Neighbors with the Single Dad (The Single Dads of Seattle Book 8)

by Whitley Cox

  “Can we go inside?” Kellen asked, slipping out from beneath her arm and grabbing his backpack. Lucas did the same.

  “Of course.” She followed the boys to the front door, punched in the keycode and turned the latch. Her eyes flicked back to the street when the niggling feeling that eyes were on her made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. But there was nothing nefarious in sight. A faint whistle had her shifting her gaze skyward, and that’s when she saw him.

  He was still shirtless, and even from a distance, she could tell Scott was on high alert. He waved at her, and she waved back.

  “You okay?” he called out the window.

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

  All she could manage was a grim smile and another wave. As much as she wanted him to be right, he couldn’t promise that kind of thing. Todd was a powerful man with money and connections. This might just be one problem that couldn’t be fixed—aside from Eva breaking up with a man who in a very short span of time meant more to her than she was willing to admit.

  17

  Saturday night found Celeste and Eva curled up on Eva’s couch beneath a microfleece blanket, a rom-com on the television and wine in hand, mulling over the Todd dilemma.

  It was only a matter of time until Todd figured out who lived next door to Eva—if he hadn’t already. He had friends who were cops. He had friends in city planning. He had friends who were hackers. All it would take would be one phone call to one of his buddies, and Scott’s name would pop right up.

  “Maybe just tell him,” Celeste offered, taking a sip of her wine. Her sister had come over for dinner. Sabrina was at a sleepover with a friend, so Celeste offered to stay the night at Eva’s, as Eva didn’t really feel like being home with the boys by herself right now, not after her jarring altercation with Todd.

  “And run the risk of Scott losing his job? I can’t do that.”

  “Yeah, but like you said, he’s going to find out anyway. Might as well hear it from you, no?”

  Eva exhaled and finished the final sip of her wine. “If the PI I hire can’t find anything, then I will, but I may need you to be there too when I tell him. You know—as a witness.”

  “PI’s can take a while to dig up shit,” Celeste said, reaching for the wine bottle on the coffee table and topping up both their glasses. “You might not have that time. And let’s just say that the PI does find something, if it’s dirty enough, you can’t keep that information to yourself. You’ll have to go to the police with it.”

  “Well, then Todd will go to prison. Problem solved. I either blackmail him or I send him to prison.” She hated the idea of stooping to the horrendous method of blackmailing, but Todd pushed her to do things she never ever thought she would or could do. What was a minor felony in the grand scheme of things?

  Celeste’s lips formed a thin line, which meant she wasn’t entirely on board with Eva’s plan. Oh well, neither was Eva, but she didn’t have any other plans coming out of her ass at the moment, so she needed to roll with the one she had. She glanced at the television, where the happy couple on screen were involved in a cheesy home-reno montage set to music.

  “Fast forward through this garbage?” Celeste asked.

  Eva nodded and was about to reach for the remote when her phone on the coffee table buzzed a text message.

  It was from Scott.

  BBQ tomorrow at Zak’s place. Kids invited. Please come. You and the boys. I’m grabbing Freddie early.

  “Who is it?” Celeste asked, her nose wrinkling and pushing her glasses up an inch on her face. She usually wore contacts but had taken them out an hour ago to give her eyes a rest.

  “Scott. He’s invited me and the boys to a BBQ at his friend’s house.”

  Celeste’s mouth made an O, which then seemed to prompt her to yawn. “You going to go? Is this the single dads club he’s in? You ready for that big step? Meeting his friends?”

  “Well, now that you say it like that, I don’t know.”

  She was about to text him back when her phone buzzed again with another message from him.

  Liam hired a PI to dig up some dirt on Todd. He has some interesting information for us, wants to speak in person tomorrow at the party.

  Now it was Eva’s turn to look like a codfish.

  “What is it?” Celeste asked, impatient and grabbing Eva’s phone from her. She read Scott’s messages. “Holy shit.” She handed Eva back her phone. “I wonder what he dug up?”

  Eva shook her head, equal parts stunned, terrified and thrilled. “I have no idea, but whatever it was, if Liam wants to speak in person, it can’t be good.”

