His First Choice (13 page)

“Oh,” Lacey said, glancing at Kacey and shaking her head.

“No, our mom didn't do that with us.”

She was no longer on Levi's case, but as a concerned citizen she could make another call. She could call every day if she had more to report.

“Did you like it?” Kacey asked.

“Nope. I cried.” His babyish
r
sounded more pronounced to Lacey. Could someone be mistreating him?

“Then what did your mom do? Did she stop?”

He shook his head. “She did this.” He put his hands back on his ribs, scrunched up his face like he was straining, and the knuckles on his good hand turned white at his ribs.

She remembered the bruises Mara had noticed on Levi's torso. Bruises Jem surely would have noticed when he picked the boy up after his weekend visit. Could it have been from the swimming “lesson”?

“Was she mad at you?”

“I dunno.”

“Did you tell your dad about learning to swim?”

“Uh-uh.” Levi shook his head, climbing back up on his chair to lean over the puzzle again. “Mommy did.”

“When he came to pick you up?”

“Uh-uh. On the phone. Dad was gone away a long time and we were playing a game.”

“Who was playing a game?”

“Mommy and me. After swimming we played a game and it was fun.”

“Then your dad called and your mommy told him you'd learned to swim?”

“Yep!” He put a piece in place—the nose of the engine face.

“Did you tell him that you cried when you learned to swim?”

“No.” Levi's chin did a chest plant.

“Why not?” Lacey's instincts were driving her now. She gave them free rein.

“I dunno.”

Why wouldn't Tressa have told her ex-husband that the swimming lesson made their son cry? A lesson that was memorable enough that a four-year-old could recount it months later.

“It's okay, sweetie. You can tell me why you didn't tell your dad you cried. You won't be in trouble, I promise.”

“No, I can't.”

“Why not?”

“I dunno.”

“Did someone say you couldn't tell?”

He shook his head. “I don't wanna do this anymore,” he said, climbing down from the table.

“Hey, squirt.” Kacey grabbed him around the waist as he passed and pulled him up onto her lap. “You know that you can trust us, right? I promise you, we won't let anyone hurt you. Ever. Okay?”

Not at all what Lacey would have said, because the promise was empty. Sometimes she couldn't prevent the hurt. And children in abusive situations were generally lied to. They needed honesty if they were ever going to learn to trust and grow up to have a healthy relationship...

“I wanna go home.”

“I thought we were having fun here.” Kacey smiled at him, gave him a little bounce on her knee.

He just sat there.

“Don't you like me anymore?”

He nodded.

“Do you like Lacey?”

He nodded again.

“So what's the problem?”

“If I tell you, she can make me not live with my dad.” He whispered the words, looking Kacey straight in the eye. His lower lip trembled, but he didn't cry. Then he turned a fearful gaze on Lacey.

Had Tressa told him that Lacey was trying to take him away from his parents? Or was he asking Lacey for help?

Either way, she was going to get it for him.

Something was very, very wrong here and she wasn't going to stop until she knew for certain that Levi Bridges was not being abused.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

J
EM
WAS
SITTING
out back with the fountain on at the fish pond Sunday when his cell phone rang.

Levi was asleep, exhausted from the weekend at Lacey's. The monitor sat on the table beside him. His ringer sounded again, and a third time.

His son was safe. He didn't want to deal with Tressa. And there was no one else who'd be calling him on a Sunday night.

Bridges Construction did not work on Sundays. Ever. It had been part of the policy under which he'd gone into business for himself.

A throwback to his days growing up in the Bible Belt. The ringing stopped and then started again.

He glanced at the caller ID and picked up.

“What is it, Tressa?”

“Did you talk to her, Jem? Did you talk to that Sydney woman?”

“The office doesn't open until tomorrow. I told you I'd call her then.”

“She came here on a Friday night. She could have come to your house.”

True. “I'd have called you if she had.”

“So where were you?”

Feet dropping from the boulder he'd had them resting on, Jem sat up. “What do you mean, where was I?”

“All weekend. I stopped by. It
is
my weekend to see Levi, remember?”

And Tressa had agreed never to come to his house. He'd needed space where he could be away from her drama. That was their agreement. If she needed him, she was to call and he'd come there. Not that he still didn't half expect her to show up unannounced.

“You were here?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“I don't know... Saturday.”

“I thought you were going to the city with Amelia.”

“We had a fight.”

His gut clenched and he longed for the beer in his refrigerator.

“I had errands to run yesterday.” The words burned his tongue. He couldn't stand to lie. Ever. But to tell her the truth was just plumb dumb. He was not a masochist.

“And today?”

“You came by again today?”

“Twice.”

“Tressa.”

“I know. But I needed you, Jem.”

“You didn't call.”

“I wanted to see Levi.”

