“No, this is Katrina’s house.” She unbuckled her seat belt, but I grabbed her hand before she could exit.
“You said he was at preschool.”
“Yes, earlier. It’s after four, which means Katrina has already picked him up and brought him here.” Her alluring blue-green eyes finally lifted to mine. “I sometimes work until six, so she watches him for me after preschool.”
I blinked. So she did have a job? Why not answer me before? And… “Why not hire a nanny?” I paid more than enough money for one.
She gaped at me before throwing her blonde head back on a laugh. “Are you serious? I’m lucky Katrina lets me pay her as little as I do.” She wiggled her hand out from beneath mine. “You’re welcome to wait outside, but—”
A squeal from outside the car cut her off, and she immediately opened the door to hop out.
“Auntie A!” a high-pitched boyish voice yelled before a boy with a mop of dark hair tackle-hugged her legs a few feet from the driver’s seat. Avery laughed at the excited welcome and fell to his level. “I missed you. So much. Guess what we made today? It’s soooooo a’sum. Lemme show you.” He tugged on her hand, and she disappeared with him into the house.
Okay, so the boy obviously liked her. But that meant nothing. This could all still be a ruse, and kids were easily manipulatable.
I tapped out a message to Garrett letting him know I’d set eyes on Jamie and he appeared to be healthy. Happy, even.
Avery appeared in the doorway a few minutes later with a short brunette who glowered daggers at me in the passenger seat. I grinned back at her. She flushed in response, as most women did.
Except Avery, who showed no interest whatsoever.
That was part of the reason I had deviated from Garrett’s plan. The woman intrigued me, mostly because I wanted to figure out her game. Jean had played me better than anyone ever had, and a twisted part of me craved the opportunity to pay her sister back in kind. Cruel, yes. But life wasn’t fair.
Avery lifted a backpack from just inside the house and looped it over her shoulder while Jamie held tight to her other hand. He waved goodbye rather enthusiastically to the brunette and almost skipped alongside Avery.
“…and then nap time, which is soooo boow-ring. But after that, we played a game of duck, duck, moose.”
Avery’s smile reached her eyes as she replied, “A moose instead of a goose, huh?”
“Yup.” He sounded quite pleased. “I won free times.”
“Three,” she corrected him as they approached her still-open door. Her smile fell as she caught sight of me waiting for them, almost as if she’d forgotten about me until now. Her tongue peeked out to lick her lips. “Jamie, I, uh. Well, there’s someone who wants to meet you.”
“An angel?” he loud-whispered at her, and the grimace in her features had me frowning.
“No, not an angel.”
“So no Momma Jean.”
“No, Jamie. I told you, Momma Jean won’t be coming back.”
His shoulders fell as they rounded her door, and he pouted up at her. “It’s ’cause of me?”
“No, Jamie. Not you. Never you.” She went to her knees again to be on his level just as his brown eyes—the same dark shade as my own—landed on me in the passenger seat.
Jamie’s pupils widened as he ducked behind Avery. “Auntie A.” The kid really needed to work on his whispering skills. “Who’s th-that?”
She cleared her throat, and although I couldn’t see her, I felt her hesitation.
I expected this to be entertaining, watching her struggle to say my name, but it wasn’t amusing in the slightest. And the audible hitch in her breath broke any and all of my resolve to see this part of our game through.
“It’s, uh, well—”
“I’m Wyatt.” I opened the door to walk around the back of the car and paused when Jamie ducked even further behind Avery. He clung to her in a way I recognized immediately.
It was the same way I used to cling to my birth mother on the days Jonah came to pick me up after my monthly weekend with her.
My feet cemented to the ground, unable to take another step.
Protection and love radiated off Avery in a way I knew all too well.
That can’t be an act…
Mothers had a look to them that very few could replicate, and everything about Avery in that moment felt very real. As did the warning in her gaze to back off immediately.
I lifted my hands and squatted to their level in a sign of acquiescence. I wouldn’t push this.
