Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Nor did I particularly want to talk to him.
“Well, thanks,” I said breezily. “I have to go, though.”
Matt started to say something more, but I was having none of it and hung up.
Fucker.
I picked up the groceries, held my purse in my hand and shoved my phone in my bra, then started up the steps of the house.
I used the railing as I went since I’d left the cane back in my car and breathed a sigh of relief when I made it.
However, when it came to a door, I knew it was a lost cause. There was no way that I could maneuver into that opening without holding on to the threshold.
Placing the groceries down on the stoop, I pushed open the door until I could fit through.
The first thing I noticed as I entered was the lack of yelling from Cody versus when I left.
Which made me smile.
Cody loved Conleigh.
And then I heard the low murmur of voices.
Frowning, I peeked around the corner of the entryway.
The last thing I expected when I got home was to find the sexy officer in my kitchen. Though, I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me. Not with Conleigh’s grabby hands lately.
God, the sexiest man alive was sitting at my kitchen table, and that was only because my daughter was becoming a thief!
Holy shit!
I watched as the officer’s fingers flew over the keyboard of the phone. For a sexy older man with large hands, he was surprisingly adept at texting.
I shuffled carefully, feeling good today after the latest twelve-hour shift, and came to a stop right outside the kitchen as I leaned against the door and carefully toed off my shoes.
As I did, I listened to what was going on in my kitchen.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking up on Matt.” The police chief, Steel, grinned. “I sent a text message to my son, then to Fender, to find out what they knew about Matt.”
Conleigh’s frown furrowed even deeper.
“But what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to check into him,” he repeated, not really giving her much information.
Which also meant not giving ME any more information.
“What the hell?” I murmured.
Why were they looking up Matt?
Then Conleigh started to talk again.
“I can tell you everything you want to know about the lying bi—woman.”
Steel’s lips twitched. “I’m not sure I should be having this conversation with you.”
I wasn’t either.
Then again, it wasn’t her story to tell. It was mine.
I stepped into the room and made myself known to the room’s two awake occupants. The one sleeping occupant was Cody, who was asleep in Steel’s arms—causing my heart to melt.
“Why are you looking into my ex-husband?”
Steel looked up, spotting me in the doorway, and stood.
“Mrs. Holyfield…”
I held up my hand. “You need to stop.”
Steel’s eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t mean to step on any toes…”
“Mom…”
“I have to get Cody started on his bath,” I murmured.
Conleigh beat me to it.
She walked up to Steel, taking Cody’s limp body in her arms, and then rushed out of the room before I could tell her I’d do it.
I sighed and turned back to Steel, my ex’s boss.
Some people called him Big Papa, but I wasn’t sure I could ever call him that.
It was awkward. Especially when he kept bringing my delinquent daughter back to me.
“Ma’am…” He hesitated, starting toward me.
I held up a hand.
“He cheated on me.”
He paused in the middle of my kitchen floor.
“He what?”
I nodded. “He cheated on me.”
It was obvious that he wasn’t going to back down. For some reason, this man really wanted to know why Conleigh was having trouble. And for some reason, I felt like telling him.
I didn’t have anybody to talk to anymore. I’d not only lost my husband when he’d cheated on me, but I’d lost my best friend as well. My best friend who’d cheated on her husband—her dying husband—with my husband.
“I’m sorry.”
I shrugged.
“Is it because of your legs?”
I looked down at my feet, as I eased on my fluffy blue pair of slippers which had been lying in the hallway.
“No.” I paused. “It gets worse, though.”
“I don’t see how.” He admitted as he took a seat, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.
I laughed humorlessly.
“I found out that my husband was cheating on me when my child told me.”
“What?”
I nodded. “My youngest.”
His confusion was obvious, and I smiled, but it didn’t meet my eyes.
“He kept saying ‘Daddy likes her kisses’ to my best friend, Angelina. He’d pull her hand and pull her over to my ex-husband.” I cleared my throat. “They laughed it off like it wasn’t happening, but I got curious one day when I walked over to their house and found nobody home.”
“Okay…”
I waved my hand in the air.
“My best friend and her husband, Mark, lived across the street from us. They bought their house about a year after we’d bought ours. It was the perfect set-up…until Mark was diagnosed with testicular cancer.” She scratched her head. “It had been caught too late, and it had already spread to his lymph nodes. By the time they realized there was something wrong, it was in his chest and blood.”