Chapter 4
Tobias
Neely rips off her glasses and wipes at the tears running down her cheeks. With the glasses gone, I can see the dark circles under her eyes. Shit. Way to go, Toby. Not only can you make babies cry, but you can also make women scream, and not in a good way. It’s easy to see she’s at the end of her rope. I get the feeling that any other time, she’d be running circles around me.
“Come on.” I fish the keys she left on the counter out of my pocket and unlock the passenger door of her vehicle. “Get in.” I pull the door open and lean in to release the rest of the locks. As I step back, I waggle the door back and forth, holding it for her. She looks into the SUV like she’s never seen it before but then shakes her head and steps away. “Jay-zuz, does everything have to be a fucking argument with you?”
“Does everything have to be a-a fudging order from you?”
“Fudging? Are you serious?” What is it about her that makes me want to smile?
“Yes, I’m fudging serious! Toby isn’t going to be little forever, you know,” she shouts. “He needs structure and good examples.” Neely crosses her arms over her chest like she’s ready to double down on the issue. A mighty fine chest at that, now that the baggy sweatshirt is pulled tight. I’m a pig. Here the woman is having a meltdown, and I’m thinking about her breasts.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“No? What were you screeching about?”
“Oh, for… TJ! Watch your language.”
Hmm. She has a point, I guess. Instead of continuing to argue when it’s clear the damned woman isn’t going to be reasonable any time soon, I lift the car seat off the hood and head to the rear passenger door.
“What are you doing?” Neely squawks.
“What does it look like?” I ask as I open the car door and place the carrier on the seat.
“Well, from what I can see with your big butt in the way, you’re doing it wrong. Newborns are safer in the center, and you need to turn the seat around so he’s facing backward.”
“Backward? How’s he supposed to see anything?”
“Are you serious right now? TJ eats, sleeps, poops, and cries. He doesn’t care about the view at this age. Here, hold him. Let me show you how it’s done.”
Neely shoves between me and the kid, there’s a click, and then she’s turning and shoving the basket part of the seat containing the kid into my arms. I totally miss what she’s doing because I’m looking down at TJ’s little face. His bottom lip moves in a sucking motion even though he’s sleeping. I grin. The kid’s gonna be a boob man, too. When I look up, Neely is watching me. I shrug and hand the baby back to her.
She turns and then snaps the seat into the base before gently closing the door. Once again, I point to the passenger seat. This time, she gets in without an argument. Well, I’ll be damned; miracles really do happen.
“Buckle up,” I tell her and then close the door in her face. She sticks her tongue out at me but does what I say. I stride around the front of the SUV and climb into the driver’s seat. Or at least I try.
“What the fuck?” I damned near knock myself stupid because the seat is pulled too far forward.
“L-language.” Neely’s admonishment is muffled.
Frowning, I glance at her as I feel under the seat for the lever that slides the seat back. The little shit has both hands pressed over her mouth. Her face is red. Her glasses are askew, and her eyes are leaking tears again as a squeaky kind of snorting escapes from between her fingers.
“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up. I could have given myself brain damage,” I grumble as I adjust the mirror and stick the key into the ignition. “Where’s your appointment? No, don’t start arguing again. Where’s the appointment?”
She heaves an exasperated sigh but pulls a cheap track phone from her pocket. Once again, my instincts tell me Neely’s hiding something. She doesn’t even have a lock on the damned thing. I shake my head as she pulls up her texts.
“Well?”
“The appointment has been canceled. The lady rented the house I was going to look at about twenty minutes ago.” Her shoulders slump. I give a nod and put the car in drive. There’s only one place she could be staying, so I take a right and drive.
When I pull into the front lot of Wintervale Resort, Neely’s head rests against the window. Reaching over, I tap her thigh. “We’re here.”
“What? How did you know where we were staying?”
“It isn’t hard to figure out. The weekend’s coming up, I know the resort is booked for the festival, and you’re probably looking for somewhere else. Am I right?” I can tell she doesn’t want to admit it—this girl is stubborn.
“Neely. Argue with me tomorrow. I bet the little guy is gonna be hungry and need a diaper change soon. Besides, you fell asleep with a complete stranger in a car, no less. Go get some rest. You look like you need it.”
“Whatever.” She glances uneasily into the back seat and heaves a weighted sigh. Then, like all women seem to be able to do, she straightens her shoulders, snatches the keys out of the ignition, and hops out of the car.
“You know, Sugar, you could be nicer. Haven’t you ever heard ‘you catch more flies with honey’?” She tosses me a startled look but then hands me more sass.
“Bees. You catch more bees with honey. Flies are attracted to shit.” This time, she’s the one to close the door in my face.
Well, she has me there. When she pulls open the door behind her and gathers our… her son from the back seat, I can’t resist pushing a little harder as I climb out of her vehicle. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here? I’ll go easy on you, scout’s honor.” I give her my most sincere smile.
“Pfft. You were never a scout, Tobias James.”
Now, how does she know that? I watch her until her cute little ass disappears through the front doors of the resort before I pull out my phone.
My friend, Brady, is a traveling doctor in the local hospital system. I’m not sure what his rotation is, so I text him what I need, and he can get back to me when he has a free minute. He owes me a favor, and I’d like to keep this discreet if at all possible. As nosy as I am, I don’t want the town gossips all up in my business and my mom catching wind of this shit storm until I have all the facts straight. I then text Manny to come pick me up.
While I wait, I watch the resort’s doors and place a phone call to another retired Ranger buddy, Mason Cree. It’s picked up on the second ring. “Toe Beans, what’s up?”
“Hey, Mase, I need a favor.” I should have thought to go through her glove box for Neely’s vehicle registration and insurance papers while she was napping. “I need everything you can dig up on a woman named Neely James.”
“James, huh? Did you get married and forget to invite me to the wedding?”
“Not yet, but she did show up claiming I’m the father of her baby.”
“Holy shit, man! Are you?”
“Maybe.”
“Enough said. Send me the info. I’ll hopefully be wrapping up a case within the next two weeks, and then I’m heading home. Can you wait that long, or do you need it sooner? I know of a few people who can be discreet if you do.”
“No. I’ll wait for now. If you get too caught up, we can call in someone else.”
“Sounds good. You want her bra and panty sizes, too?” Mason’s big laugh booms through the phone’s speaker. Besides being a bounty hunter and PI, he thinks he’s a comedian.
“Sure, why not? We’ll see if you’re still as good as you think you are.” I hand him a ration of shit back.
“Oh, brother. I am good. Talk to you in a few.”
“Yup.”