  Celeste clicked her tongue. “Oh, Todd, you’re about to get your ass handed to you. And it’s about damn time.”

  Eva texted Scott back. Sure. BBQ sounds great. And why didn’t you tell me your brother hired a PI? I was going to hire one.

  He texted back right away.

  I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case the guy didn’t find anything. Sorry, I should have told you. To be fair though, my mouth WAS pretty occupied last night and this morning.

  Heat flooded her cheeks.

  “He sexting you?” Celeste asked. “Can I see?” She went to reach for Eva’s phone, then stopped. “Wait, do I want to see? Is he into some kinky shit?”

  Well …

  Eva’s gaze slid sideways.

  Celeste scrunched her nose. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

  Eva texted him back. You’re forgiven. Text me in the morning about the BBQ and we can convoy.

  We can put Freddie’s booster in your van and all go together.

  Even better.

  “You’ve got it bad, you know,” Celeste teased. “You’re smiling like an idiot and twirling your finger in your hair like you did when we were kids and you were on the phone with a boy.”

  Eva’s hand paused, and she glanced at the coil of hair wrapped around her finger. She hadn’t even been aware she was doing that.

  “You going to the BBQ?” Celeste asked.

  Eva nodded. “Yeah. I’m excited to meet his friends. That’s where he is tonight, at his brother Liam’s for their poker night. I think it’s really cool, a bunch of single dads getting together to support each other. Mind you, apparently the majority of them are no longer single, but it’s still a really great concept.”

  “I should start us a single moms club,” Celeste offered. “Like a book club, but without books, because who the fuck has time to read? And instead we sit around drinking wine and bitching about how much we love our little crotch fruits but that they ultimately drive us to drink the wine we’re drinking.”

  “I’d join that club,” Eva said, clinking her sister’s glass.

  Celeste nodded. “Then it’s done. I hereby decree that the first meeting of The Single Moms of Seattle will come to order.” She glanced around. “Do you have a gavel?”

  “Sorry, lost it in the divorce.”

  “Damn.” She grabbed a paperweight made of pewter shaped like an alligator—a weird wedding gift from Eva and Celeste’s equally weird Great Aunt Ruth. She banged it twice on the end table. “There, it’s official. Now we need to recruit.”

  “Flyers?”

  “No, we’ll need to vet people. I’ll think on it. Maybe hold auditions. See if the women are a good fit. I mean, we can’t just invite any ol’ riffraff into our exclusive club. If they don’t consider wine a food group, they have no place in our organization. We can’t have sober chicks judging us the whole time.”

  Eva nodded, giggling. She bumped shoulders with her sister. “I love you, Celly.”

  “Love you too, Eves.” Then they snuggled up close under the blanket like they did when they were kids and watched one of the most awful movies Eva had watched in a while, but it didn’t matter, because the company she kept was awesome.

  “Ready to go?” Scott asked as he slid in behind the driver’s seat of Eva’s van and adjusted the seat to accommoda
te his long legs.

  Three little boys with enormous grins beamed back at him in the rearview mirror. He’d gone and picked up Freddie from Katrin’s that morning, and his son was more than happy to come back to Scott’s early. Katrin seemed to be ready for her week off to start too. Scott didn’t probe far into her and Freddie’s week together. He’d get what he needed from Freddie, and as long as Katrin kept their son safe, Scott had to back off and let his ex-wife parent their son the way she chose to parent him.

  Wise words from his therapist that had taken a while to sink in.

  Freddie was asking about Kellen and Lucas before he even got into Scott’s truck, wanting to know if he could play with them when he got home. Scott had burst out laughing at his son’s glee when he revealed that they were all going over to Uncle Zak’s house for a BBQ and that Jordie would be there, as well as all the other kids too.

  Thankfully, so far anyway, all the kids seemed to get along. Perhaps it was because they were being raised together, so therefore they were becoming more like family than friends. Either way, all the dads were grateful there was no bad blood between any of their children.

  Eva’s smile was small and forced as he backed out of her driveway. Just like Scott, she was probably anxious as hell to find out what dirt Liam’s PI had dug up on the slimy Todd.

