Page 1 of Scrooged All The Way
PROLOGUE
DASHER ‘DASH’ WHITTAKER
“It’s just not going to work out. I’m sorry, June.” I heard my son say from somewhere in the kitchen the moment I opened the front door.Talk about shit timing.I was about to turn around and walk back out when I heard it.
“Juniper,” a dulcet voice corrected my dumbass kid, and something about her voice, her name, had me touching my chest. My brows bunched as my body stayed still at the door.
“Juniper, whatever.” I could almost hear Randall’s eyes rolling. “Look, you’re cute, but you’re also a lot of work.”Fuck. My kid is a serious piece of work.
“Excuse me?” she asked, and I felt my brows bunch together. There was something about her tone, her voice, that made breathing close to impossible.
“No offense, babe. I just mean it’s obvious you’re not going to put out.”
“Wow! We’ve been talking for a month.”
“And that’s an investment. I’m sorry, but I’m not looking for a forever with someone who wants to stay in this mountain town.” Randy sounded like a grade-A asshole.
“What’s wrong with Holly Burrows?” she asked, and I found myself wondering the same. Our little town of Holly was perfectly fine.
“Nothing… for someone like you,” my kid muttered, and my jaw clenched. The condescending tone he spoke to her had this surge of protectiveness bubbling up to the surface. I wanted to smack him up the head. “It’s nothing personal, Juni-bee.”
“Juniper,” she corrected once again.
“I’m home for the holidays, and I was looking for someone to have fun with.” Randy kept on talking, completely full of himself.
“You said you had fun at the toy drive!”
“That’s because I thought you were going to let me break that cherry.” Fucking hell! This breakup was just getting worse.
“Excuse me?” she whispered.
“June, baby, you didn’t even want to make out!”
“Oh my god! How dare I! I mean, you smelled amazing after smoking pot and drinking so much beer you puked at the bonfire. But hey, I should let you paw at me.”
“You don’t have to be such a bitch.” And that was my cue to step in. My kid had a huge lesson coming to him.
Yet I was the one schooled when I crossed the threshold into the kitchen. My eyes met his instantly, and my kid at least had the decency to wince. He knew he was about to get an earful about how he’d just treated this girl. I wasn’t stupid. I knew my son dated.
A lot.
So much I had stopped trying to keep track because honestly, I was terrible with names. But when the tiny blonde turned around, I knew I would remember Juniper for the rest of my life.
“Oh my gosh!” she whispered, obviously startled by my presence. When our eyes connected, I couldn’t tell you if I stared at her for a second or an hour.
Time stood still.
She was beautiful, and Randall was a bigger idiot than I thought was possible if he was talking to the angel in front of me that way. She was perfect and way too young for me to notice her beauty, but fuck me, I couldn’t stop. It might have been Christmastime, but I felt like I’d been shot by Cupid’s arrow.
I tore my gaze from hers and connected with my son’s. He looked like his mother. My ex had been my high school sweetheart. We had broken up before we left for college but stayed friends. But during spring break right before my senior year of college, we’d met up at a party by the lake. Both of us had a little too much to drink and got carried away after figuring out neither of us had a condom, and well, the rest was history.
We’d tried to make it work, but we’d never been able to be more than friends after our son was born. I loved him, but we’d spoiled him too much. No matter what we tried, there was a sense of entitlement, and he walked around with a chip on his shoulder thinking the world owed him something.
“You need to apologize,” I demanded without hesitation.
“Dad—”
“You don’t talk to anyone that way, much less a lady,” I gritted. Anger started to boil in my veins.