Heat circled under my collar. She’d disappeared into the bedroom. I wandered through her kitchen, peeking into cupboards and being nosy in a way I hadn’t been willing to do while she watched me.
She had one box of cereal that had collected dust on the top of her fridge. Her eggs looked farm fresh and my damn mouth watered. It’d been decades since I’d hadthose. The chickens had gone shortly after Mom’s death. In the freezer, I had to pause to check out her assortment of ice cream. Rocky road. Tin roof sundae. Chocolate. Mint chip.
My wife didn’t just like salty food, she also liked chocolate. I filed that knowledge away like a good husband who might need it to prove her brothers wrong.
They weren’t wrong about anything.
I brushed the thought away and went to the hallway closet. It caught me off guard as much as the lineup of ice cream. Tubs of—I leaned into the small, lightless space. Decorations and art supplies. Another bin was markedLessons.
Wasn’t there room in her classroom for this stuff?
A door squeaked open and I stepped away from the closet. I gently pushed the door shut, resisting the urge to slam it in a rush to see Autumn emerging fresh-faced from the bathroom.
She was sitting up in bed by the time I entered. Her sweet smell hung in the air. The cat was circling at the base of her feet. Autumn’s freshly washed hair was loose around her face and my gut clenched. The rusty halo around her head looked like the most expensive crown a guy could buy, and I’d seen a few expensive ones in my time in Vegas.
She smoothed what had to be a handmade quilt over her lap. “Help yourself to whatever.”
There was one thing I wanted to help myself to, but there was a cat in the way. Beyond the cat was a woman who was about to fidget out of her skin. Her fingers worked a loose string on the quilt.
“You’re going to unravel that thing.”
She looked down and let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, yeah. Wouldn’t be the first time. Mama’s had to fix a lot of holes I made pulling strings. She finally made me learn how to sew up a patch myself.”
A fine scar ran down the side of her arm, just above her elbow. Instant concern propelled me forward. Without thinking, I ran my finger down the uneven white line. On each side of the line were smaller pucker marks. “What’s this from?”
Her wide, unblinking eyes were staring at me.
I was tracing her skin. I yanked my hand away. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. I almost forget it’s there. It’s from the accident when I was a kid. With my birth parents.” She screwed up her face. “It’s always weird to call them that, but it’s just as odd to say my first set of parents, you know?”
I didn’t. I’d lost my mom, but I’d forgotten that Autumn and her sisters had lost a mom and a dad in one fell swoop. “My mom used to talk about you guys.” I got lost in the memory. Mom making dinner and bustling around the kitchen while I worked on homework at the table. “She’d tell me everything she heard about the Kerrigan girls.”
“Really? I mean, I know people followed our story, but it’s weird, isn’t it? How we were strangers before yesterday, yet you probably know more of my story than a lot of my coworkers.”
“Coworkers like Mark?” The fond memories of my mom evaporated as I envisioned pummeling the unknown man’s face.
“No.” She frowned, her gaze getting a faraway look. “I don’t think he knows any of it. I’m so used to people knowing that I don’t really talk about it.” She gasped. “I have to tell him I’m married. I’ll have to tell my friends, but I should get to him first. Since we...”
“Since you were seeing each other?” My teeth ached from clenching so hard.
“It was barely that. The first date was more of a random meeting in the coffee shop. Then it was like a work picnic before school started, where we kept talking after. The third was official, and then... Well, you don’t want to hear about that.”
“I assure you, Mrs. James, I very much do.”
She lifted a doubtful reddish brow. “He asked me to go to Spokane with him to meet his parents.”
The fuck he had. I kept my temper reined in. “Spokane is over a six-hour drive away.”
“Right?” She puffed out a breath. “An overnight trip at least. He’s easy to talk to, but I didn’t think we connected that hard. We didn’t even...” She flicked her gaze away.
“He planned to on the Spokane trip,” I said, irritated. My heart rate jumped. What if I’d missed her at the elevator? She’d have returned to Bourbon Canyon and might’ve taken Mark up on his offer.
“And he probably doesn’t even know Mama isn’t my birth mom.” She shook her head, the damp strands of hair dancing over her breasts.
The knowledge eased the burgeoning rage inside me. “You didn’t tell him?” As if I mentioned my parents, living or dead, to anyone.
She shook her head and dropped her gaze.
