by Ali Parker
I smiled as I stretched, replaying our night together and how he’d stuck to his guns about leaving this morning. I wasn’t sure there were many guys who would’ve done that for a girl he’d only just started seeing. The fact that he’d not only agreed to take it slow, but seemed determined to actually do it was only one more thing I admired about him.
It was one more thing that showed me how much we really meant to each other.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jeremy
“Mr. Lovett. This is Savannah Steele calling to discuss the cost of the custody case as you requested. Please give me a call back as soon as you are able to do so.” Replaying the attorney’s message, I watched clouds roll by my kitchen window and sipped my cooling coffee.
After my mom’s death and everything that happened with my father, I’d lost trust in things working out for people. Being with Marie was the first time I’d felt as much as an iota of hope that things might actually just work out. For me, for her, and for Austin.
When mom died, it was like someone tripped a dimmer switch on my world. For a while there, it felt like I was moving in a daze without being able to see properly. Then my father got arrested, my brothers, at least in that respect, started turning on each other and disagreeing more than they agreed, and it was like the lights went out completely.
Everything I’d known was gone, and what was left would never be the same again. I adjusted to my new normal as best I could, lived with it because it was all I could do. Marie though, she’d changed all that for me.
When I was with her, and even with Austin, the haze lifted and the numb feeling inside faded. She was a ray of light to me, she lit up the darkness that surrounded me and gave me back warmth I hadn’t realized was missing until I found her.
I’d do anything to protect her and Austin, whatever it took. They weren’t mine to protect, technically. Yet not doing it wasn’t really an option for me. Early in the relationship and out of character for me as it was, they were mine to protect in every way that counted. And that was all that mattered.
Which brought me to the problem at hand. I was going to pay for Savannah’s services, it was only a matter of how. Back in the Lovett glory days, my brothers and I each had a hefty trust fund just sitting there, waiting for us. I’d never touched mine, preferring to make my own way. As far as I knew, my brothers hadn’t touched theirs either.
That money, our money, was part of the family fortune that our family’s attorney now said was gone. As the sole trustee, it was our father’s duty to administer the money. Collins had claimed that he’d lost it all, whether through bad investments or fraud I didn’t know.
The thing was that I didn’t believe the money was lost. I was willing to bet dear ol’ dad would’ve ensured that the trust money, our money, was kept safe. To his mind, safe might’ve meant stashed somewhere, perhaps illegally, but I had to at least find out.
I had savings I could dip into, but I didn’t know what the eventual cost of the litigation would be. No matter what, I didn’t want Marie to worry about it. I made a quick return call to Savannah. She had previously given me her hourly rate, but she’d been careful to point out she didn’t know in advance how much time she would need to handle Marie’s case. My call with her didn’t surprise me. Though she thought Marie had a winnable case, she had to prepare for a trial, which was time consuming. Time, in this case, meant money. I needed to be prepared.
And being prepared meant I would have to go see my dad. With a heavy sigh, I drained the last of my coffee and checked the time. It was still early enough. If I hauled ass, I could make it to his long-term home, Cypress Creek Penitentiary, by the time visiting hours started.
Two and a half hours later, I was seated in a hard, uncomfortable chair on the one side of a thick slab of bullet proof plastic, the slightly sticky receiver of an old phone cradled to my ear. My father raised the receiver on his side, surprise in his clear blue eyes.
“Jeremy. I wasn’t expecting to see you today. What brings you by?”
Despite being dressed in prison garb, having this conversation surrounded by clanging gates, other inmates and their families and in a drab gray room with chipping paint and a single window closed with bars half the width of my wrist, my father still managed to make it sound like I’d interrupted him having his morning coffee at home.
There was rarely, if ever, any small talk between us. In keeping with the usual flow of our conversations, I got straight to the point. “I’m seeing a woman who has a young son with an abusive guy. Long story short, he’s suing her for custody and threatening me for being around her. I’ve offered to help her pay for an attorney, but I need…”
“Access to your trust money,” he finished for me. His hair was longer than it’d been the last time I’d come around, shaggy curls forming around his ears. It was almost completely gray now, silver with specks of white in places.
Pushing it behind his ears, he scrubbed a hand over the scruff growing on his jaw and down to his chin where he was growing a short goatee. “You’ve been told it’s gone.”
It wasn’t a question. My brothers didn’t talk to my dad in here, so I knew he hadn’t been told what Collins had told us. He was making an educated guess, but he was right. I nodded and his eyes searched mine before he started slowly nodding himself.
“And yet you’re here, which means you don’t believe it.” Lowering his voice, he’d half cupped a hand around the receiver, his sharp eyes darting around to make sure no one else was listening to us. “It’s not gone, but it’s dirty now. You understand that?”
Again, I nodded. “I would do anything for them, her and her son.”
“You always have been a protector,” he said. “This must be important to you if you’re willing to come out here and talk to me about money.”
“That mean you’re going to help me.”
“Haven’t I always?”
I stayed quiet. There was a time when he always had helped us, been there for us, but that time was long, long gone. He tilted his head, dipping his chin, conceding. “I’ll tell you where it is, how to access it. But it’s a risk, a big one.”