She was feeling insecure because she'd panicked and called him to pick up her son. She was afraid that it made her look like a bad mother. He understood. He just didn't have patience for her at the moment.

He had real problems to deal with.

Like the fact that he was falling for a woman who didn't appear to want a relationship with him.

And a son who'd been clingy again that night, wanting Jem to lie with him in his bed until he fell asleep.

Because of a weekend spent with Lacey?

Tressa had intimated that Levi's nightmare had been because of his visit with the other woman.

But he begged to go see her. Hell, he'd practically thrown a tantrum on Friday when Kacey and Lacey had been gone.

And while he was spending a good deal of his time with Kacey, he seemed to like Lacey equally...

“Where were you, Jem?”

“On a job. I thought I had the weekend free, remember?” He'd lived with her a long time. And knew that the only way to deal with her sometimes was to go on the defensive.

“Where was Levi?”

“At a sitter's.”

“Who? What sitter? I thought we talked to each other about his sitters. You don't want me leaving him with just anyone, you said.”

Shit. He stood up, paced the pond. He'd gotten soft. All this time spent with Lacey and her sister, he supposed. “The woman whose house I'm working on has a sister. She watched Levi while I worked. I was there the entire time.” Levi hadn't been, but she didn't need to know that. If she'd seen the boy out with someone else, he'd already have heard about it.

“A woman? How old is she?”

The tornado was back in his gut. He'd thought divorcing her would get rid of that at least. “I don't know how old she is,” he said, letting his irritation show. Sometimes she'd back down if she knew she was pissing him off. “I don't ask those kinds of questions. She wanted work done. I'm doing the work.”

“
You're
doing the work?” She squelched. “Why isn't one of your crews doing it? What's wrong, Jem, are you having problems with the business? You need to let me take over again.”

When he'd first started the business, Tressa had been in charge of his finances, of investments and payroll. He'd run quotes through her, too, as together they'd found the most cost-efficient way of doing quality work. That had been a long time ago. He'd still viewed her as a life partner then.

Before she'd started keeping tabs on every woman he talked to, seeing affairs where there were none. Before she'd accused him of taking cash from clients so he could go to strip clubs without her knowing where the money was going.

As if he'd ever do either.

“The business is doing fine,” he said now. There was no way she was coming back to work for him. Ever. “I'm doing this job on the side. As a favor. It's just one room.”

“A favor? Who is this woman? What do you owe her? Levi knows her, too? Who is she?”

The string of words that went through his mind, self-directed, weren't pretty. Or kind. “I don't really know her,” he said now, thinking of Kacey. “We just met the day she asked me to do the job. She's paying for a room to be built for her sister. As a birthday present.”

“Is she young?”

“You know I'm not a good judge of age, and I haven't paid any attention, in any case.”

“What does she look like?”

“Definitely not one of a kind, I can tell you that. I don't know, Tress. If you want me to take notes next time I'm with her, I will. I really just want to get the work done and get out of there.”

“Is she pretty?”

He thought of Kacey. “Not that I've noticed.” Not like Lacey was.

“Do you like her?”

“I don't know her, Tress. Please, can we stop this? I'll call Sydney tomorrow and find out what's going on. I'm sure it's just a routine follow-up,” he lied again. “Last time they visited both of us within hours of each other. I'm sure they'd have been here to question me this weekend if there was a problem.”

Tressa's silence was a blessing. Not only because she wasn't coming at him, but because it meant she was calming down.

Then she said, “I wonder what happened to that Lacey woman. Can you ask to have her put back on our case? I liked her.”

He had a headache, thinking he'd forgo the beer for a couple of aspirin and bed. “I'll ask,” he said and softened his tone. He told her to take a sleeping pill and get a good night's rest. They knocked her out for a good eight hours.

And then he went in for that beer. He'd gotten off lightly. She hadn't accused him of screwing his client. Or called members of his crews to tell them that he was screwing a client. Both of which she'd done before.

Not that any of that was her business anymore. She just thought it was, and went ballistic anytime she thought he might be seeing anyone.

Unless she was in a relationship. Then it was okay.

Shaking his head, he went back outside to his backlit pond and sent a silent plea to Amelia to call Tressa. She would. Eventually. She always did.

He just had no idea why.

* * *

A
FTER
A
BRIEF
conversation with her sister about whether or not Lacey should call Jem—Kacey's vote was an absolute yes—Kacey stopped Lacey before she picked up her phone Sunday night.

“You didn't ask about lunch today,” she said.

Because she didn't want to know the details. What was, was. She was okay with that.

It wasn't like she and Jem had done more than spend a little time together. He'd never led her to believe for one second that he was interested in her in any way other than a friend. One he wasn't even sure he completely trusted.

It wasn't his fault she was drawn to him like some kind of pathetic groupie.

