Perfect Fit (Serendipity's Finest) - By Carly Phillips Page 0,84

Simon’s side. “We were all good friends. I was dating Rex and I thought I loved him, but what I loved was the illusion of the man. By the time I found out I was pregnant, the bloom was off that rose already,” she said, letting out a painful laugh.

Mike’s throat swelled, and he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“I was pregnant and scared, but make no mistake, Michael, I wanted you.” Moisture glistened in her eyes, and with the way her gaze held on to his, he couldn’t not believe her.

His chest pounded and his heart hurt, but he knew with everything in him that his mother told the truth.

“And I’d always loved Ella,” Simon said to his rapt audience. “If Rex had done right by her, I’d have kept silent. But he didn’t, and she deserved so much more than that son of a bitch was giving her, which was nothing but grief.”

Ella patted his back, urging him to continue.

“I had an old pocket watch that belonged to my grandfather and some other jewelry my mother had given me to put away for any woman I ended up marrying, and—”

“He pawned it all.” Ella picked up the story. “To help me and fix things, he sold family heirlooms.” Her voice caught on her words.

“I took the cash and went to Rex with a deal. Either he left town, in which case I would replace the money he stole, or he could stay, and I’d turn him in for evidence tampering, stealing, and whatever else the D.A. wanted to come up with.”

“What did Rex say?” Erin asked.

“He ran like the coward he was,” Ella said. “Then Simon asked me to marry him. He said he’d always loved me and he promised he wanted to raise the baby like his own. That’s when I learned that real love was more than something you said in the heat of the moment. Love is real and enduring.” She squeezed Simon’s hand before lifting herself onto her toes so she could kiss his cheek. “And he’s proven that love to me every day since.”

Simon kissed his wife before turning to face his children. “Questions?” he barked at them, so like the Simon Mike remembered rather than the frail man of late.

“Not at the moment,” Erin said, obviously stunned.

“Statements?” Simon asked.

Sam shook his head.

“Concerns?” Simon’s gaze locked on Mike.

He swallowed hard. “If I’ve got them, I need time to think them through. I’m a little numb,” he muttered.

Simon nodded. “Understood. Come to me if you want to talk.”

“Or to me,” his mother added, and Mike knew she meant if he wanted to discuss her relationship with Rex Bransom.

“Right now, I’m taking your mother upstairs and I’m going to find out why she thought she couldn’t tell me she’d heard from Rex,” Simon said in a tone that brooked no argument. “And I’m not taking because you had cancer for an answer.”

Sam snickered, and even Mike had to laugh. Somehow, things had gone from deadly serious to back to normal in the blink of an eye.

And Mike hadn’t been kidding. He needed time to process the entire evening before he could begin to make sense—of anything that had happened tonight.

Fifteen

After the scene at the Marsdens’, Cara wanted to go straight home and talk to Mike, but she’d promised a coworker she’d cover his shift. Since she sensed Mike needed time alone, she figured it was just as well. Besides, she had no desire to get into a discussion of when he’d leave Serendipity. It was enough that she knew the time was imminent and she could prepare herself emotionally. No long, drawn-out conversation would make the inevitable any easier.

Because it was nighttime, she was partnered with Dare, which she enjoyed. They joked around and talked about Tess and his brothers’ babies. She didn’t forget about her problems, but between work and Dare, she found a much-needed distraction.

When dispatch radioed about an unwanted intruder at 111 Elm Street, home of Judge Marshall Baine, every one of Cara’s nerves prickled in alarm.

“Ten-four. Car number seven en route,” Dare replied, hitting the siren and turning toward the judge’s house.

Cara wanted to give him a full rundown, but unless they found Rex, she didn’t want to spill Marsden family secrets.

She prayed she was wrong.

She wasn’t. They arrived to find Mrs. Blaine wearing a bathrobe, arguing with Rex on the front lawn, while the judge paced behind her, muttering to himself.

Cara shook her head and climbed out of the car. “Something