Chapter 1
Chapter One
LEO
Iknew the moment I put my truck in park and looked up to the front door of the house that shit was about to get ugly.
Before I’d even killed the engine, the front door had opened, revealing my ex-wife.
It was all there in her pinched lips and the lines carved between her brows as she frowned, she was pissed and geared up for a fight.
So much for an easy pickup.
Honestly, I shouldn’t have expected this time to be any different than all the others. We’d been doing this song and dance for more than a year now, and each time was just as unpleasant as the last.
Whitney’s eyes grew so squinty as I made my way to the door, I could barely see the blue through the narrowed slits.
She crossed her arms over her chest, cocked a hip, and threw out a foot.
It was a stance I was all too familiar with, and it had to be said, I didn’t miss her personal brand of attitude one goddamn bit. “You’re late.”
I knew exactly what time it was, but I still made a show of checking my watch anyway. “By fifteen minutes. And I texted you to let you know. Give me a break, Whit.”
“Oh, you mean like you gave me one by being late to pick up your own kids?” she asked, sarcasm saturating her words. “What if I had plans, huh?”
“Do you have plans?”
Her face started to grow red as she blustered.
“That . . . isn’t the point!” she decreed.
“The point is I could’ve had plans, and because you couldn’t be bothered to come get your children on time, I’d have been late.
Not to mention, you’re showing a bad example by teaching them they don’t have to take other people’s schedules into consideration. ”
Jesus. I didn’t miss her drama either. This was classic Whitney. If she wasn’t laying on a guilt trip or trying to seduce me into coming back, she was being a bitch, and the latter happened far more often than the former.
I felt my neck grow tight, the tension that always took root whenever I had to deal with my ex-wife twisting my muscles into knots.
“First off,” I started, my words hissing through clenched teeth, “my job isn’t a cut and dried nine-to-five, you know that.
You’ve known that since I started at the department back in Philly.
You’re just lookin’ for a reason to bitch, because it’s what you do.
Second, I showed you consideration by textin’ the minute I knew I was gonna be late.
And last, don’t give me that shit about bein’ a bad example to my kids. You know I’m a good dad.”
“A good dad? Really?” she bit out snidely. “So a good dad rips his own family apart just because he can’t handle a little rough patch?”
“Don’t you fuckin’ dare,” I said, keeping my voice low so the kids wouldn’t overhear, but the menace in my tone was loud and clear as I took a step closer.
She immediately blanched at the rage painted across my face and dripping from my words.
“What we had wasn’t a rough patch, Whitney.
It was a tornado in the middle of a hurricane during a blizzard.
It was a goddamn disaster of epic proportions, and it was that way because you”—I jabbed my finger at her face—“made it that way.”
Her face pinched up even tighter and I found myself wondering how it had ever been possible that I once thought this woman was beautiful. “So it’s all my fault?” she asked incredulously.
“No, it’s not all your fault. It’s mine too, because I let it go on for a whole lot longer than I should’ve.”
Suddenly, the atmosphere around us changed, and I saw her switching up her play before my very eyes.
“You can’t mean that,” she whispered, her voice going soft.
The anger hadn’t worked, so now she was trying something else, hoping to get her way by showing me sweet—something I hardly ever got during our marriage.
“We were married almost fifteen years. We’ve been together even longer than that.
It wouldn’t have lasted that long if it was all bad, honey. ”
“It lasted as long as it did because you pulled your shit.” Her face bleached of all color. She had to have suspected that I knew how she’d played me, but for the sake of my kids, I’d never called her out on it. Until now.
“You used those kids as pawns in your game. You knew, after havin’ a mom that walked out on me, I’d never in a million years do that to my own kids, so you did what you did to trap me.
Two times you felt me slippin’. Knew I was about to end it, and both times you announced you were pregnant.
Want to tell me how the hell that happened, since I went gloved with you always? ”
Her eyes went big and round. “I didn’t—”
“You did and we both fuckin’ know it. That’s why I stayed.
Maybe, in all the time between, if you’d given me even a hint of sweet, I’d have been more willing to fight for us, but you never did.