“I knew your Momma Jean,” I explained softly, using the phrase I overheard from their conversation. “An old friend.” Those three words hurt to say. She was a friend. Once. Until she betrayed me.
“Friend of Momma Jean? An angel?” That last part was directed at Avery.
“Definitely not an angel,” she replied as her eyes ran over me. “More like a rebel.”
I narrowed my gaze at the choice of nickname. It served as the first sign she knew exactly who I was despite her earlier claims not to have a clue of my existence. Unless she chose rebel by coincidence, which I severely doubted.
“R-rebel,” Jamie repeated. “What’s rebel mean?”
“Someone who likes to cause trouble,” she replied, holding my gaze while saying it.
Jamie gasped. “Trouble bad.”
“Yes, trouble is bad,” she agreed. “But some rebels like to cause trouble to be funny.”
Jamie’s brow pinched. “Funny good?”
“Funny is good,” she said, mirth dancing in her eyes.
“Okay, he a rebel friend.”
Avery grinned. “Yes, he’s a rebel friend.”
Jamie nodded, pleased with himself. “Rebel friend Wyatt.”
“Apparently, that’s my name.” I did not share their amusement since rebel was the nickname the media had given me nearly a decade ago. But I forced myself to play along for Jamie’s sake. “And you are?”
“Jamie,” he said, still half hiding behind Avery. “I’m four.” He held up four fingers while Avery smiled.
“Good job,” she praised him. “But you’re supposed to wait until he asks your age.”
“Oh.” His lips pinched, then he shrugged. “I’m four.”
“That’s good to know,” I replied, grinning. “I’m twenty-nine.”
Jamie’s eyes went wide as he studied his fingers, his lips moving as he counted. When he reached ten, he looked to Avery for help.
She smiled indulgently. “We’ll learn later. Remember how we counted to twenty-eight for me on my last birthday?”
His eyebrows drew down, then he nodded. “Yep. With the candles.”
“So if we did that for Wyatt, he would have one more candle,” she explained.
“Making me positively ancient, at least according to your aunt.” I couldn’t help the jibe. She’d completely overreacted in the car when I mentioned her looking different from Jean. I’d meant it as a compliment, and she inferred it as me calling her old. Most women didn’t even need the praise from me, just a glance, but this one proved challenging.
“Very old,” she agreed as she stood. “We should probably get out of Katrina’s driveway.”
I glanced over them to see the brunette standing in the doorway with her hand against her heart. Well, at least someone found me endearing. I grinned at her as I stood to my full six-foot-two height and adjusted my jacket for show.
Avery cleared her throat and raised a brow, then glanced at the car beside me. Jamie clung to her leg but peered up at me with obvious interest.
I stepped back with an after you gesture and observed as she settled Jamie into his forward-facing car seat. She reached around him to secure the belts in place before bending to pick up the backpack she’d let drop to the ground.
Her long legs and shapely hips would look so much better in a skirt, but her three-inch heels were nice. And the blouse really did nothing for the figure beneath, yet I found the whole outfit sexy, in a mature way.
Very different from the nightclub girls who tried to seduce me with their barely-there skirts and see-through tank tops.
It seemed like a lifetime ago when I found that look attractive. Lately, it’d been women like Avery who caught my eye. Sophisticated, well dressed, and now glowering right at me.
Oh, that look added to the whole package.
I smirked, not ashamed at all to have been caught in the act of checking her out. “Yes, Avery?”
Her lips flattened, but a faint pink touched her cheeks. “Nothing.”
She stepped forward, presumably to close the door, and ran into my chest. Because I’d purposely not moved. When she tried to shift backward, I grabbed her hip with one hand and used the other to gently nudge the door behind her. The snick told me it’d secured itself just fine.
“A rebel?” I asked, my gaze dropping to her mouth. “Shall I redefine the word for you?” Why I chose now to punish her for the wounding nickname, I couldn’t say. But she felt quite nice beneath my hand. My fingers itched to explore more.
