“Congratulations, young lady, and old man welcome to the club. My Wilde girl just had her second one, a boy this time.” I tucked my lip, doing my best to conceal my amusement at their conversation, wondering if they really sat around and talked about their kids and grandkids all day like badges of honor.
“Well, I won’t keep you from your game. I just came to say hi. I left a special present in your top drawer.” I kissed his cheekonce more before he pulled me for a deep hug and whispered into my ear.
“Viola wanted me to tell you that things will work themselves out, stop stressing. Something about he’s coming for you two. I love you, namesake.” I wanted to ask what he was talking about, but Mackie swore Viola visited him with messages for us. So far, she hadn’t been wrong. His message pumped my chest, giving me hope that the P.I would have success finding Harlan or better…
He’s coming back to me.
Chapter
Seven
Burkeley
I sat at my desk, combing through report after report on this guy Harlan Triplet. So far I had found the same information she’d given me, which wasn’t much at all.
“You’re working harder, not smarter, BK. Search using his picture.” In my field, sometimes someone wasn’t truly who they said they were but pictures never got it wrong. I went to McKay’s file on my computer, going for the picture. Again, there wasn’t much, including no picture of Harlan.
“Shit,” I cursed lowly. This was the second fuck up I’d pulled when it came to McKay. The first was not collecting my deposit. I couldn’t after hearing her sound so broken by this bum ass muthafucka who’d left her when she got pregnant. Baby girl was already dealing with a lot. The last thing I wanted her to worry about was paying me to find his ass.
“Well the picture is needed, so you need to call her to get it.” I picked up my phone and scrolled through my log until I came across her name. It rang a few times before her sweet voice answered.
“Hello.”
“Hey, this is Burkeley?—
“Oh my gosh did you find something already?” she rushed out, cutting me off, voice sounding three octaves higher than before.
“Not yet. I forgot to ask if you have a picture. There’s a lot of Harlan’s in the world. I want to make sure I have the right one.” I didn’t want to kill her excitement.
“Oh shoot, yes. I do. I even printed them off and forgot to give them to you the other day. I can drop them off.” I glanced at the time stamped in the corner of my computer and noticed it was a little after eight at night. It wasn’t late, but in her condition I didn’t want her out.
What condition, BK? She’s only pregnant.
Still, it was getting late and McKay didn’t need to be out driving right now.
Now a pregnant woman can’t drive?
“Only if you’re out and about already. If not, I can swing by.”
“Oh no, I’m at home but I don’t mind bringing them, especially since it was my lack of thinking that day.” I was already up.
“Not at all. I’m heading out to get food anyway. Shoot me your address.” The food part was a lie. It was my way of encouraging her to stay in. Without further back and forth from her, my phone vibrated in my hand, displaying her address.
“Let me know when you’re downstairs and I’ll buzz you up.”
“Okay.” I went to hang up but called her name, catching her.
“Hey, are you hungry?”
Burkeley, what the fuck are you doing?
In my mind, a simple, kind, good deed. It was clear the father wasn’t in the picture, and no, I didn’t know much about pregnancy for that matter, but I did know that pregnant women had cravings and ate a lot.
There was a pregnant pause before she released a few chuckles.
“As sweet as the gesture is, Burkeley, I could never ask you to bring me anything but thank you.” McKay said that but my mind was already mentally adding something for her to my order, even if it was just a shake and a fry.
“I wouldn’t mind, McKay.”
