Games of the Heart (47 page)

That warmth in his chest grew intense.

Mike grinned at her. “Thanks for takin’ the time to share this with me, Rocky.”

She leaned in, eyes warm, holding his and said with feeling, “My pleasure, Mike.”

He lifted his hand, she took it and he pulled her slightly to him. She tipped her chin back and he bent in, brushing his lips against her cheek. Her skin was soft, her hair and perfume smelled good and Mike liked that Tanner had that. Tanner was a good man. And Tanner’s ex made Audrey seem tame. A slightly nutty, easy smiling woman who smelled good, dressed good, looked great and loved her job teaching kids was so far better than the shit Tanner’s ex shoveled not only during their marriage but after it, it wasn’t funny.

They both leaned back, squeezed hands, Rocky promised to be in touch about the meeting and they said their farewells.

By the time she left, Mike had fifteen minutes to get to Mimi’s. It was a couple of blocks, a five minute walk. He had time and the time he had he didn’t use to pick up Darrin’s will.

He picked up Reesee’s report.

He read it and Rocky was right. By paragraph two, it wasn’t about him reading his daughter’s report that was deemed exceptional by her teacher. She’d sucked him in, he’d become lost in it and even after he was done, it didn’t strike him what he was doing and why he was reading it. Just that he found every word interesting and really fucking wanted to reread a book he hadn’t read since high school.

Unfortunately, he was so into it, by the time he was done he was supposed to be at Mimi’s and being late would piss off Audrey. He knew this because his job meant his hours could be erratic and her spending meant his overtime was constant. Still, she expected him when she expected him where she expected him and if he was late or a no-show, she didn’t mind sharing how much that pissed her off. And how much it pissed her off was a lot.

He didn’t need a pissed off Audrey considering he already didn’t want to give her this time or play whatever game she intended to play. She was his kids’ Mom, however, so he had no fucking choice.

He sucked in breath, folded Rees’s report in half, the will in half, shoved both in the inside pocket of his blazer and shrugged it on. Then he took off down the steps to the first floor of the Station. Moving by Betsy at reception, he flicked out two fingers, called goodnight and got the same in return.

Then he pushed through the front door and walked down the sidewalk to Mimi’s.

It was the beginning of March. Spring was there. The temperatures were rising; there was no snow to be found. Yards were greening up. Buds were on the trees. Bulbs were sending up shoots in people’s yards.

Mike lived in Indiana all his life so he was used to adjusting his day to the changeable and sometimes extreme weather patterns. It was second nature. He didn’t notice it. He didn’t savor spring heralding the end of winter. He didn’t give a shit. He was just pleased the warm up meant he could barbeque without freezing his ass off. And he was pleased that the change in the weather indicated that Fin would not have to go out and clear any more streets.

That was all the thought he gave to it.

He pushed open the door to Mimi’s already having spotted Audrey seeing she’d chosen a table in the window.

Seeing it, his mouth got tight.

Calculated. The ‘Burg was a small town and she’d lived in it a long while. Anyone driving or walking past would see him having a coffee with her. They’d wonder. They’d talk. They’d speculate. They’d even make shit up. And everyone by this time knew he was with Dusty. This was courtesy of Sully’s wife, Lorraine not to mention the quintuple threat of Cheryl, Jessie, Mimi, February and Violet, two of those working in the town’s most popular bar, one of them owning the frequented coffee house.

Jesus, Audrey and her games.

He saw she had a mug in front of her, another mug was on the table and a white bag was also sitting on the table.

He didn’t know what was in that bag but he was surprised by its presence. If she didn’t keep a handle on it, Audrey was the kind of woman who would pack on weight easily. And honest to God, sometimes he thought she’d rather slit her wrists than gain an extra pound. She stepped on the scale every morning and every morning he’d brace. This was because the results set the mood in their house until the next day when she again stepped on that fucking scale.

She, luckily, didn’t give a shit about what Mike and the kids ate though she would frequently bitch about the food in the house mostly because it tempted her. But she took great care with every morsel that passed her lips. She also speed-walked three times a week and went to the gym to swim twice. She was as obsessive about these things as shopping. So baked goods from Mimi’s didn’t make sense.

Her apparently having bought him a drink didn’t either. She’d never been particularly polite but after he asked for a divorce that evaporated completely. Any time she spoke to him over the phone or saw him in person, the acid spewed.