“I—I didn’t mean anything by it.” She cleared her throat and pitched her voice low. “Jamie can see us.”
“Mmm,” I murmured. “Yes. Maybe later, then.”
I let her go, though it took more effort than I cared to admit. To her credit, she held her ground and didn’t stumble away from me. But the faint blush decorating her pretty face suggested she wanted to either scold me or do something more adultlike.
Not as immune to me now, are you, sweetheart?
I winked at her and sauntered over to the passenger side. After settling in my seat, a little voice from the back piped up with a loud “Seat belt.”
“Very good, Jamie,” Avery said as she buckled herself into the driver’s side.
I followed suit because who was I to argue with the wise four-year-old?
“Is tonight pizza night, Auntie A?” Jamie asked as she reversed out of the driveway.
She waved to Katrina, who still stood in the doorway, before responding, “No. Pizza night is Friday, and today is Wednesday.”
“Hmm, ’kay.” Jamie didn’t seem all that bothered, but a glance back at him showed he was thinking very hard about something.
“What is for dinner?” I wondered out loud.
She licked her lips. “Are you joining us?”
“Are you driving me back to Garrett?” I countered. I doubted she was eager to return to the five o’clock traffic crowd.
“Uh, we didn’t actually talk about that, did we?”
“No.” I already had a plan, not that I intended to share it yet. “But I’ll join you for dinner.”
“Oh?” she asked, a note of defiance in her tone. “Did I invite you?”
“I don’t believe I require an invitation, Aunt Avery.” It was a dick thing to say, but true nonetheless. If I wanted to take Jamie from her right now, I could. But I didn’t want to until I knew more about their relationship.
If the loving-mother charade turned out to be real, I would have to reconsider my intentions.
Jean deceived you once, my memory reminded. And you’re still paying for it.
Too true.
No.
I couldn’t go easy on Avery. Not like I did with her sister.
I refused to be tricked by a Perry again.
This woman tried to obtain custody of my son behind my back. She claimed not to know about me, but how could she not? I paid for everything. Obviously. And it wasn’t like Jean conceived Jamie magically.
“I guess we’re having pizza, then,” Avery muttered, her hands going white on the steering wheel. “Since I didn’t grocery shop for a party of three.”
“Pizza?” Jamie repeated. “It’s pizza night?”
Avery sighed. “Yes, Jamie, it’s pizza night.”
“Yaaaay!” His resulting squeal had me cracking a smile even as I winced. The kid had a pair of lungs on him.
“And wine,” Avery grumbled. “So much wine.”
4
Avery
I glanced at the well-used movie case Jamie shoved at me and asked, “Again?”
“Yep!” He hopped up and down for emphasis and started parroting one of the songs. Despite having watched the same movie over and over for the last two weeks straight, he still didn’t sing all the right words. He made up his own version of the lyrics and went from there.
Wyatt observed from the dining room table. He’d remained mostly quiet, allowing his eyes to do all the speaking for him as he studied every corner of my three-bedroom home.
Disapproval radiated from him.
Well, screw him. This was the best I could afford on my salary, and a huge part of my paycheck went to childcare. Maybe if he’d helped Jean financially, we could have invested in a bigger place more to his liking.
Or, more likely, I would have put it all away for Jamie’s future. We didn’t need a mini-mansion—only each other.
I smiled as Jamie settled into his favorite chair. It dwarfed him adorably, but he still managed to command the air around him like a king.
“Okay, dude.” I ruffled his mop of hair on my way to the television. “We’ll watch this until bedtime, but no dillydallying tonight, got it?”
“Got it.” The angelic smile he flashed me did not fool me in the slightest. I knew devilish horns lurked beneath it, just waiting to come out at seven thirty on the dot.
But I let him think I believed him.
“Good.” I turned on the film and handed Jamie a blanket before joining Wyatt in the dining area. His leather jacket hung over the chair, leaving him clad in a black shirt that clung to his biceps as he moved his elbows to the table.
