it.” Karma leaned on the
counter as if she could barely hold herself up.

What the hell had happened to her today?

“So, the usual?” Andrew said.

“Yes, please.”

“You look exhausted. Long day?”

Karma brushed a wayward strand of hair off
her face. “The longest. Besides wishing me to lose an eye, my
fiancé’s daughter is a damn diva.”

Mark tried not to listen, but couldn’t help
himself. The dining room was small and relatively empty. There were
only two other occupied tables. He was actually surprised she
hadn’t seen him, but he
was
sitting at the corner table,
tucked away from the main part of the room.

“Uh-oh. A diva, huh?” Andrew said.

“God, yes.” Karma handed over her credit
card. “We spent the day at the zoo, and all she did was complain,
and when Brad and I told her we’re engaged, she flipped out. Right
in the middle of the parking lot. People stopped and stared.”

Andrew chuckled. “Glad it’s you and not me.”
He swiped her card.

“I wish it weren’t.” Karma plunked her elbow
on the counter and rested her head in her hand. “The worst of it is
that I made her homemade chocolate truffles as a peace offering,
and she didn’t even like them. I mean, chocolate, Andrew.
Chocolate
. What girl doesn’t like chocolate? I give up.” She
straightened, but her shoulders still slumped.

The extent of what Karma had endured today
had obviously taken its toll on her both mentally and
physically.

Andrew handed back her card, turned, snagged
a plastic-wrapped cookie off the back shelf, and set it on the
counter in front of Karma.