Trust Me (Last Stand #1)(70)
Author: Brenda Novak

“You left Jeremy with a babysitter so you could be with Skye Kellerman?” she asked without preamble.

The bitterness in his ex-wife’s voice scalded like acid. Here it was: the backlash. He tried to convince himself that the situation was worsened by Juanita Lowe and the picture she’d published in this morning’s paper. But it was the pictures in his mind that convicted him.

“It was a fund-raiser, Lynnette.” He wanted to say it was no big deal but it seemed too disrespectful of Skye. Last night had been a very big deal. When he closed his eyes, he could still hear the desperate way she’d said his name, feel how she’d arched into him….

“A fund-raiser you attended to be with her, David. Don’t try to deny it.”

“Surely you know about the shooting,” he said, trying to move the conversation onto safer ground. Lynnette must’ve heard about Skye’s intruder. She seemed to possess antennae that picked up on anything to do with Skye, and news of the shooting had been in all the papers.

“What does that have to do with you?” she asked.

“I’m trying to keep her safe.”

“By sleeping with her?”

He said nothing.

“Did you think Jeremy wouldn’t mention that you had a woman over? That she was in your bed? I may not have been a saint, David, but neither have I allowed my son to find a strange man in my bed. And I wouldn’t make a fool of you by having my picture splashed across the front page of the paper—a picture of me holding someone else, looking like I’m ready to rip his clothes off.”

He veered into the video store, hoping to distract Jeremy and prevent him from hearing the conversation. Covering the mouthpiece, he motioned to a Nintendo Wii. “Hey, bud, look what they’ve got. Why don’t you check it out?”

Jeremy didn’t need to be asked twice. He hurried over to the game station, dropped the bag containing his new shoes and started playing. Meanwhile, David stood in the aisle between two rows of video games. “I had no idea Jeremy was coming over Friday morning. My mother brought him by unexpectedly.”

“Maybe that wouldn’t have happened if you’d been honest with me.”

“I’ve never lied to you, Lynnette.”

“You said you want to get back with me.”

“I’m struggling with that,” he admitted. These days, the thought of getting back with her felt like some sort of prison sentence.

“What does that mean? Are you getting together with her?”

“I don’t know. I want to spend more time with her. That’s all I can tell you.”

“So you slept with her!”

David glanced up to see Jeremy’s body jerking as he frantically manipulated the controls of the Nintendo Wii. The sight of his son, still so young and vulnerable, pricked his conscience. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

He heard her quick intake of breath. “You did sleep with her!”

Miserable, he leaned an elbow on the sales rack to his right. He wasn’t self-sacrificing enough to do what he had to do. He was letting her down despite all his efforts.

“David?” she prompted.

“Not now, Lynnette.”

“I was honest with you!”

He hesitated, wondering how to explain, when her voice suddenly softened and the inevitable tears began. “Do you love her?” she asked on a sob.

Shit. How the hell had he made such a mess of his life?

He massaged his forehead, searching for the gentlest words he could find. “Lynnette, I need some time to…to figure out what kind of threat she’s facing, if it’s connected to Burke, if Burke’s going to harm someone else. That has to come before any of this. Afterward, I’ll be able to sort out how I feel. There’s a lot going on at the moment. Too much.”

“I’m not asking about Burke!”

“But like I said, I have to figure that out first. The rest of this—”

“Dad, look! Aren’t the graphics cool?”

David managed a weak smile as he waved to acknowledge Jeremy’s comment. “—we’ll have to work out later, okay?”

“Once again your job comes before me. But I can’t just put my life on hold until you’re ready!”

“This could be a matter of life and death, Lynnette.”

“So my feelings don’t count. You don’t need me anymore. I’m damaged goods, no one you want to be burdened with, especially now that you can screw such a pretty woman while you work. How can I compete with that kind of one-stop shopping?” she snapped and hung up.

David smothered a groan as he shut off his phone. It rang again almost immediately, but according to caller ID, it was his mother.

No way in hell he was gonna answer that call right now.

“Dad?”

Silencing the ringer, David shoved the phone into the pocket of his jeans. “What?”

“Will you buy me one of these?”

“No, bud. Not today.”

“Pull-eze?”

It was difficult to concentrate long enough to give coherent answers, and impossible to calm the turmoil inside him. “Maybe for your birthday.”

“That’s a year away! Can’t I earn the money myself?” His eyes were hopeful, earnest. “I could wash your car and…and maybe you could pay me to take out the trash and—”

“You already have a PlayStation,” he interrupted before Jeremy could think of more ways to lengthen the list. “And you got three new games for Christmas.”

“But the PlayStation’s always at your place.”

“It should be at my place. Your mom’s house is in a good neighborhood, not an apartment block like mine. When you’re there, I want you out getting exercise and playing with other kids.”

“But you keep saying you’re gonna move back in and you never do. I don’t have the PlayStation for when my friends come over. It would be okay to play it once in a while, wouldn’t it?”

David knew his son didn’t need a second game station. But, considering what was happening to his plans to reunite with Jeremy’s mother, he felt he owed the kid something.

“Fine,” he said and tossed his VISA on the counter.

Jeremy’s mouth dropped open at the sudden reversal. “Thanks, Dad! You’re the best!” He flung his arms around David’s waist and hugged him, but somehow that didn’t make David feel any better. He was trying to replace the important things he should be providing for Jeremy—an at-home father, a complete family—with objects.