“You’re really great with him.” His low voice soothed some of my nerves but not all of them. He’d been so quiet and judgmental throughout dinner that I didn’t know how to proceed.
I took the chair across from him with a murmured “Thanks.” Sometimes I felt like the worst mom in the world, but then Jamie would give me this look that made me feel like supermom. Those were my favorite days.
“So what is it you do for a living?” Wyatt asked, gesturing to my mess of an office just off the living area.
I grimaced at how that must look to him—all the papers, notebooks, and computer monitors sprawled out all over the small space.
“Uh, yeah, I’m an IT project manager, and my work sort of comes home with me a lot. Especially lately.” I picked up my glass and finished the last of my wine. Wyatt retrieved the bottle before I could and held it out to give me a refill. I accepted with a soft “Thank you.”
“I suppose you need it after today.”
“Understatement.” I couldn’t help the sarcastic snort that accompanied that single word. “I thought losing my sister was the biggest shock of my life. Until today.” I swallowed two healthy gulps before setting down the crystal stem a little harsher than I meant to. “Sorry. Yes, my day sucked. Tomorrow will probably be worse.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face as the weight of everything settled over me again. Would I ever be granted a break from the reality of my life? No. Probably not.
“Avery.” My name on his tongue should not sound nearly as erotic as it did, but somehow, he managed to twirl the syllables in a way that drew me right to him.
With a face like his, I doubted he begged much for bed partners. The man practically oozed sex, something Katrina had noticed immediately. She’d swooned over him without even meeting him. And yeah, I could see the appeal, minus the fact that he fathered my sister’s child and was now trying to take him from me.
“Yes?” I prompted, more irritated with myself than with him. Because no way could I find this man attractive. Ever. It was wrong on so many levels.
“I have a few questions.” He picked up his water and swirled the contents, his gaze thoughtful. He’d refused my wine earlier, likely because it didn’t suit his tastes. Too cheap. “Why do you live here?”
I blinked at him. “In Acworth? Georgia? This house?” He’d have to be mo
re specific.
“This home.”
“Because I like it.” The defensive note in my tone couldn’t be helped. His obvious disapproval unsettled me. “Not all of us are rich, Mister Mershano. I work very hard to provide for myself and Jamie, and this was the best I could afford.”
“Jean didn’t help?”
A laugh tickled my throat but didn’t quite reach the surface. “She tried, in her own way. Most months, she helped with a third of the mortgage, but as she rarely lived here, her contribution wasn’t reliable.”
I plied myself with more wine to avoid rubbing my chest. Hearing the words from my own mouth further proved how blind I’d been. Rather than demand an explanation from Jean, I just accepted her behavior and learned to deal with it. All of my energy went to caring for the center of my world—Jamie.
He cocked his head to the side. “I see. And the money, it came from the odd jobs you mentioned earlier, right?”
I nodded.
“What were those odd jobs?” he pressed when I said nothing else.
A defensive retort prickled my tongue, but I didn’t voice it. I wanted to blame him for not being involved in Jean’s life enough to know the answer to that, but I didn’t know, either. Which was the real issue.
“I honestly don’t know,” I whispered and hid my shame behind my wine glass. Jean never elaborated much on her life, and whenever I did pry, it always ended in a fight. So I’d given up. “My sister and I weren’t very close, Mister Mershano. I didn’t even know you were the father until today.”
Those dark eyes flared with something I couldn’t interpret, but I felt judged on some level. And whatever judgment he’d arrived at did not appear to be positive.
Distrust. An emotion I recognized and understood all too well.
But in this, I had proof.
I set my glass down and pushed away from the table to find the file on Jamie in my office.
Wyatt didn’t move or say anything when I returned. He just kept observing me in that cocky manner. Wealth and privilege emanated from him. It was woven into his designer clothes, the artful style of his purposely messy hair, and the overall way he carried himself. Casual, lazy, arrogant. As if he had no worries in the world and knew it.
The Rebel’s Redemption: Mershano Empire Series Page 3
