He glared at me. Hard. I figured this show would just make him dislike me more, but this wasn’t all for him. It was for her too. To show her I saw her. I respected her. I turned, taking her hand in mine and bringing it to my lips.
“My lady June. Until I may be graced by your company again.” She blushed and I loved that it was me who put it there.
“I’ll call ya, Johnny.” She smiled as she walked in, past an angry Eddie. She looked every bit of the old Hollywood starlet and I just wanted to eat her up.
Fuck this might kill me.
Eddie glared at me as I walked away, a smile plastered to my face with a single thought,‘At least I’ll die happy’.
*****
Devin’s POV
It had been three weeks since our first date. And true to his word, Cash pursued me.Fervently. He asked every Sunday for my schedule if I had it, and we planned out our weeks. He invited me to a cooking class two nights after our first date. Then came the museums, the pottery and painting classes that were six weeks long, each. He asked me if I would ever go to a dancing class with him that is twelve weeks long.
This man was planning for the future.
In every class we went to, he always found some way to kiss my cheek or hold my hand, or touch me in some way. During one painting class, he helped me clean myself up when I got paint all down my front. Thankfully I was prepared and wearing things I didn’t mind if they got ruined. He was so gentle wiping my cheek off that it felt intimate. For a moment, I was thankful we were the last ones leaving the room. I would have died of embarrassment if anyone else had seen us together like that. It felt almost more intimate than any other interaction I’d had. He’s also finding more fun things to do, and they all involve touching me in some way.
But nothing overtly sexual.
He also engaged me in conversation when we were able to during the classes. We talked about everything, anything really. It didn’t even matter what the subject matter was, because I loved it all. Talking, debating, learning different things just through conversation. He had told me about work, how there was so much for him to fix after ‘that fuckwad was done fucking everything up’.
Cash learned, after quite a bit of prying, that I did indeed want to get married again, someday. He also found out in thatnext breath, that when I do get married again, it’ll be to someone worthy, and it’ll be in Ireland. No exceptions. I wanted to get married where my grandparents did.
That was something Caleb was vehemently against for some reason, and the biggest regret I had about marrying him.
I told him about being called as a witness for my ex’s case against his mistress. Like…how fucked was that? He willingly cheated with her, only to discover she drugged him, and let him think he was fucking me. Like, raw fucking, and ended up getting her ass pregnant, all without his consent. And now, because he’s fighting against her for custody of the baby, and pressing rape charges against her, I’ve been called as a fucking witness. A character witness.
I couldn’t care less, and I didn’t care how heartless that made me sound either.
The only emotions I had towards him were negative ones. I really wished he would leave me the fuck alone. Amber couldn’t get me out of court, but she got the judge and both attorneys to let her be able to object to any question asked. She knew me better than anyone. She knew what he put me through, and she was willing to do whatever she could to try and protect me.
I looked in the mirror, unsure about wearing the exact same outfit I’d worn on my date, into court. I needed the power of the outfit to give me strength, even though it made me look like I should be on the stock photo in the new frame at the store.
This time though, I pulled my hair up onto the top of my head and did a super cute and structured messy bun. I added a few more bobby pins than were probably necessary to hold my hair because, well, it was curly and unruly. There were somesteps that were taken to make it look messy when it wasn’t really atruemessy bun. I looked chic, modest, and like I didn’t come to play games.
I wanted this to be the last time I saw my ex-husband.
Ever.
Amber and I walked into the courthouse through the metal detectors, through the wanding, and sat on a special bench off to the side for witnesses. I tried to keep my shoulders back, trying to keep myself together. I looked around at the others milling about in the halls, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
I wish Cash was here.
“You’re up,” the bailiff said as he opened the thick wooden doors to the courtroom. Amber and I walked in and I kept my head up, shoulders back, spine straight. I walked in, all the way up to the podium, like I was prepared and this was just another Monday. I heard a whisper through the room as I walked up, but paid no attention to it. I got up on the stand, raised my right hand, placing my left on the bible.
“Do you swear to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” I felt the Judge’s eyes boring into the side of my head as I kept my eyes straight ahead.
“Yes, your honor.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Cash’s POV
It was a Monday from hell, and I was exhausted already before my coffee had even had a chance to cool. Sara burst into my office, not giving me a second to hang up the phone call I was on, “She’s got court in an hour!”
Who? Huh?My mind on the merger I was in the middle of.
