Page 29 of Love Expert

It makes complete sense that Aria Sinclair would change over the years—we all did—but her eyes stayed exactly the same, and in the picture furthest to the right, she smiles with her brand-new, red-faced, squishy cheeked baby.

God. Did she know yet that she was dying?

Beside that is a framed photograph of Aria with a round belly, her hand delicately sitting below the bump, and a wide smile creasing her face.

In the photo beside that, Aria and Billy pose on their wedding day.

A wave of profound sadness settles in my heart, not even because of the woman who no longer lives, but for the happiness in Billy’s eyes. The smile I haven’t seen since he was a child. His complete trust in the world, and the belief that everything would be okay.

I bring my eyes across to the man he is today, the anger he holds in every word he speaks, the intolerance in his actions. The exhaustion he wears like a badge of honor.

My breath hitches as grief bites at my soul.

“For fuck’s sake.” Growling, he stalks into the room and slaps each framed photograph down, robbing me of their beautiful smiles. “Thisiswhy I don’t date.” He points an accusatory finger at my face. “Thisis why I can’t be bothered with all the bullshit. Because women cry every fucking time, and cryingneversegues to panty chewing. What’s a man gotta do to get laid around here?”

“Dad!” Jeremy’s footsteps thunder across the second floor and onto the staircase. “Dad! I got another loose tooth!”

I draw a shuddering breath and shake my hair back, resetting myself to the aloof, untouchable Magnolia Sava I pretend to be. Pasting on a smile, I watch as Jeremy bounds off the staircase and skids to a stop in the living room. His little chest heaves, and his smile is broad enough to rival Billy’s on his wedding day. Stunned by my presence, he claps his hands over his chest to hide… well, his nipples, I suppose. “Maggie!” Forgetting his father completely, he dashes across the room and crashes into my legs. “I’ve got another loose tooth, Maggie!” He opens his mouth wide and forgoes his modesty to point at the offending tooth. “If I start wigglin’ it today, it might come out by the weekend. And if it comes out by the weekend, my dad might take me to the shops so I can buy a new basketball.”

I glance around the living room, my lips quivering with a smile. “Don’t you already have enough basketballs?”

“Nuh-uh! Also, I learned the hip escape at the gym today.” Like a boneless doll, he drops to the floor with a startling thud and…appearsto be having a seizure. Objectively, Ithinkhe’s showing me his new skill. “See!” He seizes in the opposite direction. “It’s pretty good, huh!?”

“Thisis why my son always has bruises,” Billy grumbles, running a hand through his hair. “He does it to himself. Keep that in mind next time you assume I’m beating on him.”

“Why are you here anyway, Maggie?” Jeremy energetically bounds to his feet, his eyes wide like saucers and his hands easily coming to my hips to hold me in place. “I said how we should invite you over to eat out of the food drawer, too, cos you live next door alone and stuff. But Dad said you wouldn’t wanna.”

“You have a food drawer?” I hug my folder and look Billy’s way. “Singular? One drawer?”

He purses his lips. “Maggie doesn’t want to stay, buddy. And she especially doesn’t want to eat out of the food drawer.”

“Are you making soup, then?” Jeremy’s hands drop away, fast as a whip. “Are you looking for children to put in your soup? Cos my dad said you don’t do that?—”

“I don?—”

“Butthenhe said if I didn’t pick my shoes up and put them away, hewas gonna yeet me next door and plop me straight into your cauldron. So now I don’t even know.” His breath bounces with nerves. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, Maggie. But you’re too pretty to be a bad witch, huh?”

Warmth floods my cheeks. “That was a sweet thing to say.”

“Even my dad said you were pretty. And he doesn’t really say?—”

“Jeremy!” Billy leaps away from the fireplace and wraps his hand around the back of his son’s neck, yanking him to the right and walking him through the room. “The shower is still on, but there are no bodies inside it. The bathroom door is open, and I know that because I see steam up there already.” He releases him with a shove and points upward. “Get upstairs, have your shower, put your jammies on, then find a roll of duct tape and seal your lips.”

“But, Dad?—”

“Go!”

Frenzied, Jeremy charges upstairs with his little arms pumping and his shoulder blades popping with every step.

Beet red, Billy brings sheepish eyes back to mine. For the first time since my tumultuous return to Plainview, he presents me with something other than a jerk intentionally trying to trip my temper.

“I’m gonna need you to get out of my house now, Magnolia.”

“You told him I was pretty?”

“No comment.” He stalks across the room and latches onto my biceps, almost knocking my paperwork to the floor as he tugs me off balance. “Go home. Stay away from my house. Pass the dumb prize on to someone else.”

“I can’t pass it on!” I slip out of his grip like a common criminal evading arrest, then I dart across the room and duck into his kitchen to find more balls. More dirty plastic cups. A fridge with the door still open, and a dining table with a stack of folded laundry.