“How big?”
He gave me a pointed look, lifting his hand to circle his finger in the air to indicate his surroundings. “Big enough that I have to warn you against it. There’s still a lot of heat, a lot you don’t know about.”
“I would do anything for them,” I reiterated, but my father gave me a wry smile and shook his head.
“You mentioned that,” he said. “But you’d be no good to them or anyone else in here with me. It might even influence her case negatively if anyone ever found out where the money came from.”
“Unless no one found out.”
He arched an eyebrow, blue eyes widening. “Dangerous way of thinking, take it from me.”
“I know.”
“Doing anything for them includes taking a different path,” he told me after a long pause. “This the only way you can pay for it?”
“No.”
Leaning back in his chair, he rubbed his wrists and raised his eyebrows. “I’ll help you, if that’s what you decide. Think about it.”
Eyeing my father for several long moments, I considered it. It didn’t take long for me to come to a no. I wasn’t that desperate yet. The thing that chafed at me was we were talking about me accessing money that had once been rightfully mine. With a mental shake, I shrugged away my frustration. It was what it was.
“No.” I pushed my chair back, mind made up. “That’s okay. I’ll use my savings to cover the upfront costs for the attorney.”
“Smart man.” My dad nodded approvingly. “I’ll be here if you change your mind.”
“Yeah,” I said, raking a hand through my hair and wishing I didn’t have to leave him in there. It was still surreal, unnatural to see him on the other side of glass. “I’ve gotta go, I’ll see you next time.”
“Until then,” he said, hanging up the receiver on his end. I did th
e same, sitting down and watching him going back into the prison. This was the most difficult part of my visits every time, knowing what he was going back to after such a short reprieve. And I didn’t even really know what went on in there.
Pushing it out of my mind, so I could hang onto my sanity, I left the prison and went to work. I buried myself in paperwork to keep from thinking about the visit to my dad, checking in with the various teams I had out on sites and arranging the schedules for next week.
Thanks to my tried-and-tested after prison visit routine of keeping so busy that I didn’t even leave my office to take a piss, the day passed quickly. The sun was setting by the time I resurfaced, one of my foremen popping his head in to say goodbye.
“Wait up, I’ll walk out with you,” I called, shoving my phone in my pocket and shutting down my laptop. I locked up, catching up on the latest on his project on our way to the parking lot. There was a car there I didn’t recognize. My blood immediately boiled, thinking that Wesley had gotten himself a new ride and blown back into town.
The foreman waved at me, jogging to his car and taking off for the day. Fists clenched, I approached the unknown vehicle ready to beat Wesley’s face in if he was pulling this shit again. The man that emerged from the nondescript white car wasn’t Wesley though.
He was an older, portly man I didn’t recognize. While he got out of his car, he stayed by it, clearly keeping his distance from me. His brow rumbled in distaste when I reached him, cheeks stained bright red in anger.
“I know you went to visit your daddy today,” he spat at me, a vein starting to throb in his forehead. “Do you even have any fucking idea how many people that man owes money to?”
Relieved that this wasn’t about Marie or Wesley, I schooled my features to blank, the look I’d been wearing since all the shit with my dad started. Flexing my arms as I folded them, I gave the man a look that made him shrink back against his car.
“Fuck off. I have nothing to do with what my father did.” My tone was low, menacing. The man ripped open his car door, his eyes narrowed with intense hatred as he gave me the finger.
“Yeah, you too buddy. Now get the fuck off my property,” I muttered to myself as he peeled away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Marie
“Is he coming mommy?” Austin asked me for what had to be the twentieth time since he’d opened his eyes that morning. It was Saturday again, tee-ball practice day and Austin had begged me to invite Jeremy, so I had. It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to see him. Sweet hell, every spare minute I had sent him walking through my thoughts.
Approaching the area where Belle had already spread out a blanket in the park, I ruffled Austin’s hair. “He is, sweetheart. I told you, he’s meeting us here.”
“When?”
And around and around we go. “Soon. He’ll be here before practice starts.”
Austin’s green eyes bore into mine before he broke out into a wide grin. “Okay. See you later.”
Tommy was waving his arms to us from the pitcher’s mound, already fooling around with some of the other kids on the team. Austin made a beeline for them, immediately joining in.
“You’re early,” Belle observed as I sank down onto the blanket with her. Dressed casually in shorts and a tank top, she’d set up a small umbrella and was using it to shield her upper body while she had her legs spread out in the sun.
“I know,” I replied, getting comfortable under the umbrella with my legs crossed. Red wasn’t a flattering color and sun tanning never failed to turn me a lovely, bright shade of it. Arranging my white sundress over my legs, I made sure the cooler with Austin’s water was also in the shade and settled in.
Clouds had been rolling in all morning, but while it might rain later, the sun coming through the clouds was still brutal.
“Between practice and Jeremy coming to watch him, Austin refused to stay at home for one more minute. He hardly finished his breakfast.”
Belle’s eyes widened and a smile spread on her lips. “He’s coming to watch practice again?”
“He is.” Blood heated my cheeks and I looked down, fidgeting with the hem of my dress.
