Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole, even if she was dying and needed life saving measures. I’d never, not ever again, get involved with her shit.
“Negative,” I shook my head.
“Sir?”
“Get yourself straight, Margot. Don’t fuck this up.”
“I can’t help it. I don’t have the support that I did last time.”
Fucking wonderful.
“And you won’t have it from me or from our son either,” I informed her none too gently. “You’ll keep your poisoned claws out of my son, or I’ll do everything I can to get your visitation suspended so that if you do attempt to see him, you’ll be breaking the law.”
Margot’s tears spilled over.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
The nurse who’d spoken was the one who’d showed me back here. A woman in her mid-thirties.
“Gladly,” I backed away. “I don’t want to be here, anyway.”
I headed back outside to the parking lot, and once the hospital doors closed behind me, I dropped my head and looked at the ground.
That poor kid. That poor fuckin’ kid who’d done nothing wrong except have the misfortune to have been conceived by the wrong woman.
Goddammit.
Goddammit!
Chapter 13
In case you didn’t know, you have nice boobs.
-Things every woman likes to hear
Ellen
“We’re just lucky my mother didn’t name me something fucked up,” Linc laughed, and the sight of it was still the same kick to the heart now as it had been when his father did way back when.
I liked that Jessie’s son was happy. Healthy. Confident enough that he could laugh at himself and not get offended.
“Lincoln isn’t a bad name,” I informed Jessie’s mini-me, even though he wasn’t so much a mini as he was a slightly smaller version of his father—but not by much.
“I guess if you say so,” Linc grunted and took a seat on the floor.
The puppy I’d found made a beeline straight for the boy once he saw him on the ground with him, and I started to snicker when the dog attached itself to Linc’s pant leg and refused to let go. He had been playing with him since we arrived at his and Jessie’s house.
“This isn’t a husky, you know,” Linc looked up at me.
I groaned. “Not you, too.”
“I already told her that, Son,” a dangerously angry voice rumbled behind me. “But she’s not buying it yet.”
Linc’s grin slipped off his face, and he stared at his father expectantly.
The look was one of a boy who knew his mother was in trouble. One who’d seen his mother at her worst and was hoping that she was all right.
“She’s okay,” Jessie grumbled. “They think she’ll be released tomorrow, but it will be into the custody of the county police officers.”
“Police?”
Jessie’s face looked tired as he walked farther inside of the house. My frisky little puppy abandoned his chew toy and ran at Jessie full tilt, barreling into his feet and rolling.
Jessie looked down at the little rascal, looked back up at me, and then bent down to pick up the rambunctious puppy.
“Yes, police,” Jessie confirmed. “That’s usually what happens when you overdose on illegal drugs and go to the hospital. They treat you, and then release you into the welcoming arms of the police.”
I snorted and stood, walking into the kitchen, trying to play it cool even though being in the house of the man I still loved was tearing me apart inside. My nerves were going haywire, and I needed something, anything, to take my mind off the fact that I was freaking the fuck out.
My first stop was to the fridge where I grabbed Jessie a beer and handed it to him.
“I can make us some food if you want,” I offered him.
Jessie’s eyes caught mine, and then he nodded. “I think I’d like that.”
A whole bunch of memories came flooding back to me. Some that made me smile, and some that were bittersweet.
***
“I can cook for you,” I told the man staring at me.
God, my hands were sweating. I was so nervous and this wasn’t even our first date!
Though, granted, it was the first time I’d ever been in a man’s living quarters by myself, even if it was in a trailer on the back of his parents’ lot.
“That’d be good, because I can’t cook at all. Unless you count boxed macaroni and frozen chicken fingers as cooking.”
I started to laugh, the tension leaving my body.
This was Jessie. He wouldn’t hurt me. He’d die before he hurt me. I had nothing to worry about.
Unless I allowed myself to think about that woman, the one who was trying to unravel Jessie’s life.
I viciously tore my thoughts away from her, unable to think about all the stuff that had happened today without getting furious all over again.
Linc, the poor thing, had no clue that his mother was as vicious as a viper. He had no clue that when he was picked up today from the daycare by his mother, that it would cause his father to become frantic with worry.