Page 55 of Written with Regret (The Regret Duet 1)
“Yeah, but her prints weren’t a match to any that the cops took from my place. They couldn’t even charge her with that.”
“See. I’m telling you. That bitch knows what she’s doing. She knew enough to cover her damn tracks that night. What about child endangerment, abandonment—hell, neglect? Hang her from the rafters for that shit.”
“Right. So she can walk into the courtroom and defend herself by explaining, on record, that she was suffering from a PTSD episode, reliving the day my father killed her parents when she made the decision to give me the baby?”
“And how many hospitals, police stations, and fire stations did she pass on the way to your place that night? There are legal and safe ways to do what she did. And she picked none of them. I wouldn’t trust that woman with a goldfish, much less my daughter.”
“You do not have to tell me shit I already know. I don’t trust her. Which is why a custody battle scares the piss out of me. What the hell am I supposed to do if a judge orders me to give her to Hadley even every other weekend? You know good and damn well how much the legal system favors mothers over fathers. That is not a risk I can afford to take. And let’s not even pretend that the rake through the coals I would get after the public found out about Dad and her parents wouldn’t play into that decision. I could be father of the fucking year and I’d still be the villain.”
“Shit,” he mumbled. Forget about being my brother, Chief of Police Trent Hunt knew I was right about that.
“Look, I’m playing this smart. She volunteered for six months of supervised visitation. So far, she’s been agreeable and understanding. I’m not sure how long that will last, but I’ve got my fingers on the pulse over here. We haven’t told Rosie anything, so right now Hadley is just… Hadley the art teacher. If she hangs around long enough, we’ll cross that bridge of lies when we get there.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.”
“You are not alone in that. But it is what it is at this point.”
“How’s your husband handling it?”
I barked a laugh. “Ian is scared to death about me being scared to death. I’ve decided to be nice to her to avoid any further conflict. But he’s under no such obligation, so I’m pretty sure he’s angling at being a dick to see if he can run her off.”
“For the record, I’m on his team.”
Grinning, I rose to my feet when I heard voices on the other side of the door. “I’d be disappointed if you weren’t. Listen, I gotta go.”
“Do me a favor and use some of your fancy money to buy a set of prosthetic thumbs so you can keep me in the loop. I don’t have good feelings about this.”
The door opened and Hadley and her overflowing bag-o-crap appeared on the other side.
“Will do. We’ll talk soon. Tell Jenn I said to fuck off.”
He laughed, and as I pulled the phone away from my ear, I heard him call out, “Jenn, Cav said hi!”
Tucking my phone in my back pocket, I plastered on a smile. It should have disturbed me at how easy that smile was when I saw her. “You guys done?”
Hadley pointed at her invisible watch. “Three o’clock on the dot.”
“Perfect. I’ll walk you to your car.”
Her body sagged. “Oh, God. Are we going to have another talk?”
“No, smartass. I was just trying to be nice.”
She brought a hand up to her chest. “Oh, wow. I knew the unicorn butt was good, but I didn’t expect all this fanfare.”
I shook my head. She was funny.
I fucking hated that she was funny.
Predominantly because I fucking loved that she was funny.
She turned around to where Rosalee was standing in the hallway, holding Alejandra’s hand.
“Bye, Rosalee. See you in few days, okay?”
“Don’t forget. I want to draw the horn.”
“No prob, Bob.”
Rosalee cackled. “My name’s not Bob!”
I couldn’t see Hadley’s face, but I could hear the smile in her voice. “All right, all right. See you later, alligator?”
Rosalee beamed up at her. “I’m not an alligator, either!”
“See you soon, baboon?”
“Hadley!”
“Gotta go, buffalo?”
My girl doubled over in laughter. “Buffa-what?”
Hadley kept going. “Take care, polar bear? Better shake, rattle snake? Be sweet, parakeet?”
Rosie was laughing so hard that she couldn’t even get a reply out.
“How about this, then?” Hadley cleared her throat and bowed low. “I’ll see you soon. Have a g-llama-rous day.”
Okay, fine. She was funny…and a touch weird.
Rosalee loved it. After rushing forward, my little girl threw her arms around Hadley’s legs, squeezing her tight.
I sucked in a sharp breath, my whole body coming alert. It wasn’t long and lingering the way she hugged me, but it was huge no matter what package it came in.
