A glimmer of frustration flitted behind Lucas’s bright blue eyes. “Grandma and Grandpa took us to breakfast. Dad came too and then Grandma was having trouble breathing, so Grandpa took her to the hospital. So Dad brought us home.”
Was Lucas thinking what she was thinking? Why didn’t Todd take his sons and go do something with them for the afternoon? Why didn’t he act like a father and be involved in his sons’ lives? Or why didn’t Todd just take the boys back to Celeste’s house? He knew damn well he wasn’t supposed to be within five hundred feet of her, and they sure as hell were standing closer than five hundred feet.
She cleared her throat and pried Kellen’s arms from around her legs, wrapping her arms around each of her sons’ shoulders. “Well, I’m very happy to see you both. I missed you.”
“We missed you too, Mom,” Kellen said, his eyes red-rimmed but his face bright.
“Interesting that you said you were in the salon. I peered inside the window of the salon and didn’t see you in there. Didn’t hear the radio or see any lights on either. I also knocked,” Todd said, his face so fucking smug she wanted to backhand him into next year.
She shrugged, attempting to appear casual and unfazed. “I was under the stairs. It’s a small storage space off the salon.”
His brows barely lifted, but his jaw tightened. He didn’t say anything though.
“Is Freddie home?” Kellen asked. “Can we go play with him?”
Prickles of unease snagged in her gut. “He’s not home, honey. He’s still at his mom’s house.”
Kellen’s face fell.
“Who’s Freddie?” Todd asked.
“He’s our new friend and neighbor,” Kellen said, his smile back. “He’s really cool. Has a big soccer net in his backyard, and his dad makes great mac and cheese.”
Todd’s nostrils flared. “His dad, huh?” His eyes roved over her body from head to toe and back again.
She tucked her hair behind her ears once more and straightened her posture.
For all his enormous faults, her ex-husband was not an idiot. She watched him do the calculations in his head. They’d already established that Freddie’s parents weren’t together. He was at his mom’s house. Now Todd knew that Freddie’s dad lived next door. All it would take was a couple of assumptions, and her ex-husband would be enraged—as was his MO.
“So you were in the salon, huh?” Todd asked again, having come to his own conclusions, the evidence of them written in the ire on his face.
She didn’t owe him anything, least of all an explanation. “Why are you here, Todd? You know the rules. Celeste does the hand-offs. You should have dropped the boys back with her if you didn’t want them. This”—she pointed back and forth between them—“is not five hundred feet.”
He rolled his eyes, giving her the look she’d seen nearly every day of their marriage. It was the look he gave her when he was trying to make her feel stupid and small. “Come on, Eva. You know as well as I do that that fucking restraining order is a joke.”
“Is it?” she countered, taking a couple of steps back for good measure, bringing her boys with her.
“Yes. I could have my lawyers contest it and win in a heartbeat. Both you and I know it.”
“Then why haven’t you?” She swallowed down the fear that had grown into a hard ball at the back of her throat, her grip tightening on her sons’ shoulders.
“Because I’m a good guy.”
She fought the urge to laugh.
“I wouldn’t need a restraining order from a good guy.”
Anger flashed in his eyes but quickly dissipated. “I have a meeting I need to get to.” He nodded at his children. “Later, boys.”
“Bye, Daddy,” Kellen said, waving happily. The poor kid, he still held on to a few shreds of love for his father, while Lucas was older and not only saw how Todd treated Eva in the last years of their marriage but also knew how uninterested Todd was in his sons. He’d given up hope on Todd a long time ago, holding nothing but contempt for him now.
Todd’s eyes landed on Eva. “Say hi to Freddie and his dad for me.” Then he headed to his Mercedes SUV, revved the engine and peeled out of the driveway.
Eva let out the breath she’d been holding, though it did nothing for the anxiety that cannoned through her. Did he know?
Did he know who Freddie’s dad was? Or was he just being an assuming jackass, deducing that she hadn’t in fact been in the salon but over at the neighbor’s, but he didn’t know who the neighbor was.
God, she hoped it was the latter.
She and Scott still needed to figure out a way to handle Todd, and him finding out that they were together this way could not be further from ideal.
She also still needed to find a PI and hire the guy to dig up some dirt on Todd.
“Can we go inside?” Kellen asked, slipping out from beneath her arm and grabbing his backpack. Lucas did the same.
“Of course.” She followed the boys to the front door, punched in the keycode and turned the latch. Her eyes flicked back to the street when the niggling feeling that eyes were on her made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. But there was nothing nefarious in sight. A faint whistle had her shifting her gaze skyward, and that’s when she saw him.
He was still shirtless, and even from a distance, she could tell Scott was on high alert. He waved at her, and she waved back.
“You okay?” he called out the window.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“We’ll figure it out. I promise.”
All she could manage was a grim smile and another wave. As much as she wanted him to be right, he couldn’t promise that kind of thing. Todd was a powerful man with money and connections. This might just be one problem that couldn’t be fixed—aside from Eva breaking up with a man who in a very short span of time meant more to her than she was willing to admit.
17
Saturday night found Celeste and Eva curled up on Eva’s couch beneath a microfleece blanket, a rom-com on the television and wine in hand, mulling over the Todd dilemma.
It was only a matter of time until Todd figured out who lived next door to Eva—if he hadn’t already. He had friends who were cops. He had friends in city planning. He had friends who were hackers. All it would take would be one phone call to one of his buddies, and Scott’s name would pop right up.
“Maybe just tell him,” Celeste offered, taking a sip of her wine. Her sister had come over for dinner. Sabrina was at a sleepover with a friend, so Celeste offered to stay the night at Eva’s, as Eva didn’t really feel like being home with the boys by herself right now, not after her jarring altercation with Todd.
“And run the risk of Scott losing his job? I can’t do that.”
“Yeah, but like you said, he’s going to find out anyway. Might as well hear it from you, no?”
Eva exhaled and finished the final sip of her wine. “If the PI I hire can’t find anything, then I will, but I may need you to be there too when I tell him. You know—as a witness.”
“PI’s can take a while to dig up shit,” Celeste said, reaching for the wine bottle on the coffee table and topping up both their glasses. “You might not have that time. And let’s just say that the PI does find something, if it’s dirty enough, you can’t keep that information to yourself. You’ll have to go to the police with it.”