Bidding Wars (Love Strikes)(25)

As the water heated up, Molly stripped down. Once the warm water engulfed her body, she realized her friend was right. It was time to pop the pity bubble and stop blaming herself. She wasn’t responsible for her inability to conceive. She didn’t hold a gun to Luke’s head and tell him to give her the house, or else she’d shoot. She’d somehow turned everything in her life around to make it about poor, poor her. Not any longer.

The house on Maple Street was her new beginning. She had to let everything from her past go—and that included Luke. It was time to move forward.





Chapter Nineteen





“Are you sure about watching him?” It was Thursday evening. Luke glanced at Annie as he shut his computer down.

“Absolutely. You need to go and take care of the talk with you-know-who. Sammy and Erica will have fun together. She’s always complaining that I never gave her a younger sibling.”

“Thank you.” Luke never liked to mix work with pleasure, but with his current situation, he didn’t have much choice. “Let me tell him bye.”

In one of the conference rooms, he found Annie’s preteen daughter coloring at the table with Sammy. “Hey, bud, I’ll be by to get you from Annie’s house soon. Don’t forget to buckle up and use your manners.”

“All right, Daddy. Where are you going again?”

“I need to check on your mom.”

“Tell her I miss her and I hope she feels better soon.”

“I will.” He kissed his son on the forehead, winked at Erica, and left the room. He mouthed thank you to Annie once again and went to his truck.

After he was inside and buckled, he pulled out of the parking lot and began the short drive to Leslie’s. She’d gotten out of jail after posting bail. Because this was her first offense, they went easy on her. But the judge made sure she knew that if he saw her in his court again for the same thing, she wouldn’t be getting off so lightly.

He personally thought the judge was too lenient on her. She drove a car drunk. Although she might not have hit another person, she still ran into an electric pole. She should be thankful that pole wasn’t a pedestrian or vehicle.

He wondered what he’d done lately to cause so much bad karma. First, Molly was ignoring him, and now he had to deal with his loser of an ex. One good thing had happened, though; he had been granted temporary full custody of Sammy. His lawyer thought they now had a good chance of him becoming Sammy’s main parent and she would get him every other weekend. But he wasn’t letting her anywhere near his son until he knew she was going to straighten her life out.

In some ways, he blamed himself. Maybe he didn’t want to see how bad she had gotten. Perhaps she’d been crying out for help all along and he didn’t see it. But then, he had to remember she wasn’t his responsibility any longer. They were divorced—thank God. It was embarrassing enough that his ex got dragged into the station; it would have been ten times worse if she’d still been his wife.

Pulling up into her driveway, he saw a car he didn’t recognize, which wasn’t too unusual because hers was totaled. But he had a feeling this belonged to her bozo boyfriend, whom he had finally got to meet yesterday. The boyfriend, Jack, was a real piece of work.

After he knocked on the door, he waited. Leslie knew he was coming, because he’d called and warned her. Even though she said she didn’t want to see him, he told her he was coming anyway.

The door opened, and Jack stood there. “Hey.” He spoke in an easygoing tone.

“I’m here to see Leslie.”

“Yeah, she’s sleeping, dude.”

“Wake her up.” Luke didn’t have time for this crap.

Jack shrugged and left the door wide open. Luke watched through the doorway as Jack talked to her over the back of the couch. She sat up, looked Luke’s way, and groaned. He watched as she pulled herself off the couch and came to the door.

“I told you I didn’t want to talk.”

“Sammy says he misses you.”

“I miss him, too, but it isn’t like you’re going to let me see him.”

“You’ve got that right. You need to get some help.”

She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. You’re not Mr. Perfect.”

“I never claimed to be.” He took in a deep breath and then spoke again. “I’m not here to fight with you. I want to talk about our son and what’s best for him.”

Leslie crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“You know that Sammy coming to live with me is the best thing for him. I don’t know what happened Monday with the accident, but that had to be a wake-up call. With the hours you’re working, you don’t have time for him. Hell, last week he was out of school two days sick, and you had no idea. Then when you claimed you were going out of town, you didn’t even have the decency to call and talk to him. When is the last time you spoke to him?”

She was silent. She kicked one of her feet and stared at the ground. When she did that, it meant she was seriously thinking about something. He stayed quiet and let her have a moment. Finally, she looked up at him and nodded. “I agree with you.”

Relief swept over him. Did he really hear her right? Had she finally agreed that the best place for Sammy was with him?

“I can’t take care of him like I need to. I tried, I really did. Maybe you don’t believe me, but I really did. It’s not in me. I’m not cut out to be his mom all the time. I hate that it’s not in me. I guess I’m a failure.”

After she said it, his mind flashed to Molly, who also felt like a failure because she couldn’t have kids. Two opposite types of women, but they both thought they were failures. “You’re not. Want to know why?”

Leslie nodded.

“Because you’re putting his needs first now.”

“When can I see him? It’s been over a week.”

“If you’re feeling up to it, maybe dinner tomorrow night at a restaurant—the three of us together. I don’t want you alone with him right now.”

She agreed. After a few more minutes of talking, Leslie claimed she had a headache and needed to lie back down. After he climbed back in his car, he checked the time. It was still early. He picked up his phone and asked Annie if she could keep Sammy a little longer.



* * *





Molly searched through her junk drawers, looking for the packing tape. She knew she had some; it was just a matter of where had she put it. Currently, she had several boxes that needed to be taped so she could stack them into a corner.

Shoving the drawer shut, she leaned against the counter.

“If I was tape and I belonged to Molly, where would I be?”

The last time she had used it, she was mailing a box of books to her cousin. Her bookshelf was in the spare bedroom, so maybe the tape was in there as well.

She checked the bookshelf first, but it wasn’t there. Next she checked the small desk and its drawers. Where the heck was it? It had to be in here. She got on all fours and looked under the bed. Found it! It must have fallen and rolled under there.

She reached as far as she could, but it was just out of reach. She needed the broom. Going back out to the kitchen, she grabbed the broom, and headed back to the bedroom. She retrieved the tape and it felt like victory. She jumped up and down and spun around. The excitement was short lived. Back to work.

After taping up the boxes, she pushed them into her foyer for now. This time, she laid the tape on top of the stack and hoped she would remember where she had put it.

Was that a knock at her door? She walked over and looked out the skylight window. Her heart sped up. Luke was out there. Maybe she could hide. No, she was being silly. She should just open the door to see what he wanted. She couldn’t avoid him forever.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. “Hi, Luke.” Her tone was soft.

“I hope you don’t mind I came by. I would’ve called, but you haven’t returned any of my calls.”

Part of her wanted to giggle from his bluntness. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Let’s talk about it. Can I come in?” She stood back and motioned for him to come in. “You’ve been packing.”

“I have.”

She followed him into the living room and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from him. She’d much rather be sitting closer to him, but she wasn’t sure how the conversation was going to go. It was best to keep her distance until she knew.

“We need to talk about the house.”

She smirked slightly. She’d been trying to talk about it all this time, but if she could recall correctly, it was he who never wanted to talk about it. “OK, let’s talk.”

“I walked away from the house for you. Once I got to know you, I developed feelings for you. I saw the joy that the house would bring you and I wanted to give you what you wanted. I hear it’s one of my weaknesses, putting myself second to make sure everyone else is happy.”