  It had been all Scott could do on Saturday to not run out into Eva’s driveaway and punch the living shit out of Todd. This man was certainly testing Scott’s self-control in ways he never thought he would have to be tested. It’d been hard enough facing him later in the week after his lunch with Liam and their run-in. Every word he spoke to his VIP client was forced out through clenched teeth and fists beneath the table. He was a tightly wound cord close to snapping by the time Todd and his executive assistant, Braxlan (yes, you heard that name right!), left the office.

  “What the hell’s got your panties so tightly wedged up your ass?” Remy had asked with a cocky grin.

  “You know what!” Scott snapped, knowing he shouldn’t speak to his superior like that but also not giving two fucks at the moment how he spoke to the maggot.

  Remy rolled his eyes, continuing to grin. Now Scott wanted to punch two people in their stupid faces. “He didn’t seem to know, and if he does know, he didn’t seem to care. Relax.” He smacked Scott on the shoulder and headed out of the conference room. “You need to do some tai chi, Scottie. It relaxes the fuck out of me.”

  He reached for Eva’s hand across the center gap between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. Their fingers laced and rested on the armrest. “It’s going to work out, I promise.”

  The line of her mouth turned grim. “You can’t promise that. He’s dangerous, Scott. We’re playing with fire here. I’m so sorry I got you involved.”

  He squeezed her hand at the same time he pressed his foot on the brake when they came to a red light. “Hey, I’m involved because I want to be. You’re worth every headache, every risk, okay? Besides, whether we were together or not, I would still have found the guy a tool to work for. Any way I can ditch him, I will. And if we happen to put him in prison as the fallout of all of this, then hey, bonus!” He offered her a thumbs-up to try to dilute the mounting tension.

  The boys in the back were bantering playfully back and forth. Freddie was giving Kellen and Lucas a rundown of all the other kids they were going to meet at the BBQ.

  “Now, Gabe is one of my best friends, okay? He doesn’t really talk though, but that’s okay. We’re such good friends, I know what he’s saying without him even needing to talk.”

  “Why doesn’t he talk?” Kellen asked.

  Scott glanced in the mirror to see Freddie shrug. “Dunno. He just doesn’t.” His nose scrunched for a moment. “I mean he does talk. He says Tori and Dad—sort of, but that’s about it.” He shrugged. “You’ll see.”

  Eva’s eyes shifted to Scott so he could fill her in.

  “Gabe is Mark’s little guy. He is on the autism spectrum. Great kid. Nonverbal though. Mark’s girlfriend, Tori, was and is Gabe’s intervention therapist. The little guy has come leaps and bounds developmentally since she started working with him.”

  Eva’s head bobbed in understanding.

  “And now, Mira and Jayda are sisters but also cousins,” Freddie went on. “It’s complicated, but not really.”

  Again, Eva’s eyes shifted to Scott.

  “Mira is Adam’s daughter with Paige. They’re separated, but amicably. Paige is with Mitch, whose daughter, Jayda, is Adam’s niece via his girlfriend, Violet.”

  “Okeydokey, then,” she breathed, glancing out her window at the passing houses. Zak lived in a really nice neighborhood. Not as elite as Liam’s neighborhood on Lake Washington, but it was still pretty fancy. His buddy did well for himself with his gym franchise, and now he was dating a lawyer. When Aurora paid off her student loans and made partner, they’d be rolling in the dough.

  “Hey Dad?” Freddie called from the back at the same time Scott pulled into Zak’s driveway. It was already lined with vehicles.

  “Yeah?”

  “How do monsters like their eggs?”

  Scott groaned and put the van into park. Freddie was obsessed with corny jokes. The kid lived for them. He lived to make people laugh. With a wry smile at Eva and unbuckling his seatbelt, he replied, “I don’t know, bud, how?”

  “Terri-fried!” Freddie paused for the laugh, his mouth open, his hands making gun shapes and poised at his dad. “Get it? Terri-fried.”

  Lucas and Kellen both erupted into giggles.

  “Terri-fried,” Kellen snickered, shaking his head and unbuckling his belt. “That’s hilarious.”

