Earning Yancy (13 page)

My long lost ex-husband, Cooper Stevens, stood on the other side, hand raised.

“Y
ou have got
to be fucking kidding me!” I stared at Cooper, unable to figure out which I was more upset about, him having the gall to leave for a year and show up unannounced or because he interrupted an extremely satisfying make-out session.

He stood on my porch, mouth hanging open at my exclamation. I rarely yelled at him when we were married and almost never cussed. The one time I had truly lost my temper had been when he was supposed to have been watching Carolena and hadn’t changed her dirty diapers.

The shock on his face morphed into something suspiciously like anger when his eyes moved over my shoulder to something behind me. I glanced back and saw that Charles had come out of the living room and was standing behind me with his arms crossed.

It was easy to see what we had been up to just by looking at him. His mouth was redder than usual, his cheeks flushed, and his hair was mussed from my hands. I knew I had to look similar. Still, I didn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed. I had been divorced for a year, I was allowed to date again. Hell, it was odd that I hadn’t dated before now.

I looked back at Cooper to see that he had moved closer, as though he intended to push his way into the house. I lifted a hand in the universal sign for
stop now
. His brows lowered and he had the nerve to look annoyed that I wouldn’t allow him in.

“What in the hell are you doing here, Coop?” I asked sharply.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

I felt my eyes narrow. “Oh really? Well, I wanted to talk to you about six months ago and, as I recall, you were nowhere to be found. Incidentally, someone else wants to talk to you; the Attorney General’s office. You know, for the child support you owe me for the last
six months
!” I hissed the last two words as I stepped forward into the doorway.

Coop had the intelligence to back up quickly. Or maybe it was sheer self-preservation. I didn’t give a shit. I had decided what pissed me off the most was his nerve at showing up at my house at 10 p.m. and acting as though he had every right to be here.

His eyes snapped over my shoulder again just as I felt the heat of Charles’ body along my spine. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.

Charles’ voice was calm as he answered Coop’s question with a question. “You first.”

“I’m Yancy’s husband.”

I sputtered for a full ten seconds and grabbed the door jamb with both hands in order to keep from wrapping them around Coop’s neck. Never, ever in my life had I wanted to commit violence against another person. Until tonight. Finally, I was able to speak. “WHAT?!” Without realizing it, my hand lifted and I shoved Cooper in the chest, hard. “Are you fucking high?” I yelled. “We’ve been divorced for a year. I haven’t been your wife in any sense for a very long time.”

I sucked in a deep breath past the constriction in my throat. The rational part of me said that I was giving Coop too much power over me by blowing my stack, but it also felt good in a way that only bad things could. I literally felt as though my scalp was burning from the force of my anger. I felt Charles’ hands clasp my waist. Whether he intended to hold me back or move me out of the way, I don’t know because Cooper chose that moment to say the one thing that made me snap.

“I miss you,” he said, blinking huge puppy dog eyes at me.

I heard a low growl and started to tell Charles to back off, that I was handling this. Then I realized the growl hadn’t come from him, but me. In fact, it was a damn good thing that Charles was holding my waist because I lunged forward, my mind blank of everything except rage. “You miss
me
? What about your daughter? Did you miss her? Jesus, you are a complete fuckwad! I’m an adult, I can take care of myself, but your daughter needed
you
and you were nowhere to be found!”

“Leave now,” Charles said in a stony voice. “Or I’m going to let go and enjoy watching her kick your ass all over the front yard.”

Cooper stared at me as though he’d never seen me before as he back up all the way to the edge of the porch. His arms pinwheeled when his foot hit air. He stumbled backward down the front steps before he turned abruptly and scurried to his car.

I watched him go, my hands planted on the door frame and my chest heaving as I sucked in air in an effort not to scream and chase him down for the ass beating I sincerely wanted to administer.

Charles’ arm hooked around my waist and he lifted me from the doorway, shutting the front door with a soft click and locking it.

I struggled against his hold, unable to stand still for one more second. I’d never, in all thirty-one years of my life, felt so much rage. I abruptly realized that I was so angry because finally,
finally
, I’d found something special and Cooper managed to put a damper on my happiness just by showing up.

Charles was much stronger than I realized because he turned me, pressing my back against the door and leaned his body into mine. The air left my lungs in a rush as he used his weight, which was more than I would have thought, to trap me between his body and the unyielding door.

His hands cupped my face, forcing my eyes to meet his. They were a blue so bright it almost hurt me to look at him. “Yancy, please calm down.” He rested his forehead against mine. “Take a deep breath with me.”

I felt his chest expanding against mine as he took in a huge gulp of air. When he released it and began to take another, I mimicked him. Finally, my heart rate began to slow and the red haze that covered my vision receded. We stood there for a while, just breathing together.

Once I was calm, Charles lifted his head. “Better?” he asked.

I nodded and he levered himself away from me. I straightened and smoothed my shirt down, wishing my emotions were as easy to restore to order.

Charles watched me closely. “What just happened?” he asked softly.

I sighed. “I need more wine if we’re going to talk about this.”

He nodded and we walked back into the living room. I grabbed my glass and refilled it with the bottle that was sitting on the coffee table.

“Do you want another beer?” I asked.

“I’ll get it. You sit down and try to relax. I’ll be right back and you can tell me what that was.”

I flopped down on the couch as he walked into the kitchen, draining my wineglass in one gulp. I filled it once more and waited for Charles to return.

He came back to the couch and sat next to me, sucking back half his beer in one swallow. When he was done, he set the bottle on the table and rested his arm over the back of the couch.

