Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,31

it reaches the station. I’m only walking for a few moments when I notice a car double-park a few cars up from me. A window rolls down and before I hear his voice, I already know who it is.

“Care for that ride now?” Reed’s smug face appears like he knew the entire time catching the train today was going to be impossible.

“Am I going to have to take out a restraining order?”

He opens the door, steps out and motions for me to join him in the car. A few taxis behind him honk, but it doesn’t faze him as he waits patiently.

“I guess I know what you need before you do.” He winks. On any other guy, it would come off cheesy as hell, but somehow on Reed, it’s charming.

I step forward and stop just outside the door. If I stepped any closer our chests would touch. “One ride and I need to stop for Danishes on the way.”

He chuckles. “So, I get breakfast, too. Sounds like a date.”

I slide into the car and scoot over to the far side, giving the driver a small smile of thanks. Reed slides in next to me and takes up the majority of the space, his knees hitting the back of the passenger seat.

“It’s not a date,” I say once I’m settled.

“Yet.”

“Never.”

“If you say so.”

He shrugs, and though he may sound like he’s in agreement, the cocky smirk splashed across his face says differently.

Chapter Nine

Wednesday night when I arrive home from my evening class, Jade’s laughter echoes from behind the door and I smile to myself. Inserting the key into the lock of my childhood home, my body craves the serene comfort of my daughter and our new life.

I don’t mind going to school. I actually enjoy it more than I did eight years ago when I was only a year away from earning my degree. I could strangle myself every time I think of the bad decision I made, knowing full well at the time that that’s exactly what it was. No, it wasn’t the fact Pete and I didn’t use protection and ended up pregnant with Jade. It wasn’t marrying him quickly so that his family didn’t have the shame of an unplanned pregnancy to their name. I loved Pete and when I walked down that aisle, I truly thought he was my forever. The mistake I made was letting him convince me to leave college with one year left so I could follow him to Los Angeles.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy—raising a baby and finishing my degree—but I naively thought Pete signed up to stand beside me, not in front of me.

Pete had other plans though. Maybe it was because it’s all he knew growing up. Who knows? He had a stay-at-home mom while I had two working parents. To me having it all meant a family and a career. Pete felt differently.

He envisioned coming home to a home-cooked meal, a perfect wife who brought him a drink at the end of the day and wore lingerie to bed every night. I didn’t miss the disgust in his eyes when I swapped out my satin for flannel. But I’m not naive enough to believe that our bedroom problems were the only reason he strayed.

Pete was someone who was never fulfilled with what he had. He’s still that way.

I hate the memory of the weakness that lived inside of me while we were married. I was trying to make something of us while losing myself in the process. When I signed those divorce papers, I made a promise to myself. I’d never let a man run my life again.

“Mommy!” Jade screams when I walk through the door, getting up and running toward me dressed in her rainbow emoji pajamas.

My mom glances over from the chair, a curious look in her eyes. “How was school?”

I hug Jade tight against my body. “Good, but I’m glad to be home.”

Jade runs back to the couch to watch some game show on the television. “Grandma is so smart. She’s getting every answer right.”

My mom smiles and pats Jade’s head as she gets up from her chair and walks by her. “I saved you some dinner.”

I drop my book bag on the entryway bench and follow my mom into the kitchen.

“Thanks.” I slide into a breakfast bar chair and my head falls into my hand.

The caregiver my mom is, she sets the plate in front of me before heading over to the silverware drawer. “Drink?