  Eva was smiling now.

  His jokes might be corny as hell, but Scott’s kid really did have a way of making people smile.

  They all bailed out of the van. He grabbed the fruit and dip platter Eva had made, his six-pack of beer and the container of seven-layer dip and chips he’d grabbed from the grocery store. The boys took off at a run up the driveway.

  “Front door or back gate, Dad?” Freddie called.

  “Back gate,” Scott replied, wishing he could take Eva’s hand to reassure her, but his arms were loaded.

  “Did Liam give any indication what his PI found?” she asked, falling in behind him as they traversed the stepping stones in the lawn that led to the gate separating Zak’s front and back yards.

  “No. He just said that his PI dug up some stuff, and it’s best if shown and explained in person.” He held open the gate for her. She wore simple white denim capris and a sexy yellow and blue check short-sleeved button-up shirt with a black tank top beneath it. Her makeup was minimal, and she wore aviator-style sunglasses with brown lenses and gold metal frames. But it was that raspberry red lipstick she always wore that made him crave a kiss from her juicy pout. She was every bit a spring beauty, with bright eyes and a healthy flush to her cheeks.

  She walked past him in her black flats but paused on the path until he shut the gate. Murmurs and the sound of squealing children drifted around the side of the house, followed by the sudden shrill cry of a newborn.

  Ah, Brielle must be awake.

  They turned the corner into the thick of the party just in time to hear Freddie telling a swarm of children one of his jokes. “What do you call a moose with no name?”

  Mira bounced up and down on her toes. “What?”

  “Anonymoose!” Freddie said, slapping his thigh and laughing. But he wasn’t the only one. A bunch of the other kids were giggling uncontrollably too, including Gabe.

  “I don’t get it,” Mira said, scratching her head.

  Jayda whispered in her ear, then Mira’s face lit up, and she joined in with the children’s glee. Since meeting nearly a year ago in dance class, Adam and Mitch’s daughters had become inseparable.

  They were greeted by everyone, one at a time, the women introducing themselves first, starting with Aurora. Even though she didn’t live with Zak, she stayed at his place m
ore than her own, so she was essentially co-hosting the party. Then came the men.

  Scott mentally prepared himself for his “brothers” and their assessment of his love interest, particularly since a few of them—his brother Liam for sure—were still jaded about love. Emmett had been opinionated about introducing a new woman to children too early into the relationship, and his views had actually put his relationship with Mark in hot water, but the man seemed to have cooled down a fair bit. Especially since his own woman had met his daughter, Josie, on day one.

  But, thankfully, not only were they all kind to Eva and her boys, his woman fit into their little crew seamlessly. In no time, she, Zak and Adam were playing bocce ball in the lawn, and she was kicking both their asses.

  “You a professional bowler or something?” Adam asked, shaking his head in bewilderment as Eva lobbed another dynamite toss at the target ball, knocking his ball clear into the hedges.

  Her grin was warm and beautiful. “Not quite, but I did pitch for my softball team all through high school. We made nationals.”

  Zak rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. Damn it, no fair. Next game should be a bench-pressing competition.”

  Scott scoffed, “Eva’s got a hidden strength inside her, man. She might surprise you and kick your ass there too.” He slapped Zak on the shoulder. “Besides, you coach Aiden’s baseball team. I would have thought you’d be better at this.”

  “Baseball is overhand, softball is underhand,” Zak grumbled, though he was more just putting on his frustration for show. “She has the advantage.”

  Eva simply grinned wider, directing her smile Scott’s way.

  They’d been at the BBQ for several hours, and the excitement of the day seemed to have died down a fair bit, when Liam approached Scott and Eva standing next to the gazebo softly chatting.

  “There you two are,” Liam said, beer in hand. “Are you enjoying the party?”

  Scott nodded, as did Eva, but he could tell she was eager to hear what information about Todd the PI had managed to dig up.

  Liam’s face sobered and he took a pull from his beer, letting out a satisfied ah, before he spoke again. “Now that our bellies are full, we’ve had some drinks and you annihilated Zak and Adam at bocce ball, maybe we should step into the house for a minute and chat.”