Losing Him (Mitchell Family #8)(7)

“Thanks. So, how is the family?” I could tell that she felt uncomfortable. I didn’t know how I felt about this guy.

It took Heather a long time to tell me about the events leading to when she got involved with my sperm donor father. The Conner part rubbed me the wrong way, not to mention that there was a whole lot of cheating going on. The way that it had been explained to me was that Conner used her to get information out of her for something she did to sabotage his sister’s marriage to that guy Tyler she’d been involved with. It all made my head spin really, but the idea of him using her pissed me off. No matter how rotten she may have been, I couldn’t see the logic in it.

Heather looked over at me and could sense my anger. “Conner, this is Jessie.”

He held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, man. So are you finally makin’ a honest girl out of her?”

I got ready to same something smart back to him, except Heather cut in. “We aren’t together. Jessie is just helping me take care of things.”

Conner creased his brow. “I better get this little one home. I forgot to bring a diaper and she weighs an extra five pounds.”

“It was good seeing you. Tell Amy I said hello.”

He was already walking away. “You should stop by the shop. My sister’s got the flu, so she won’t be there.” I watched him wink at her before he turned and walked down the next aisle.

Heather stayed quiet for the next few moments as she shopped. Jacob was busy playing with his handheld game, so he wasn’t noticing anything that was going on. “So, that was Conner?”

She nodded and grabbed a box of crackers off the shelf. “Yep. That was him.”

“He was weird. Didn’t you say he hated you?”

“He does. They all do, for obvious reasons. I told you all about it.” Heather wasn’t understanding me.

“He acted friendly. Isn’t he married to the woman that was married to my father? That is the same Conner, right?” I was thinking that I was confused.

“Yes, he’s married to Rick’s ex and yes, he’s the one that I… well you know the rest.”

I walked up close to her, so Jacob couldn’t hear. “He didn’t act like he hated you.”

“Trust me, they all do, especially his sister.”

I tried to think about the mangled mess of family that she’d explained to me. “His sister is Tyler’s wife, right?”

“Yes, and Amy’s best friend. Can we just finish shopping before I run into someone else? This whole town hates my guts. The sooner we take care of things the sooner we can get out of here.”

I dropped the subject and pushed the cart as she filled it. I could tell she was hurt by how the people in this town, especially the ones that were related to the Mitchell’s, felt about her. As sad as it was, I also wanted to know more about it. Once we loaded the groceries into the car, we stopped by the church and the funeral home to double check that everything was in order. Feeling satisfied, we set out for her mom’s house with our agenda planned out.

Heather was wired and determined to get through the day without a breakdown. I could see that she was keeping herself busy to avoid having time to sit down and think. Jacob was getting bored, so I decided to take him out and get a haircut. There was this place that I wanted to check out, without Heather being around.

It wasn’t hard to figure out where that girl Amy’s shop was, but I had no idea it was at her actual house.

When I pulled up out front, I recognized Conner right away. He was squirting a bunch of kids with a hose, while washing a John Deere mower. They were all running around screaming. Jacob took it as an invitation and jumped out of the car before I could say anything. Conner stopped squirting and looked right at him. “Hey, kiddo.”

“I’m Jacob.”

“That’s my name, except everybody calls me Jake!” A little boy, older than my Jacob, came walking over.

When I looked around, I saw he had a brother that was identical to him, a twin. Then it hit me. I finally understood why Heather didn’t want to use that name. Why she couldn’t tell me the truth, I had to know.

Conner approached me, breaking my stare on the kid. “You’re Jessie right?”

I reached out my hand and shook his. “Yeah, I uh, I came for a haircut, but I can see this is your house. We didn’t mean to intrude.”

He shook his head. “Amy’s shop is around the side. I had to take the sign down last week because my nephews shot it with pellets.” He looked over at the twins.

“Are they Tyler Mitchell’s boys?”

He laughed. “Can you see the resemblance?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ve never seen Tyler.”

“You ain’t missin’ much. My brother-in-law thinks he’s all that, but he doesn’t hold a candle to me.” I could tell he was joking, so I let out a laugh.

“You don’t mind me coming here, do you? Heather didn’t send me. Actually, I wanted to ask your wife some questions, if it’s alright with you?”

We started walking around the back. “I don’t complain when my wife gets new clients. I have to warn you though, if it’s about your father, she ain’t goin’ to want to go there. That part of her life is in the past and I’d appreciate it if we keep it that way. I get that you never knew him, but you have to understand he wasn’t a good man. My wife went through Hell and back.”