Law & Beard

by Lani Lynn Vale

  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.”

  I swallowed through a suddenly dry throat.

  “Since Mark and my ex were best friends, he was over there helping a lot. He did everything he could to help make Angelina and Mark’s last days together not such a hardship.”

  “But…”

  “But, while Mark lay in his bed dying, Angelina and Matt used the guest bedroom to fuck. One day, Matt was watching our kids, and he took them over there with him. Only, he didn’t secure the door well enough, because her kids and Cody saw what happened in there. Meaning my son’s ‘Daddy likes her kisses’ comment was said in more of a ‘since I’ve seen you do it before’ way and not in a ‘do it for my entertainment’ kind of way.

  “The day I found out was also the day that I had a spinal stroke.” I looked away. “I was in the hospital when Matt served me with divorce papers. He also went ahead and said I could keep the kid while I was at it. Something about wanting to have a family of his own with Angelina.”

  I could tell he didn’t know what to say.

  Literally, he had nothin’.

  “He changed his mind on Cody later, though, when Angelina said that it wasn’t nice. So now he’s attempting to see Cody. Conleigh, on the other hand, is banned from her house because she thinks my daughter will be a bad influence on her son.”

  Steel blinked, his long eyelashes laying lightly against his upper cheek for a long moment before they opened again.

  Why in the hell did men, who didn’t give one damn about eyelashes, always have better ones than women?

  “So he’s done nothing with Conleigh since y’all have split?”

  I nodded. “Right.”

  “No wonder she’s acting out,” he mused. “How long were y’all together?”

  “Conleigh was eight when we met. Almost ten when we married. So, seven years altogether, six of those married,” I answered, feeling a twinge deep inside my chest.

  But not for my loss, for Conleigh’s.

  Conleigh had been Matt’s little shadow since we’d met and then got married. Then, all of a sudden once I found out about Matt and Angelina’s betrayal, they not only dropped me but my girl as well.

  I hurt for her.

  “I think he’s seen her twice,” I continued. “Cody, probably about twice that. That’s actually one of the things I was supposed to do today with him. I was at the mall at our scheduled time to meet, Cody knew he was going to his dad’s…then Angelina showed up and told me that Matt was working and that she was there in his stead.”

  I laughed humorlessly.

  “I can see why you wouldn’t want her anywhere near your kid,” he mused.

  He smoothed his hand down a wet spot on his shirt and smiled.

  “Drool. He’s been doing that for a while. I’m afraid he takes after me like that.” I giggled, then sobered. “Angelina, though, isn’t the most attentive of parents. She never has been. When her husband got sick, those kids went wild because nobody was containing them any longer. At least before, when her husband wasn’t sick, he’d keep them semi under control. But then once he was not there as a stable force in their daily lives, all they had left was Angelina, and she just didn’t care enough. I think every single one of her kids has had at least three broken bones.”

  His eyes widened.

  “You think she’s abusive?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not abusive. Inattentive—she just doesn’t watch them. She’ll leave them alon
e to do what they will. She’s there in body, just not in spirit, you know?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll keep an eye out.”

  “Matt’s there now,” I said, wincing. “At least he’ll help keep them in line. That was something good that came out of it I guess.”

  He grunted, not agreeing with me.

  I sighed and stood up. “We had it rough…have it a little rough…but I’m getting back on my feet. All the medical bills I accrued were paid for when Matt and I finalized the divorce. Now I’m just trying to recoup my half of the credit card bills. I’m hoping as time progresses that I can afford more things, and hopefully take a little bit of the strain off of Conleigh. Maybe if I can give her a few pretty things, she’ll be able to function better at school. I’m never going to bring her stepfather back…but I can make it easier on her that way.”

  He didn’t say anything to that, either.

  So I got up and headed to the kitchen, realizing that somewhere in that discussion Conleigh had slipped in with my groceries and left again.

  A sudden idea occurred to me, and I turned to find Steel studying me from behind. “You want to stay for dinner?”

  I licked my lips suddenly, surprised that I’d asked him that.

  It had been months since Matt and I had split and about eight weeks since our divorce was finalized. A long time since I’d had anyone else to feed besides me and my two kids.

  The prospect of him staying for dinner and enjoying my cooking really appealed to me in an instinctive sort of way.

  I loved taking care of people. I loved when people enjoyed my food, and honestly, I never got that from my kids.

  “Sure.”

  I was utterly surprised to hear him say yes.

  “Really?”

  He nodded, then frowned. “As long as you’re not planning on making anything weird.”

  I started to laugh. “Spaghetti isn’t really weird, is it?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Good,” I said as I went to the sink and washed my hands. “I just have to make the pasta.”

  “Make the pasta?”

  I nodded and turned my body slightly so that I could see him. “I make my own pasta. It’s cheaper in the long run if I make it in bulk. It’ll take me about an hour…that’s okay, right?”

  He stood up and walked to the counter to lean his hips against it and cross his legs. “Now you have me curious. I’ve never had homemade pasta before.”

  So, I spent the next hour showing him how it was done, and then another hour making the meatballs and sauce.

  “This is the best spaghetti I’ve ever had in my life,” he informed me. “And I’ve eaten at Olive Garden.”

  I burst out laughing.

  He watched me laugh, an odd look on his face.

  I smiled as I calmed down. “What?”

  He shook his head. “Just haven’t seen you smile before. I like it.”

  Pleasure washed over me, but before I could reply to his words, his phone rang.

  He pulled it out of his pocket and cursed, ignoring the call.

  Thirty seconds later, it rang again, this time he answered it.

  “Yeah, son?” He paused, eyes narrowing. “I’ll call her. I told you to block her number.” He brought his hand up to his face, and I stood to clear the table.