Belle saw me blush and giggled softly. “Someone’s got it bad.”
“I do not,” I protested, though my entire face was growing hot now. “Shut up.”
“You’ve got some serious hots for him,” she teased with a huge smile on her face. Reaching over to plant my hand over her mouth, her next line came out muffled.
We both cracked up and she held her hands up in surrender, smile fading to a more serious expression. “He’s so obviously into you.”
“Why?”
Giving me a sidelong look, she rolled her eyes and nudged me in the side with her elbow. “He’s giving up his Saturday mornings to watch your son at tee-ball practice. What more do you want from him, woman?”
“Nothing.” I was very well aware of the fact that Jeremy was already giving us so much more of himself than we ever could’ve expected from him. “Can we drop this?”
“Nope,” Belle quipped, excitement lighting up her eyes. “He’s seriously into you. We should be celebrating, you’ve got a good one in him.”
“I don’t have him.”
Her gaze traveled from mine, focusing on something behind me. “Oh, I beg to differ.”
Twisting around, I found what she was looking at.
Jeremy.
My heart reacted the second I saw him, thudding against my ribs, while heat rolled through me. The people around me all but disappeared. The only other person I was still aware of in my periphery was Austin, and that was only because I’d have to be dead to lose track of him.
As for the rest of my awareness, it was all focused on Jeremy. Wearing black shorts that showed off his toned calves and a deep blue t-shirt that stretched over his chest and arms, he was the very picture of a relaxed, sexy guy you wanted to pick up in the park on a summer’s day.
Dark sunglasses hid his eyes, but his perfect lips were quirked up just a tad in the corners. I had a feeling it was because he was watching my reaction to seeing him. He wove through the throngs of people in the park effortlessly, coming to a stop only once he reached us.
Bending over to plant a kiss on my forehead, he murmured, “Hi babe. Hey Belle. Boys’ practice start yet?”
“Not yet,” I told him, raising my face to him. As I was hoping he would, he pressed a quick kiss to my lips before straightening up. “I’m not late then. I’m going to go say hi to the boys real quick.”
Belle fanned herself beside me, a dreamy grin on her lips, as Jeremy jogged toward the boys. “Swoon. Does he have a twin brother you could introduce me to?”
“He has four. No twins unfortunately, but brothers.”
Belle swatted my arm lightly. “That was rhetorical. I’m not really ready to jump back into dating. I’m happy to live vicariously through you. It’s just that he’s so hot. And so sweet.”
“That he is,” I agreed. Jeremy played around with the boys for a minute before their coach called them to warm up, then headed back to us. Both Belle and I watched him with them.
Sinking down onto the blanket, he sat down behind me with his legs stretching out beside my hips. Leaning back, I relaxed against his chest and released a happy sigh. There was no place better than being wrapped up in Jeremy.
Thunder rumbled in the distance and Jeremy pulled me closer, his lips brushing my hair. “Storm’s rolling in. I hope it holds off, but practice might have to end early if it doesn’t.”
“Let’s hope they get to burn off at least a bit of their excess energy before it starts raining. Being cooped up inside is always hell on me if Tommy’s all charged up,” Belle joked.
“Tell me about it,” I laughed, knowing how challenging Austin could become when bound to our small apartment for any prolonged period of time.
We chatted on and off as practice progressed, laughing and cheering the boys on. As Jeremy predicted, they were only a bit more than hal
fway through practice when fat, heavy raindrops started to fall. The coaches gathered the children, looking up at the sky and pointing at the incoming storm.
Glum looks were exchanged by the kids as they broke away from the coaches, each heading off toward their own parents. Tommy and Austin looked positively depressed by the time they got to us, shoulders slumped and kicking clumps of grass.
“There’s always next week,” I told Austin. He nodded, but still looked sad. Tee-ball might be new for him, but he loved it. He’d looked forward to it all week and having it canceled probably felt like the end of the world.
Jeremy stood up from behind me, holding his hand out for Austin. “Want to go help your coaches pack up?”
“Okay,” Austin said. Jeremy looked to me for approval and I nodded. It was only just starting to drizzle, and I had a towel in the car. We had time.
“I wanna go help too,” Tommy said. At Belle’s nod, Jeremy took off with the boys. While they helped the coaches with the tee-ball equipment, Belle and I cleared up our small picnic spot. Tommy got back to us first, cheering as Jeremy jogged behind with Austin on his back.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy,” Tommy chanted, clearly excited about something.
“Tommy, Tommy, Tommy.” Belle smiled. “What’s going on?”
“Can Austin come spend the night again?” he asked, his small hands pressed together in a plea as he blinked up at his mom.
“Sure he can. If his mom says it’s okay,” Belle replied, spinning to glance at me.
Jeremy and Austin had reached us by then and Austin slid from Jeremy’s back to mimic Tommy’s plea. They were so cute that I couldn’t keep from laughing. “Sure. Fine by me.”
My heart still clenched when I thought about Austin being old enough to sleep over, but I had to get over it. This was good for him, spending time with his best friend. It was an added bonus that I’d known his best friend’s mother since I was little. I shuddered to think of his first sleepover at a friend’s house whose mom I didn’t know.
