As for myself, I’d actually cut back on my hours at work, bolstered by a second income that was much higher than my own. After years of struggling to make ends meet, Quinn’s generosity was as surprising as it was welcome. In the beginning, unaccustomed to such pampering and privilege, I’d fought him, albeit somewhat feebly. But I had to say, the more he whipped that credit card out and paid for us, the easier it got to accept. The truth was, once Quinn’s royalties really started kicking in, so went a lot of my financial worries.
The knock at the door drew me out of my thoughts. Had Quinn forgotten his key again? Or maybe his hands were just too full to dig it out of his pocket. Quinn had taken Noah to the store not only to pick up some last-minute items for the party but also to surprise Noah with his birthday gift before the afternoon party.
I swung the door open with a bright smile only to have it wiped clean away when I saw who greeted me on the other side—the man who’d stolen my foolish teenage heart.
“Nick?”
“Jess.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too,” he replied.
“You should’ve called. This isn’t part of our custody agreement.”
“The custody agreement you brokered.”
“The custody agreement I brokered because you refused to support your son.”
“That’s the way it’s always been with you, hasn’t it, Jess? Gotta pay to play?”
“Well, I don’t know, Nick, since you’ve never done either.”
“Come on, Jess. That’s not fair.”
My eyes widened. I thought I was being generous. “You’re off the hook financially. You should be happy.”
“And what happens when your fancy boyfriend dumps your ass? Will you be coming after me again?”
There was just so much about what he’d just said that made me want to rip his nuts off, but I maintained my calm exterior, save for the slight quiver of my upper lip.
“What do you want, Nick?”
“To see my son on his birthday.”
“He’s not here.” I opened the door wider for him to see the place was empty aside from me.
“Where is he?”
“Out.”
“When will he be home?”
I didn’t like this line of questioning. It implied that Nick would be back.
“Why now, Nick?”
“What?”
“Why this birthday? You’ve never been interested before. Is this because of Quinn?”
“I’ll be honest. I don’t like Noah around that family. You don’t leave him alone with Jake, do you?”
“I hope to god you’re not insinuating what I think you’re insinuating here.”
“The guy was kidnapped by a child killer, Jess. He murdered the guy. There’s no telling what’s going on in his mind. It’s not a big stretch to assume he shouldn’t be trusted around children—my child.”
Now I was furious. What had happened with Jake and his abductor was self-defense. Not murder. Jake had never been anything but kind to Noah and me, and to have Nick hinting at nefarious intentions with our son made me sick.
