him.
Grace gives me a suspicious look and says, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m about to open the animal hospital,” I claim. “We’re trying to figure out what to do with Arden when Mills is at work.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I wish I could step in, but Mom needs a music teacher next semester. I promised I’d work for her until Christmas break.”
I grunt and don’t attempt to nag her. What else can I do?
There has to be someone. I just know it, but who?
Pierce and I still walk the dogs at night and have longer conversations than we did when we were supposed to be happily married. He tells me about Nyx having issues with Edward. He knocked her up and didn’t want to rescind his parental rights.
“It’s not like he wants to be a father. Mom is fucking with her because we sued her. She’s using him to get to her. I know it,” he concludes. “Nate, her roommate, met me in Portland earlier today. He wants to pay a visit to Eddie and teach him a lesson.”
“Please tell me you stopped him.”
He nods. “I did and asked him to be patient. Edward and Mom will stop focusing on Nyx once we take them down. There’s a criminal investigation undergoing. Beacon’s people are finding shit that might put several of them in jail.”
“Your mom?”
“Mom is a smart woman,” he states. “Once she figures out what’s happening and I suggest she makes a deal, she’ll cooperate. She’ll lose her license, retire early, and probably hate me for what I did.”
He doesn’t want to tell me what’s happening and what they are finding. The fewer people know, the better, according to him. It might take months or years before it is finished. It all depends on how fast the agency that is investigating them finds what they need.
“This guy Nyx is living with is definitely in love with her,” he says with a smile. “He said, ‘I don’t want Nyx to lose our blueberry.’”
“That’s adorable,” I say.
He clears his throat and shrugs. “If you…when you get pregnant, I want to be there for you. Of course, that is, if you want me to stick around. Have you decided where you’re going to live?”
We just signed the divorced papers last week. I know, two weeks after the fact, but we were not in a hurry.
“I’ve been looking at the houses Easton is building,” I answer. “The second one on the corner of Baker’s Lane is my favorite, but it’s kind of pink.”
“It is pink,” he concludes, then points at the new dock and says. “I’m claiming that land. What do you think about building a house there?”
“You’d love it, and so would the kids,” I state and confirm my suspicions. “You’re staying, aren’t you?”
“No, I want to have a place here, close to my brothers. It can be just a vacation home or my residence,” he states. “Ideally, I want to be wherever you end up living. Unless you don’t want me with you.”
His voice is low, and the way he says it makes my pulse quicken. It’s the same way he used to say, “I want to play tonight, unless you don’t want me to play with you.”
My arms are covered with goosebumps. I blame the cold breeze and the light sweater I’m wearing.
“Small steps,” I remind him, or maybe I remind myself.
“I won’t lie, I miss my spitfire,” he whispers, closer to my ear. “This is allowed, right? Flirting.”
“We haven’t set up rules,” I say, moving away from him because I might not be able to keep my lips away from his. “Keeping your lips to yourself should be the first one.”
He laughs. “At least I know you’re dying to kiss me just like I am dying to kiss you.”
“It’s been a couple of weeks,” I sigh.
“Almost three weeks,” he corrects me. “I was discussing this with my therapist earlier. The withdrawals and how we’ve always managed to get in fights every week because we needed that physical contact—sometimes it was only angry kisses, but then we escalated to angry sex.”
“The addiction,” I voice my thoughts.
He nods a couple of times. “It’ll help not to live in the same house while we figure everything out, our future as individuals and the possibility of being together,” he concludes.
“The future looks scary. There are too many uncertainties.”
“You’ve handled worse than this. In a week, the hospital opens. You’ll be having a baby around this time next year. There’s nothing to lose.