Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(55)

“Excellent,” Landry said. “That soon works to our advantage, no?”

“Yes. The original hearing will still be reasonably fresh in his mind. There’s a huge difference in her forcibly losing custody and her voluntarily choosing to hand over custody to someone else.”

The attorney turned to Loren. “I’m guessing you’re the amateur videographer?”

“That would be me.”

“So what’s the deal with the paparazzi? Can I get the whole backstory?”

Everyone looked at Tilly, who uncomfortably filled them in.

“Wow. Okay,” Dale said. “Let me see the footage.”

Loren showed him her phone. He watched, laughing when she knocked the camera out of the guy’s hand. “Okay, that’s good. Usually it’s a clear-cut case of the celebrity knocks the camera out of the photog’s hand. This one, it looks like he walked right into the door as she was opening it.”

“Pure luck,” Loren said. “I was absolutely trying to hit him, but that’s not what I told the cop.”

“Well, obviously.”

“I’m no dummy. My husband’s an attorney.”

Dale laughed even harder. “Man, where do you get these people?” he asked Landry. “Please e-mail me a copy of that. I’ll give it to the guy handling it. I couldn’t have scripted something more perfect.”

“We have the best friends anyone could ever ask for,” Landry said. “They’re our adopted family.”





Landry’s only concern was that Cris had referred to Tilly as his “wife” when speaking with his cousin.

“Doesn’t matter,” Dale assured him. “Out here, all that really matters is what the court documents say. We have an ironclad custody arrangement.”

“Would we be better off filing for adoption in Florida?” Landry asked. “Cost them more money and have the home-court advantage, as it were?”

“Maybe, but maybe not. We have a law here now, passed a couple of years ago. A child can actually have three legal parents here in California. Does Florida have something like that?”

“You can?” Tilly asked, looking shocked. She stared at Landry. “I wonder if Nick, Leigh, and Lucas know that?”

“Shush, love, and let him continue.”

“It came about to help same-sex couples whose child has a third, biological parent, but it certainly could be applied in this case.”

“How long would it take to file for adoption here?” Landry asked.

“I don’t know. We won’t be able to until the judge rules on this motion. The fact that Sofia swore in the custody motion that the biological father is dead is a huge help. Otherwise, you’d have to track his ass down and get his permission.”

Tilly rocked the sleeping infant in her arms. “If the guy wasn’t dead,” she snarked, “I’d be willing to help make that happen, based on what Sofia told us.”

If Sofia’s version of events were the truth.

Landry didn’t want to go there. Whether Sofia had lied to them or not was irrelevant at that point. The woman was dead, supposedly the baby’s father was dead, and now they had a custody fight on their hands.

Once the attorney left, Landry turned to Tilly. “Call Leigh. I’ll have Loren drop you at her place in the morning.”

“Why?”

“Loren can go to work first, in your car. Put a hat and sunglasses on her and she’ll resemble you enough. If there aren’t any paparazzi hanging around, she can call you and Leigh to come in.”

“Oh. Good plan.”

“I do have one or two of those from time to time.”

She stuck out her tongue at him but handed the baby off to Loren and went to make the phone call.

Loren studied him. “You’re not so sure it’s a slam-dunk, are you?” she softly asked.

“It never pays to take things for granted. That leaves one unprepared.”

“And you should know,” Cris teased. “You’re the Master of taking precautions and hedging your bets.”

“That I am,” Landry agreed. “That I am.”





“Don’t look at the Internet this morning,” Loren warned Tilly when she emerged from the bedroom Tuesday morning.

“That bad?”

“I think it’s funny, but you…not so much, probably.”

“What’d they say?” Tilly grumbled.

“To be fair, they included my footage and the other sites are making the * look like he tried to come after me with a baby in the car. Only the one site he works for is trying to portray him as the martyr.”

“Well, that’s something. I’d be willing to bet there will be more of the f*cking bloodsuckers waiting for us at the office.”

“That’s why we’re going to use the decoy approach. But, honestly? You said you didn’t want them focused on the gang. If they’re focused on you, doesn’t that accomplish the same thing?”

“Yeah, but now we’ve got a baby to worry about. And a custody battle.”

“A slam-dunk.”

“I don’t want to jinx it.”

“You won’t jinx it,” Landry said as he emerged from their bedroom and walked over to kiss her. “Stop worrying. If Dale Waters isn’t worried, I refuse to worry.”