“Well, then Todd will go to prison. Problem solved. I either blackmail him or I send him to prison.” She hated the idea of stooping to the horrendous method of blackmailing, but Todd pushed her to do things she never ever thought she would or could do. What was a minor felony in the grand scheme of things?
Celeste’s lips formed a thin line, which meant she wasn’t entirely on board with Eva’s plan. Oh well, neither was Eva, but she didn’t have any other plans coming out of her ass at the moment, so she needed to roll with the one she had. She glanced at the television, where the happy couple on screen were involved in a cheesy home-reno montage set to music.
“Fast forward through this garbage?” Celeste asked.
Eva nodded and was about to reach for the remote when her phone on the coffee table buzzed a text message.
It was from Scott.
BBQ tomorrow at Zak’s place. Kids invited. Please come. You and the boys. I’m grabbing Freddie early.
“Who is it?” Celeste asked, her nose wrinkling and pushing her glasses up an inch on her face. She usually wore contacts but had taken them out an hour ago to give her eyes a rest.
“Scott. He’s invited me and the boys to a BBQ at his friend’s house.”
Celeste’s mouth made an O, which then seemed to prompt her to yawn. “You going to go? Is this the single dads club he’s in? You ready for that big step? Meeting his friends?”
“Well, now that you say it like that, I don’t know.”
She was about to text him back when her phone buzzed again with another message from him.
Liam hired a PI to dig up some dirt on Todd. He has some interesting information for us, wants to speak in person tomorrow at the party.
Now it was Eva’s turn to look like a codfish.
“What is it?” Celeste asked, impatient and grabbing Eva’s phone from her. She read Scott’s messages. “Holy shit.” She handed Eva back her phone. “I wonder what he dug up?”
Eva shook her head, equal parts stunned, terrified and thrilled. “I have no idea, but whatever it was, if Liam wants to speak in person, it can’t be good.”
Celeste clicked her tongue. “Oh, Todd, you’re about to get your ass handed to you. And it’s about damn time.”
Eva texted Scott back. Sure. BBQ sounds great. And why didn’t you tell me your brother hired a PI? I was going to hire one.
He texted back right away.
I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case the guy didn’t find anything. Sorry, I should have told you. To be fair though, my mouth WAS pretty occupied last night and this morning.
Heat flooded her cheeks.
“He sexting you?” Celeste asked. “Can I see?” She went to reach for Eva’s phone, then stopped. “Wait, do I want to see? Is he into some kinky shit?”
Well …
Eva’s gaze slid sideways.
Celeste scrunched her nose. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”
Eva texted him back. You’re forgiven. Text me in the morning about the BBQ and we can convoy.
We can put Freddie’s booster in your van and all go together.
Even better.
“You’ve got it bad, you know,” Celeste teased. “You’re smiling like an idiot and twirling your finger in your hair like you did when we were kids and you were on the phone with a boy.”
Eva’s hand paused, and she glanced at the coil of hair wrapped around her finger. She hadn’t even been aware she was doing that.
“You going to the BBQ?” Celeste asked.
Eva nodded. “Yeah. I’m excited to meet his friends. That’s where he is tonight, at his brother Liam’s for their poker night. I think it’s really cool, a bunch of single dads getting together to support each other. Mind you, apparently the majority of them are no longer single, but it’s still a really great concept.”
“I should start us a single moms club,” Celeste offered. “Like a book club, but without books, because who the fuck has time to read? And instead we sit around drinking wine and bitching about how much we love our little crotch fruits but that they ultimately drive us to drink the wine we’re drinking.”
“I’d join that club,” Eva said, clinking her sister’s glass.
Celeste nodded. “Then it’s done. I hereby decree that the first meeting of The Single Moms of Seattle will come to order.” She glanced around. “Do you have a gavel?”
“Sorry, lost it in the divorce.”
“Damn.” She grabbed a paperweight made of pewter shaped like an alligator—a weird wedding gift from Eva and Celeste’s equally weird Great Aunt Ruth. She banged it twice on the end table. “There, it’s official. Now we need to recruit.”
“Flyers?”
“No, we’ll need to vet people. I’ll think on it. Maybe hold auditions. See if the women are a good fit. I mean, we can’t just invite any ol’ riffraff into our exclusive club. If they don’t consider wine a food group, they have no place in our organization. We can’t have sober chicks judging us the whole time.”
Eva nodded, giggling. She bumped shoulders with her sister. “I love you, Celly.”
“Love you too, Eves.” Then they snuggled up close under the blanket like they did when they were kids and watched one of the most awful movies Eva had watched in a while, but it didn’t matter, because the company she kept was awesome.
“Ready to go?” Scott asked as he slid in behind the driver’s seat of Eva’s van and adjusted the seat to accommodate his long legs.
Three little boys with enormous grins beamed back at him in the rearview mirror. He’d gone and picked up Freddie from Katrin’s that morning, and his son was more than happy to come back to Scott’s early. Katrin seemed to be ready for her week off to start too. Scott didn’t probe far into her and Freddie’s week together. He’d get what he needed from Freddie, and as long as Katrin kept their son safe, Scott had to back off and let his ex-wife parent their son the way she chose to parent him.
Wise words from his therapist that had taken a while to sink in.
Freddie was asking about Kellen and Lucas before he even got into Scott’s truck, wanting to know if he could play with them when he got home. Scott had burst out laughing at his son’s glee when he revealed that they were all going over to Uncle Zak’s house for a BBQ and that Jordie would be there, as well as all the other kids too.
Thankfully, so far anyway, all the kids seemed to get along. Perhaps it was because they were being raised together, so therefore they were becoming more like family than friends. Either way, all the dads were grateful there was no bad blood between any of their children.
Eva’s smile was small and forced as he backed out of her driveway. Just like Scott, she was probably anxious as hell to find out what dirt Liam’s PI had dug up on the slimy Todd.
It had been all Scott could do on Saturday to not run out into Eva’s driveaway and punch the living shit out of Todd. This man was certainly testing Scott’s self-control in ways he never thought he would have to be tested. It’d been hard enough facing him later in the week after his lunch with Liam and their run-in. Every word he spoke to his VIP client was forced out through clenched teeth and fists beneath the table. He was a tightly wound cord close to snapping by the time Todd and his executive assistant, Braxlan (yes, you heard that name right!), left the office.