“What's there to ask about?” she said, wishing Kacey wasn't standing in the archway that led from the living room to the hall. She wanted to be in the hall—walking down the hall—away from this conversation. And her sister's discerning, loving gaze.

“He didn't eat with us,” Kacey said.

She knew Jem was under Lacey's skin. Lacey didn't have to say a word and she knew. She just didn't seem to get that it didn't matter if Kacey was interested in the guy or not; it didn't stop the guy's gaze from straying.

Kacey also wasn't quite as good at accepting that she couldn't make things happen as she thought they should.

“While I was making grilled cheese, he came out and asked if I'd mind overseeing Levi's meal so he could keep working.”

“He didn't eat?”

“He ate. But outside, studying drawings and walking around the space he's framed off.”

“He needed to get the cement poured today so it would have time to cure.” He'd told her so. “He was probably just running behind.”

“Or maybe he didn't want to eat alone with Levi and me. Maybe he ate outside because you weren't here.”

Maybe. But if that was so, it was probably because Kacey was giving him no encouragement whatsoever.

And even if it wasn't, she couldn't really believe it wasn't.

Besides, at the moment they had a much bigger issue on their hands. Jem believed in his ex-wife. Lacey didn't. And Levi's future rested in the middle of the dispute.

After Kacey went to bed, Lacey took her phone into her craft room, sat at her sewing machine and started working on a quilt she was making for one of the shelters that housed kids on a temporary basis. After a minute she stopped, put her Bluetooth earbud in place and called Jem.

He picked up on the second ring.

“I'm sorry to bother you. I know you've already given up your entire weekend for me, but this is important.” She'd spent a good twenty minutes practicing that and was pleased overall with the delivery.

“What's up?”

He didn't sound bothered. But he probably would be as soon as she told him the reason for the call.

“I'm not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Nope. My bottle of beer, the fish and I are happy to have you join us.”

“You're sitting outside?”

“Yep. It's a nice night.”

She hadn't been out, but had an overwhelming sense of wanting to be in that backyard with him at that moment.

“Is Levi with you?” They couldn't have the conversation she needed to have if the boy was sitting right there.

“Are you kidding? He was worn-out. He's been asleep for more than an hour. And before you wonder, Miss Social Worker, I have a nursery monitor right here on the table beside me.”

“Believe it or not, I wasn't concerned.” She told him the truth. She'd seen the nursery monitor in Levi's room and had noticed receivers around the house, too. Those were some of the types of things she was trained to see.

“Well, then, I apologize.”

“For what?”

“Accusing you of...”

“What, being on guard and working even when I'm not at work? You don't have to apologize for that. It's true.” He wasn't going to take this well. She just knew it. She wished she didn't have to make him upset with her.

She liked him. And wasn't impartial. Which was why she was no longer on his case.

“I wanted to ask you something,” she started, lowering her voice in hopes of softening the impact of the coming inquisition.

“Yes, I'll have dinner with you, all alone, any night you choose.”

Her stomach jumped. Making room for the liquid heat flooding her lower belly. “What?”

“I said yes, I'll have dinner with you, all alone, any night you choose.”

Where on earth had that come from? The thought was quickly followed by another. He was drinking beer. And it had softened his brain.

“Really.” The word was a statement. One meant to show him she knew he was egging her on and she wasn't falling for it.

Not that Jem was the type of person who toyed with people. At least, not in what she'd seen of him in the few weeks she'd known him, but what did she know?

“Of course, really.”

He sounded completely sincere. Kacey had pointed out on more than one occasion that he was paying as much or more attention to Lacey as he did Kacey. She'd even caught him looking at Lacey over the dinner table that night, when Kacey had been the one talking.

Of course, Lacey had noticed, too. All the way down to her toes. But she didn't think it meant all that much.

So, he wanted to have dinner with her.

“Why?” She'd never have asked if not for the distance afforded by telephone communication.

He half sputtered, half chuckled. Like he was choking on a sip of beer. “What do you mean why? You're a beautiful woman. I'm a normal male with normal urges and I'd like to spend some time alone with you.”

“Okay.”

“If you're worried that I just want you for the sex, then...”

“I wasn't,” she interrupted as her panties started to get moist. What in the hell was the matter with her? She didn't have those kind of reactions. Even in her fantasies. She had too much control to let anything get that far.

“Don't get me wrong,” he continued, his voice lowered. “I do want to have sex with you. As soon as possible. But I want to have dinner with you, too. And this late-night phone conversation is pretty cool, too.”

“You're nuts.” She laughed. The fantasy he was building was going to consume her if she'd let it. And he was teasing her. He
had
to be teasing her. “You hardly know me.”

She couldn't afford to believe he really liked her even half as much as she liked him.