“Okay. I’m guessing that was the ex-husband,” he stated.

I nodded and took another sip of wine. Before the one I’d just slammed back, I’d already had two glasses and I was beginning to feel the effects.

“I’m sensing there’s a lot more to this story,” he said.

I sighed and set my glass on the table. I probably needed to slow down. As much as I wanted to get shitfaced, I knew it would be counterproductive.

“It’s a very long story.”

Charles wrapped a hank of my hair around his finger. “I’ve got time.”

“Well, Coop and I met three years ago. He swept me off my feet and, for the first time in my life, I did something without planning out every minute detail. We got married within a year of meeting each other and then I got pregnant with Carolena. It wasn’t planned. I thought we both wanted to wait before starting a family, but surprises happen. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand that when Coop said,
I want to wait
, he really meant,
I don’t want children
.” I took a deep breath. “After she was born, he had a rough time adjusting. Or at least that’s what I told myself. He wouldn’t get up at night to change diapers or help feed her. The few times I left her with him so I could go grocery shopping or run errands, I would come back to find her in her crib, wearing a dirty diaper and screaming. That’s when things began to unravel. Then, when she was two months old, she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Cooper didn’t want a kid, much less a sick one, and he left us. Within six months of the divorce, he stopped paying child support and disappeared. Until tonight, I haven’t seen or talked to him in almost a year.”

After I told my story, I realized it was not nearly as long as I thought. In fact, it was a very short, very sad tale. I grabbed my glass and drank half in one large gulp. When I looked at Charles, he was staring at me with an inscrutable expression on his face, his fingers still entwined in my hair.

“What are you thinking?” I blurted.

He began to play with the hank of hair he held. “I’m thinking I shouldn’t have held you back. If anyone deserves to get their ass kicked, it’s him. And you definitely deserve a chance to get your pound of flesh,” he murmured.

His eyes were that same painful blue they had been earlier, burning into mine with cold, angry fire, yet his hand in my hair was very gentle. The incongruity was unsettling.

I had to escape from that probing stare, so I closed my eyes, leaned my head back against the couch, and covered my face with my hand. “I can’t believe I lost my temper like that. I never act that way. I never yell and I’ve never in my life wanted to hit someone before.”

“That’s not true,” Charles murmured.

My hand fell away as I turned to stare at him. “What?”

He smirked slightly. “I’ve seen you lose your temper before and, at the time, you smacked me in the chest with your name plate.”

My mouth opened and closed several times before I sighed and closed my eyes again. “You’re right. Maybe I should just avoid men in general. They obviously bring out the worst in me,” I muttered.

Charles’ hand fisted in my hair, causing my eyes to pop open. Despite all the insanity that surrounded us this evening, he’d always been gentle with me, even when he gave me a love bite. He’d been careful not to leave marks on my skin.

At first I wanted to snap at him to take his damn hands off me, then I realized that he wasn’t hurting me. He merely wanted my full attention.

“Don’t you dare let him have that much control over your life, Yancy. You can’t let the behavior of one asshole influence your choices forever.”

I quirked an eyebrow at him. “What about two assholes?”

He scowled at me for a moment until he recognized that I was just yanking his chain. “I believe I’ve redeemed myself,” he said.

We smiled at each other.

“I suppose you have. And I have blackmail material to hold over your head.”

He gave me a quizzical look.

“You and your addiction to chick flicks,” I explained.

Suddenly, he lunged at me, flattening me against sofa, his hands ruthless as he tickled me.

I squealed and bucked. “Stop. Please, please, please stop!”

We were both breathless and laughing when he finally stopped digging his fingers into my ribs. I stared up at him, with his messy hair and five o’clock shadow, and felt another shift in my heart, this one bigger than before.

I cupped his face with both hands. “Thank you.”

He raised his brows. “What?”

I lifted my head and pressed my lips against his. “For taking care of me and making me feel better.”

His eyes grew heated in a different way this time. He rested his weight on his elbows and cupped either side of my head with his hands. We didn’t speak. Instead, he lowered his head and kissed me like he’d never kissed me before.

I felt it in my soul. Tears gathered in my eyes at the tenderness beneath the surface. No one had ever treated me with such care or consideration before. It was beautiful. I was in danger of falling for this man hard and fast.

He rested his forehead against mine, his breathing harsh. “What are you doing to me, Yancy?” he murmured.

“I don’t know, but, whatever it is, you’re doing it to me, too,” I whispered.

He lifted his head and stared down at me, the expression in his eyes tender. There was something else in his face, something that I felt all over my body.

“So what now?” he asked, his face serious.

I swallowed and licked my lips. “I think we need to be very careful.” His face began to close down and I felt a tightness in my chest that I didn’t like one little bit. “I may not understand what I’m feeling, but I like it. A lot. But I can’t just do whatever I want any more. I have a little girl to take care of and I need to be sure of my feelings before I bring her into this because she is the most important person in my life right now.”

As I spoke, Charles’ face softened. “I think I understand what you’re trying to say.” He took a deep breath. “And I understand why. Having seen your ex and heard what you have to say about him, I can’t blame you for wanting to take your time. He’s a real piece of work.”

I nodded.

He studied me closely when he spoke once again. “Are you sure you don’t have feelings for him any longer?”

My eyes widened and my body bucked as I started laughing loud and hard. I managed to calm down enough to speak. “F-f-feelings for him? The only feelings I have for him are the kind that may get me thrown in jail if I act on them. He hasn’t had my heart for a very long time.”