Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(178)

Her gaze was no less warm and intense but her lips twitched again.

“So you said we’d plan but actually what you meant was that you already have it planned.”

“Yep,” he agreed.

He felt her body start shaking against his.

“You got a problem with any of that?” he asked.

She shook her head and forced out a vibrating with humor, “No.”

“Good,” Mike muttered.

One of her arms disengaged from around him, her hand sliding around his lat, in, up his chest to curl around his neck and even as she chuckled she lifted up and touched her mouth to his.

When she fell back to the pillows, her fingers at his neck gave him a squeeze and her humor was gone but the warmth remained.

“I love you, babe,” she whispered.

“Love you too, Angel,” Mike whispered back.

“Now I need my nightie and panties and you need to go get Layla from No.”

Mike nodded, bent his neck, kissed her throat and rolled away. Then he grabbed her nightie and undies and handed them to her. As she was shimmying them on, he tugged up his pajamas.

Then he went to get his dog.

Then he closed them in and, like every night, the three of them fell asleep in the six thousand dollar bed he’d f**king hated for years but for the last two months he f**king loved.

*

Thursday early evening…

Mike walked into Mimi’s and, to his surprise, he saw Audrey sitting at the back corner table. She had a mug of coffee in front of her and that was it. No white bag. No coffee for him. No sitting at a window to show to anyone who passed they were having a sit down.

He strode directly to her. She’d seen him arrive and she’d gone for her purse right after. She was digging through it when he made it to the table.

Out of habit, his eyes went to the words scratched into the table he’d seen time and again. Feb’s Spot, sit here and die. Before Colt and Feb reunited, Colt’s wife spent a lot of time here and she sat at that table. Mimi’s kids were terrors, they loved their Aunt Feb and they went about making sure she always had her favorite spot. Mike thought it was hilarious. He doubted Mimi felt the same but still, it had been years and she’d never replaced that table or sanded it out.

Mike pulled out the chair opposite Audrey and folded into it.

Her eyes went from her purse to him.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” she greeted back, put a rectangular piece of paper on the table and slid it to him. “I know you’re busy. So you can just take that. It’s for Rees’s school.”

Mike felt his brow furrow and he looked down to see the paper was a check. His hand came up, his fingers shifting it around on the table so it faced him then he stared down at it, his eyes now narrowed.

It was for fifteen thousand five hundred dollars.

What the f**k?

His eyes cut back to Audrey.

“What the f**k?” he whispered.

“Like I said, for Rees’s school,” she answered. “I talked with Mrs. Layne. She said tuition for that school up in Chicago, the one that she thinks will suit Clarisse better, is fourteen thousand dollars a semester and that doesn’t include the room and board. She gets in, I’ll pay the first semester and the rest is for supplies or living quarters or whatever. We can, um…figure out how to split the rest of her living expenses. Then you can pay the second semester and I’ll see what I can do for the year after that.”

Mike stared at her hard. “Where did you get this money?”

She licked her lips, her head shifted strangely on her neck for a second then she locked eyes with him and answered, “I sold the Mercedes this week. I got a secondhand Hyundai. And since we sat down with Clarisse and Mrs. Layne I’ve been putting things on on-line auctions, selling shoes, handbags, stuff that…uh, you got me. They, well…I took care of them so they sold well. I have some other stuff to sell but I’m setting that aside to do it when it’s my turn again to cover her tuition.”

Mike didn’t move, not an inch.

This was because he was completely and totally f**king floored.

Audrey kept talking. “Mrs. Layne says with her talent and our circumstances there’s a good possibility she’ll be eligible for and get some scholarships but not a full ride. So, uh…if that happens, the scholarships, I mean, then this can be used for her living expenses.”

“You sold your car and your shit,” Mike whispered.

She held his eyes and replied quietly, “Yes.”

“For our daughter, you sold your car and your shit,” Mike repeated.

Her head shifted in that strange way again and in a rush, she returned, “I know, Mike, that it isn’t me giving her this.” She reached out a hand to tap her fingers on the table to indicate the check. “I know it’s you. I know that car and that stuff you bought, really. So it’s you giving this to Rees. I know that. I know this isn’t a grand gesture from me. But, what Mrs. Layne says, what she’s showed me of Clarisse’s work, it had to be done.”

Mike sat back in his chair not taking his gaze from her.

Audrey pulled in a visible breath and continued, “I’m happy if you don’t want to tell her that the money came from me because, really, it didn’t.”

Mike stared at his ex-wife.