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.

“Hey, you okay?”

Jessie’s worried words had me looking up in surprise to realize that I’d drifted while thinking about the things I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t think about.

“Just thinking,” I said. “Would you like chicken cordon bleu or fried chicken tenders?”

Jessie’s lips pursed. “Do you know how to make gravy, too?”

I grinned. “Yes, I do.”

“Chicken tenders, then,” he answered almost instantly. “With mashed potatoes?”

I started to laugh. “Yeah, I can do those.”

An hour later, I was sitting at Jessie’s tiny table for two, with Linc on my lap, handing him pieces off of my plate.

Jessie was watching me, his eyes hot.

“What?” I asked him.

“You make it easy,” he answered.

“Make it easy to what?” I questioned.

“To love you.”

***

“Fried chicken tenders and mashed potatoes?” Jessie asked hopefully.

“You still haven’t learned how to cook that after all these years?” I teased.

His eyes became serious, for a few seconds, as he stared at me.

“No,” he answered. “What would be the point when I could never make them as good as you can?”

A blush stole over my face.

“That’s very sweet,” I whispered. “Gravy, still, too?”

His eyes started to shine with laughter.

“What kind of a question is that?” he continued to tease me.

“Can you make rolls, too?” came Linc’s hollered demand from the living room. “I like rolls.”

I grinned.

“I can,” I answered him, raising my voice slightly. “But it would require an extra hour.”

Linc kicked his feet out in front of him and reached for the remote. “That’s fine with me.”

I snickered and turned my gaze back to man-child’s father.

“He’s exactly like you. Just like I always thought he’d be,” I informed Jessie.

Jessie’s face showed his pride. “He’s a good kid.”

“That’s because he has a good father,” I informed him. “Now, put that dog outside, let him go potty, and then come in here and help me peel potatoes while I get this bread started.”

Jessie sloppily saluted me, mostly because the dog on the leash in his hand had a hold of his long-sleeved tee that, I might add, fit him like a glove. “Bossy.”

But he did as I asked, taking the little booger outside.

Ten minutes and some nearly completed dough later, Jessie walked back in with my puppy on his heels.

“He’s smart.”

I looked up from where my hands were buried to my wrists in the dough I was kneading, and nodded. “He really is. I’ve had him less than a day, and through all that time, he’s never once peed or pooped inside the house or my office. And when I tell him to be nice, he instantly stops playing so hard.”

Jessie looked down at the dog.

“That doesn’t mean that the dog isn’t a wolf, though, woman,” Jessie said. “You need to be careful.”

I looked at the playful little puppy. “We’ll see.”

There might be a slight possibility that the dog was, indeed, a wolf. I had found him on the side of the road by the woods, after all. That didn’t mean that I was giving the little thing up, though. He’d been shaking and shivering when I found him, and who knew how long he’d been lying there waiting for someone to help him before I came along.

No, I wouldn’t be letting him go.

“If you’re going to keep him, you need to give him a name.”

I contemplated the little ball of fur and pursed my lips.

“How about Spartan or Paladin?” Linc offered his two cents.

How he could hear us over the loud TV, I didn’t know, but whatever.

“The first one’s not bad. Paladin is kind of a mouthful.”

“Achilles?”

My eyes lit up at Linc’s other suggestion.

“I really like that one,” I cooed, dropping the dough onto the flour dusted counter. “What about you?”

Jessie shrugged. “It’s good.”

My mouth quirked. ‘It’s good’ was the equivalent of ‘I like it a lot’ in Jessie speak.

“It’s settled then,” I grinned, rolling out the dough. “Achilles, it is.”

The rest of dinner went off without a hitch. We all sat down to eat, and I watched my two companions dig into my food, moaning in reaction to the taste and causing me to beam with pride.

I loved that they loved my food. Loved it.

Unfortunately, our night was cut short a few minutes after the last roll was snatched off the pan.

“Shit,” Jessie grumbled, standing up and walking over to his phone.

He picked it up, said a few short words, and then grunted an ‘I’ll be there’ a few moments later.

“Work?” Linc guessed.

Jessie continued to grunt.

“Yeah.”

I got up and cleared the plates, rinsing them off in the sink before doing the same to the other dishes.

With most of them ready to wash, I left them to gather up my things while Jessie got ready.

The moment he was back in the living room, dressed completely in head to toe black, I had my purse in my hand.

“You mind staying here with him? Just in case?” Jessie’s quiet words had me looking up from my nearly dead phone.

“I can do that,” I said, dropping my purse. “As long as you have a charger I can use for my phone.”

I wiggled my almost dead phone at him, causing his mouth to quirk. “You want to read, don’t you?”

I shrugged. It wasn’t a secret that I loved to read. Every moment that I had free, I chose to read because I loved to escape to the alternate realities. Other worlds where there was always a happy ending.

“I’m at a really good part,” I said in response.

Jessie shrugged on his jacket.

“There’s one by my bed. But you can’t unplug it because the fucker’s plugged in behind the big-ass headboard that’s a bitch to move,” he said. “Just make yourself at home. Hopefully, I won’t be more than a few hours.”

I bit my lip.

“Okay,” I murmured quietly.

He dropped a kiss on my mouth, then he was gone, leaving me with his son watching me with a laughing grin on his face, and a dog chewing on my bare foot.

“Are you laughing at the dog or your father?” I challenged the man-child.

“Both?” he teased.

I sighed. “Didn’t I hear that you had early practice tomorrow?”

Linc winked. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Then maybe you should head to bed,” I wiggled a finger at him.

He saluted me. “Yes, ma’am.”

He did, however, scoop the dog’s leash up on the way and take him outside for me once more. Once he was done, he brought the puppy back to me, tugged lightly on the messy bun holding my hair up, and disappeared down the hallway to his room, leaving me alone in Jessie’s house, wishing things that I shouldn’t be wishing for.