Well Suited (Red Lipstick Coalition #4)(24)

“Well, that’s not exactly what I meant. It’s just that you have your own set of rules. I figured it bothered you not to have her locked down and the baby along with her.”

“I knew the second I saw her that she was special. Different. I’m playing for keeps. But she doesn’t do this, Ma. She doesn’t even date, never mind cohabitate or have babies with somebody. A stranger, no less.”

“Can’t say I blame her. Didn’t quite work out for me,” she said lightly, as if it were a joke.

But it didn’t feel like a joke at all. Not to me.

“It’s not your fault you ended up yoked to a son of a bitch.”

One of her dark brows rose with her lips. “Oh? Whose fault would it be then, Teddy?”

“His.” A single definitive word that held decades of indignation.

She sighed, the sound weary with years of regret. “I shoulda been smarter. I shoulda known better. Everybody knew Johnny was trouble, but I thought he loved me.”

“Because he told you he did. But he didn’t end up showing it.”

“Sometimes I wonder why he married me. Why not just sleep with me and leave the door open to walk out of when he was through? Why promise me forever? And the only thing I can think is that he did love me. He was just too messed up to love me the way I loved him.”

My jaw clenched tight enough to pop. I didn’t want to think about him as anything but a lazy piece of shit who never did right by anybody. But I doubted she was wrong. I didn’t know how anybody could know her and not love her. But I didn’t know how anybody could leave her like that.

A flash of fear bolted through me. Was Katherine too Katherine to ever choose me? It wasn’t a possibility I could fathom. I felt sure if I followed the rules, checked all the boxes, waited patiently, she’d come around.

But what if she didn’t?

That answer was too much to fathom. So I packed it away and relit the brazier of hope in my chest.

If I had my way, we’d have our happy ending. I was gonna marry that girl one day. Someday.

But for starters, I’d happily settle for a kiss.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately,” she started, pushing her food around her plate with her fork.

“About what?”

“Your father.”

A burst of adrenaline ripped through me. The check in my pocket felt like it was on fire. “What about him?”

“I think I want to file divorce papers.”

A frown, mighty in intensity, weighted my face. “Ma, that’s crazy. You know you’d have to see him, right?”

“I know. But it’s been twenty years. He couldn’t affect me after all this time.”

I gave her a look.

She gave me one back. “I’ve been bound to him for too long.”

“But why now, Ma? Where’d this come from?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for years. Since he left. I couldn’t have done it back then, but now…well, now I can. But I need your help.”

Thunder and lightning rolled through my chest. “He could take everything you have.”

“You know as well as I do I’ve got nothing that isn’t Tommy’s. There’s nothing for him to take.”

“But whatever you do have, he’ll take it.”

Her face bent in sorrow and pain. “I don’t understand why you’re mad. I thought you’d want this. Teddy, I thought you’d understand. I don’t want to end my days married to that man.” The words choked off.

The sight of her face falling quieted the storm in my rib cage, filling me with dread and remorse.

I moved to her side, pulled her into a hug, and said the only thing I could. “It’s all right, Ma. If this is what you want, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“Thank you,” she said into my chest, her trembling hands hanging on to me with all her strength, which wasn’t much.

God help that son of a bitch if he hurt her again. And God help us all if he showed up here to make trouble.

Because all of this meant my secret wouldn’t stay quiet much longer. The second John got served, he’d come straight to me and make demands. Demands and threats.

So long as he kept his mouth shut, I’d keep paying him.

And so long as he stayed away, his nose would stay unbroken.





11





Prepositional Propositions





Katherine

The Rose Room was dark and empty, lit only by the lamps dotting the long work tables, casting soft, quiet light on the planes and angles of Theo’s face. His smile was sideways and touched with heat I felt through my suit dress.

“I’ve outlined the merits of the top three convertible cribs and compared their features in a bar graph.” He gestured to the foam board on a stand I hadn’t seen until just then.

I was so hot for him, I started sweating.

His suit was black as pitch, brilliantly tailored, squaring his broad shoulders and hugging the curves of his biceps.

I stripped off my suit coat and rose from my seat. “Tell me more.”

His eyes were molten as I hitched my skirt so I could climb onto the polished surface of the table.

“I made you a spreadsheet.”