Chapter 14
Neely
I meet Manny’s scowling gaze and shake my head. No, I don’t want any attention drawn to me. I’m wearing my ratty old Nashville Sounds hoodie and a pair of leggings that have seen better days, while the woman Tobias is kissing looks like she just stepped out of a high-class office.
Switching TJ’s carrier to the other hand, I let the shop door close quietly, not that Tobias will notice, and stomp back to my car. My nose stings as I blink back tears and tuck TJ into the back seat. There is no way I’m going to cry over that jerk. I have no one to blame but myself.
I can’t say he didn’t warn me. He said it plain as day—he doesn’t do relationships. I’m the one who believed he changed his mind when we made lov… had sex the other night and every night since. Turns out I’m a fool.
The ride home… no, the ride to Tobias’s house passes in a blur. My thoughts are scattered, and I feel so… lost, but my son is wide awake and fussy. He’s probably picking up on the tension I can’t seem to get rid of, no matter how many calming breaths I take or stretches I do. After picking at a light dinner of leftovers, I give TJ his bath, and thankfully, he falls right to sleep. I almost forget to attach the little blue SIDS monitor to his foot and turn on the baby monitor so I can hear him if he wakes.
I can’t dance—Tobias’s place doesn’t have the room nor the pole for the type of exhausting workout I need right now—but I can grab my laptop and get to work figuring out the messes I left in Georgia so TJ and I can move our butts back home.
An hour or so later, the calm I’ve created by identifying the lumberjack asking questions about me dissipates like smoke through the pines as I hear Tobias’s truck pull up to the house. I send Sweet Baby and Diamond Girl an encrypted email regarding the information I’ve found on Mason Cree, a PI and bounty hunter based out of Nevada. What I don’t know is who hired him… yet. There have been no monetary deposits that can be connected to me other than a credit card charge to one of the two-star hotels in my hometown of Ridgetown, Georgia. It’s more than we had this morning.
When Tobias comes through the door, he gives me a look I can’t decipher. He heads straight upstairs, and I hear the shower kick on. No kiss. No invitation to join him. Nothing. I don’t know what to do with myself, so I sit on the sofa, rest my chin on my pulled-up knees, and wait.
When he comes back down a few minutes later, he’s not in the sweats or basketball shorts he normally wears after work. Instead, he’s dressed in his well-worn jeans and a tight T-shirt that shows off his biceps and trim waist. God, he’s such a treat.
“Are you leaving again?” Duh, Neely. It’s more than obvious he is.
“Yup. What about it?”
“I was hoping we could talk. There are a couple of things I think you need to know.”
“Oh, really? And why do you think I would be willing to listen to anything you have to say, Sugar… Cookie.”
Oh, lord. Somehow, he knows… The fucking bounty hunter, of course. “You had me investigated? Why didn’t you just ask me what you wanted to know? I would have told you.”
“Would you have? Is TJ even my son or some other guy’s kid you’re hiding from him?”
“What? What other guy? Damn it, Toby, you’re not making any sense! Yes, we are hiding, but it’s not what you think. I was always bringing TJ to meet you.” I take a step toward him, practically pleading with him to understand. I reach out to touch him, and he steps away.
“That’s a good story… now, but you’re too late, Neely. I’ve got to get out of here. You can stay one more night, but when tomorrow morning rolls around, I expect you to be gone.”
Oh my God. He is really ending us before we’ve barely had a chance to begin. “Where are you going?” I ask, my voice shaky and ringing with desperation.
“Out.” He pulls open the door and steps out onto the stoop.
“With the woman I saw you kissing today?” I lob the next question at him, unable to keep the hurt or the jealousy out of my voice.
He looks over his shoulder, meeting my gaze with a closed-off look of his own, and rips my heart out. “Exactly. Pack your shit, and don’t wait up.”