  “Conleigh?” I said. “Do you think you can put the food away while I get your brother cleaned up and in bed?”

  Conleigh nodded and stood, her half-empty plate in her hands. “Save yours, too. I’ll take it to work tomorrow for lunch.”

  Conleigh looked at her plate, clearly skeptical, but nodded anyway. “Okay.”

  Then I went about getting Cody ready for bed and tucked in tight.

  My left leg was a little weak as I made my way down the hall toward where I could hear Steel and Conleigh speaking in low tones.

  “Your son is how old?”

  “Thirty-four.”

  My brows rose.

  Steel must’ve been young like I was when he first had his son.

  “How old were you when you had him?” Conleigh asked the same question that I was thinking.

  “Nineteen, almost twenty,” he answered. “Still in college.”

  “At least you weren’t sixteen like my mom.”

  My heart hurt.

  That was true.

  I also agreed with her.

  Sixteen had been ridiculous. I’d gotten pregnant, and my life had completely changed. My family had disowned me, and my mother and father kicked me out the moment they found out.

  I moved in with my grandparents, finished out my school year, and raised a newborn all at the same time. When I was eighteen, I moved away and never looked back.

  Not that I didn’t love my grandparents, but I knew just as well as they did that they didn’t really want me there.

  They’d felt sorry for me and took me in because they felt obligated to.

  Once I was no longer in high school, I found a job, got help from the government in the form of food stamps, housing aid and help paying for my education in the form of Pell grants.

  Once I graduated, I found a full-time job, got off of food stamps and into my own place, and kept on kicking ass.

  Then I met Matt, and I got complacent.

  “I actually got a girl pregnant when I was sixteen,” he said. “She was fifteen. Lost the kid.”

  My brows went up at that.

  “What?”

  Steel started to laugh at Conleigh’s surprised exclamation.

  “Yep,” he confirmed. “Scared me straight…at least for two more years.”

  I found myself smiling as I made my way into the kitchen where both of them were standing side-by-side at the sink. Steel had his hands wrist deep in the left half of the sink, washing the dishes, while Conleigh was on the right side, rinsing and drying them.

  I felt my heart stutter in my chest at the sight.

  I couldn’t remember the last time Conleigh willingly did the dishes without me nearly crying to get her to do so.

  Now she was laughing with the man I was finding it harder and harder not to think about, and I was loving every second of it.

  I’m so screwed.

  Chapter 6

  You want to know how lesbian sex works? Well, for starters, both people orgasm.

  -True Fact

  Winnie

  I rubbed my forehead in concern.

  “Mom,” Conleigh breathed. “I don’t understand.”

  I didn’t either.

  That was the problem.

  I passed algebra, calculus, physics, and, hell, even calculus two, with flying colors. Yet, I couldn’t figure out what the hell to do with my daughter’s tenth-grade pre-cal math homework.

  I was such a loser.

  “Con,” I said softly. “I just don’t understand. I’d have to reteach myself. Which I’m more than willing to do. However, it’s going to take me more than the twenty minutes that I have before I have to leave for work.”

  Conleigh looked away.

  “Are you sure that taking a night shift is a good idea?”

  No.

  Yet, I needed money. I needed to put food on my children’s plates.

  I needed…help.

  Help that I wasn’t going to find anywhere.

  I’d contacted the attorney general’s office yesterday about back child support for Cody.

  It was a gamble.

  By doing so, I was admitting that I needed help. I was also letting him know that he still had his rights as a parent, and alerting him to the fact that he could potentially take me to court to lower the child support settlement we reached in an out-of-court agreement two months ago. Child support he’d promised to deliver—the whole two months’ worth—but never had.

  Until that came through, I couldn’t afford to not take extra shifts. Not with Christmas coming up, anyway.

  I s
ighed inwardly at everything that I needed to do.

  With her struggling with her own homework, there was no way I was going to be able to help Cody with his sight words.

  “Mom!”

  I looked over to see Cody standing there looking at me.

  “Yeah?”

  “I got papers!”

  I hated papers.

  Seriously, if I never saw another shittily—is that even a word? —colored fucking paper it’d be too soon.

  “Oh, yay!” I cheered falsely. “Whatcha got?”

  He gave me the papers that were haphazardly stuffed into his folder, and I winced.

  He had a stack full of them.

  Shit.

  I dreaded the day when all my son’s graded papers came home.

  He was a smart cookie…except when he’d put his stubborn foot down, then all bets were off.

  He was like me in that way.

  Unfortunately, things didn’t come easily for either of my two children.

  Conleigh had been struggling since she moved to her new school district in the second grade. Cody was struggling to say the freakin’ alphabet correctly every single time.

  If he couldn’t do the alphabet, how the hell was he supposed to grasp the concept of an actual word?

  Then I saw the official-looking letter that was tucked in his folder amid all the graded papers that had been hastily shoved in there and winced.

  I pulled it out and read the sticky note on top as I felt a lump form in my throat.

  Winnie,

  I know that we discussed this as a possibility at report card time, but I now believe he needs it for certain. Please take the time to fill out the paperwork and send it back. This is not the end of the world, I promise!

  —Mrs. T.

  I crumpled up the sticky note in my hand and looked at the envelope with dread.

  Then I forced myself to grow a pair and opened the envelope as that lump forming in my throat grew larger.

  I suspect that your son may have some developmental delays. Please don’t be alarmed—it might simply be due to the fact that he did not attend pre-K. But he is lagging behind his classmates in several areas, and it would be best to address these issues now, rather than later.

  I felt like throwing up.

  I looked over at my son, who was now happily playing next to his toy trucks, and felt a single tear slip from my eye.