Page 85 of His Wounded Heart

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black.”

He shrugs.

“What were you talking to Bella about? Or were you able to get a word in edgewise?”

“She wanted to know if I was going to take unicorn cupcakes home. Did I have a dog. How long have I known her Uncle Drake. Why people call me a hermit and if I thought you were beautiful.”

“That sounds like my girl. I usually don’t have any time to answer before she’s onto the next question. Except for the ones about her daddy. Those have been coming in a lot. I’m not surprised, but she wants to know why she’d never met him. Was he handsome? And why I never married him. Unfortunately, she left space between those questions so I had to answer them.”

“Damn, Honey, what did you say?”

“I told her the truth. I told her that he was handsome, and that when he and I separated, I knew he didn’t want to see me again.” I let out a big sigh. “Of course, that took us down another rabbit hole. My daughter is a loyal little thing, and she couldn’t comprehend why someone wouldn’t want to see me. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there are two kids in her class that have had one of their parents just up and leave. No joint custody, no nothing. They just left. So I was able to use them as examples. She wanted to know how long I was sad about her daddy not wanting to see me. Then she asked if I was mad at him. I told her I was mad because he was missing out on being a daddy to the bestest little girl in the world.”

Simon put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me close. “You do that really well.”

“What?” I ask.

“Talk to your daughter. I like how you can talk at her level, but you’re also a straight shooter. She’s lucky to have you.”

“You’re kidding, right? I’m the one who’s blessed. I knew from the moment I saw those two pink lines that I was carrying a miracle.”

“Well, I’m happy that she’s been asking questions about her father that you can answer, instead of saying that you’re a ‘good enough’ family.”

I looked at Simon. “You’re right, I kind of forgot about that. That was a killer. Ah, damn, speaking of killers. Well, not really killers, but something really disturbing.” How could I have forgotten? I stand up and push up my sweater so I can get to my back pocket. I pull out the folded pieces of paper, then sit back down.

Simon looks at the papers curiously, but I don’t hand them to him. Dammit, my hand is trembling again. I put my hands on my thighs to stop the tremors, crushing the papers. Simon covers my trembling hands.

“Hey, whatever it is, it’s going to be all right.” His voice is laced with concern.

“I hope you’re right. I’m just scared. I meant to give this to you first thing. How could I have forgotten?”

Because you distract the hell out of me.

“Do you want me to see it now?”

“Yeah, but let me explain something. This is the third email I’ve received. I’ve deleted the first two. This one is the worst.” I release the paper and hand it to him.

I watch as he looks at the letter from the lawyer first. He doesn’t say anything, and his face doesn’t change expression. He switches to the next page and looks at that one, then looks up at me. Now his expression changes. He looks nothing like the man I’ve come to know. His jaw looks like it’s made of stone, in his eyes I see rage brewing. “You say you deleted the first two emails. Are they in your computer’s trash?”

“I empty my trash every day. I need the space on my Mac. It was expensive to buy the Mac with the higher gigabytes of memory so I went—”

He holds up his hand. “I get it. Do you remember what they say?” He clips out the question.

I nod. “One called me a sinner, and told me not to come back to Nashville. The other one called me a whore and told me that Bella and I needed to stay here in Jasper Creek. I was freaking out that they mentioned Bella.”

“How long ago did these come in?” Again, his question is abrupt. Is he mad at me?

“The first one came in two weeks ago. The second one came in the day I told Bella about her father, so about a week ago.”

“And this one came in today?”

I nod.

“And this letter from the lawyer?”

“See how it’s dated three and a half weeks ago?” I point to the date on the letter. “I’m pretty sure I received it three weeks ago when I was making coffee cake for Evie, but it dropped behind my table, so Bella found it and gave it to me today. I got the registered letter the day we kissed and—” He cut me off again. I don’t blame him a bit, I’m babbling.

“So really, you started getting the emails, after you received the lawyer’s letter,” he says, almost to himself. But I nod anyway.