He drops his gaze for a moment, then fishes into his pocket. He holds a piece of paper torn from a small notepad out to me. “That’s my cell phone number. Call me as soon as you’re able to talk to your attorney and we can come to some type of agreement.”
“Where are you staying?” I ask as I take the paper and shove it into my pocket.
“The Orion downtown,” he replies.
“I’ll call as soon as I talk to my attorney,” I promise him.
“Okay, thanks,” he says brightly, a smile breaking wide on his face. “How have you been doing, Emory? You look great.”
Shane might be clean, but that statement right there means I can’t trust his priorities. “I’d think you’d much rather know about your daughter than me.” The sneer in my tone is cold and bitter. “What I am is your ex-wife and thus none of your business.”
“Right,” he says softly, duly chastened and put in his place. “Of course. How is Felicity?”
I’m pissed she’s an afterthought, so I don’t bother to give him an answer. “I’ll call you after I talk to my attorney,” I say instead, reaching back for the doorknob. He nods but makes no move to leave. “Don’t come back here uninvited, Shane.”
“Understood,” he replies and finally pivots on his foot. He jogs down the three steps, to my sidewalk and out to a car parked on the side of the road.
My legs turn shaky all of a sudden and I lean back against the door until he pulls away. I use that time to try to get my nerves back under control and hope to hell I can figure out how to explain the sudden reappearance of her dad to Felicity.
CHAPTER 15
Jett
I wait for Emory to come back into the living room. After she came inside from talking to whoever was out there, we finished the game of charades. Felicity and I were supreme champions.
After that, Jenna made a big deal about getting Felicity ready for bed and I assumed that was to give Emory and I alone time. I have absolutely no expectations of what the rest of the night will hold past her coming back in here and walking me to the door for a good night kiss. Pretty sure sex in her house with her kid down the hall is a non-starter, and not one I’m all that interested in anyway. It would be a bit weird.
At any rate, I can tell something is off. Emory had this vibe when she came back inside that I can’t quite put my finger on. She put on a good front and the last five minutes of charades she was laughing and teasing and acting silly like we all had before.
But her face was a little pinched and her shoulders were stiff. She clasped her hands in her lap so tightly sometimes that her knuckles went white.
While Emory went back with Jenna and Felicity to kiss her daughter goodnight, I picked up the charades cards and put them back in the box, then took the empty drink glasses into the kitchen where I placed them in the sink.
By the time I made it back to the couch, Emory was walking into the living room. I remained standing, ready for her to bid me good night, and more than ready to sit back down if she wanted to hang out for a bit.
She ended up making a sweeping motion toward the couch with her hand, indicating for me to sit down. I did but she didn’t follow. Instead, she stood on the other side of the coffee table, worrying at her lower lip with her teeth.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her.
She looks pained, as if she needs to share something abhorrent with me. “Remember when I told you I didn’t want complications in my life?”
“Yeah,” I drawl slowly, wondering if I’ve somehow become complicated because I stayed for family charades.
“Well, a past complication has caught up with me,” she mutters, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose.
It’s pure intuition and nothing else driving my guess. “Your ex-husband?”
Her eyes flare wide that I nailed it, but she pushes the surprise aside and nods. “That was him at the door. Shane.”
She didn’t invite him inside and I have no clue if that’s because things were left bad between them or because she had her new guy she’s dating inside. Before I can hazard why, she starts pacing and growls. “It’s been two years since I’ve heard from that bastard. And now he wants to come waltzing back into Felicity’s life like nothing happened. It’s ridiculous. She’s worked hard to get over the pain of him disappearing, and now he’s going to cause her so much turmoil. And he just expects me to be okay with this. I mean… how selfish is that?”
Emory ends that last statement by stopping in her tracks and turning to face me. I have no answer for her as I’m lost.
Utterly lost.
She must be able to read that on my face because she sighs, her face tense with apology. “I’m sorry. You have no clue what I’m talking about.”
I pat the cushion beside me. “How about you stop pacing and come tell me all about it?”
Emory sighs again but looks relieved at my offer. She rounds the coffee table and sits on the cushion next to me, except she curls her legs in and turns her body so that her knees are on my thigh. It puts us close together which I sense she needs, but I keep my hands to myself. I don’t want to distract her from telling the full story.
Eyebrows knitting inward, she holds her breath and asks, “Are you sure you really want to hear all this? I mean… you wanted uncomplicated too.”
That was true once upon a time, but not now. “Remember… I’m invested now, same as you. So spill.”
The air in her lungs rushes out in an exhale of relief and she gives me a weak smile. “Let me just start at the beginning. I met Shane during my junior year at UCLA. He was one of my professors and was ten years older than me. We had an illicit affair—illicit in that professors were forbidden from dating students—but it ended up getting really serious. He proposed during my senior year and we were married four months later. It was all very secretive and only our immediate family knew. We knew we could go public after I graduated.”
I think I do a good job of keeping my features bland, but I’m shocked as hell Emory had an affair with an older man who happened to be one of her professors.
“I got pregnant right before graduation and Felicity was born. For a few years, we had a great life. Shane continued to teach at UCLA and I got a job in digital marketing there. Nothing fancy, but it was a good foot-in-the-door kind of thing. And all was well.”
“Until it wasn’t,” I guess.
Emory shakes her head, her eyes filled with pain and sorrow. “Shane got injured while skiing. It was bad and he broke two of the vertebrae in his back. He wasn’t paralyzed but it was serious enough it took almost half a year of serious rehab to get him fully functioning again, except I didn’t realize what was keeping him functioning was the pain pills he’d been prescribed.”
I hold back the rumble of dismay in my chest.
“It was bad,” she continues on. “His addiction was well hidden at first, but then it got out of control. His doctors would no longer prescribe for him, so he got street drugs. He depleted our savings buying the stuff and eventually got arrested in a drug sting although the charges were eventually dropped. His parents paid for a very good attorney.”
“Shit,” I mutter.