Not once, Whitney. You rode my ass about money, then, when I started pulling double shifts to get overtime so I could afford all the shit you wanted, to give you and our kids more, you rode my ass about my hours.
You threw a goddamn fit about movin’ back here after my dad got sick, and when I put my foot down, you went out of your way to make my life miserable.
It’s never been easy. Nothing I did was good enough for you, and you shared that every goddamn day.
I’d go to work, deal with the kinds of evil you’ve never seen, then come home and have my own wife bitch and complain about every aspect of her life and how I wasn’t givin’ her what she felt she deserved until I finally fell asleep.
That’s not a rough patch, that’s a goddamn living nightmare, and I couldn’t take it for another fucking day. ”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as tears welled up in her eyes. I’d known her most of my life, and I knew when she was faking it, but that didn’t stop her from trying. “I can do better. If we could just try again—”
“I’ve heard that from you more times than I can count, and nothing ever changed. There’s no more tryin’. We’re done.”
That sadness went right out of her expression, and the real Whitney came rushing back. “God, you are such an asshole.”
Before she could throw out more of her venom, the sound of footsteps rushing through the house cut her off, followed by a loud, “Daddy!”
I had just enough time to brace before my girl, Macie, came barreling around the corner, shooting past her mom, and slamming right into me.
The anger melted right out of me as I lifted my arms and wrapped them around my precious daughter.
A genuine smile tugged at my lips for the first time since pulling up in the driveway as I looked down at her big blue eyes and ran my hand down her sunny blonde hair. “Hey baby girl. Missed you.”
“Missed you too, Daddy.”
My son, Hardin, appeared behind her a few seconds later.
My baby girl got her mom’s coloring, light hair and eyes, but my boy was all me.
He had the same dark brown hair as mine—only a few shades below black.
He had my hazel eyes that looked like the color of olives, and both my kids got my height.
At fifteen, almost sixteen, Hardin had already topped out at six feet, and it was only a matter of time before he caught up to the last three inches I had on him.
At twelve, my girl was already five four, the tallest girl in her grade at school and in her gymnastics class.
Both my kids were my whole world, and Macie never bothered hiding that she felt the same about me. Hardin was a different story.
He’d been pissed at me since the divorce was finalized.
Whitney was to blame for that. Although it hadn’t been pretty, I’d made sure not to badmouth their mom in front of them.
The same couldn’t be said for her. She’d made her unhappiness with my decision to end our marriage known far and wide, not bothering to hide it from our children.
She’d cried in front of them, telling them it wasn’t what she wanted, that she wanted us to be a family again, making me the bad guy.
Hardin was a smart kid. He knew how unhappy I’d been and how much we fought, but he loved his mom.
When I left, he’d taken over the role of protector.
A role he was too young to be in, and one she’d all but forced upon him by using his shoulder to cry on.
He couldn’t stand to see her unhappy. Therefore, I was to blame.
It fucking gutted me. For my boy, the sun had rose and set with his old man.
He’d been my shadow as a little kid and, as he got older, started mirroring my behavior.
He wanted to be a police detective like me.
He wanted to play football and baseball in high school just like me.
He wanted to go to the same college. Then in one fell swoop, all of that was gone.
It had been a year since I really and truly had my boy, and it was a pain unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
I jerked my chin up, hope swelling in my chest that maybe this would be the week we’d have a breakthrough. “Son.”
His expression remained flat. His lips were pressed into a thin line. “We going or what?”
So much for hoping this time would be different.
“Can we go to Evergreen Diner for dinner?” Macie asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest as she hopped in place. “I’ve been dying for their lemon meringue pie for like forever.”
I turned my attention from my stoic boy and smiled down at my baby once more. “We’ll do that another night. Promise. Tonight we’re goin’ over to Pop’s for dinner. He’s grillin’ up burgers.”
“Yes!” Macie shouted, throwing her fist in the air. “Pop makes the best burgers.”
“Then we best get a move on. You guys load up.”
They said their goodbyes to their mom and started out to my truck. I turned to follow them just as Whitney said my name.