He did not like that mug of coffee sitting on the table. Not at all.

As he moved to Audrey, his eyes went to the counter to see if Mimi was there. She wasn’t and the lone girl behind it was with a customer so she didn’t glance at him.

He expected a terse, “You’re late,” when he arrived but Audrey just smiled up at him.

Then she said, “I got you a latte. Butterscotch?”

He stared at her, shocked as shit. Butterscotch lattes were what Reesee would order him if he brought her or both his kids here. He had no clue Audrey knew or even cared that was his preference.

“Yeah,” he grunted as he sat down then forced out a, “Thanks.”

She immediately reached a hand to the bag and slid it his way. “Those are brownies and cookies. For you, No and Rees.”

He kept staring at her.

She’d called No “No”.

Fuck.

And brownies and cookies?

Fuck.

Except for birthdays and Christmases, which she spent a fortune on with a glee that had nothing to do with celebrations and holidays, he didn’t know her ever to make a gesture to him or the kids like that. When they had children, her shopping extended naturally to filling the kids’ closets, dressers and rooms with shit they did not need but it wasn’t kindness or generosity. It was addiction.

“Thanks,” he muttered again and noted she’d told him they were for him, No and Rees but not Dusty. Understandable but also an indication that she was not moving on as she knew he already had.

He tagged his mug, took a sip then set it down.

“You wanna start this?” he invited. “No’s been instructed to order pizza in fifteen minutes and I gotta swing by and pick it up on the way home. I’m sorry I’m late but that means we have even less time. We should get this done.”

She nodded then shared conversationally, “Things are going well at work.”

Jesus. What the fuck? Was this just a chat?

He didn’t have time for this shit.

“That’s good. Pleased for you, Audrey. Now, do we have something to discuss?”

She rubbed her lips together and grabbed her mug to take a drink.

Stalling. Sucking his time. Playing games.

“Audrey…” he warned and her eyes shot to him.

“I don’t like you with another woman.”

Mike sighed and sat back.

Then, quietly, seeking patience, he explained, “We’re divorced. We’ve been that way a while. We’re gonna stay that way. I’m gettin’ that you’re strugglin’ with that now for whatever reason but it’s the way it is. You need to learn how to deal and however you do that is yours. I’m not involved. If this is about me and Dusty, that has not one thing to do with you. We talk, we talk about our kids. That’s it. Anything else in my life, for you, is off-limits.”

“That isn’t true,” she returned, speaking quietly as well. “She’s in your home. Our kids live in your home –”

Mike instantly leaned forward, his eyes locked to hers and he growled, “Do not fuckin’ go there.”

“I should understand who’s involved in our children’s lives, Mike,” she stated and he studied her, with effort forcing down his rising anger.

She wasn’t pissed. She wasn’t catty. She wasn’t sharp. She seemed calm and rational.

He didn’t get it.

“You met her at Reesee’s party,” he reminded her.

“Yes, we spoke for about a second. But where does she come from? What does she do? What –?”

He cut her off. “None of that is any of your business.”

“No and Rees are at an impressionable age so I disagree.”

“Are you shittin’ me?” Mike asked softly, his efforts at controlling his anger failing rapidly.

“Well…no,” she replied.

“Rees has got her period,” Mike announced and Audrey blinked.

“What?” she asked.

“Rees has got her period,” Mike repeated. “She’s usin’ tampons. You good with that?”

Mike watched her head jerk back then she stammered, “I…uh…”

Mike spoke into her stammering. “I don’t know shit about it. Is it cool for a fifteen year old girl to use tampons?”

Audrey’s brows drew together. “Why are we talking about this?”

Why were they talking about this?

Jesus.

“Because our daughter has become a woman in that sense,” Mike explained tersely and unnecessarily. “I don’t buy her that shit but she’s got it. I don’t know anything about it and there is no fuckin’ way she’s gonna talk to me. No found that shit in the bathroom while he was lookin’ for somethin’ else, God knows what. It was buried, hidden behind a bunch of other shit. I didn’t think much about it until Dusty talked to me. Since Dusty spoke to me, what I think now is that every girl gets her period and every woman lives with that until they don’t have to live with it anymore. And there’s absolutely no reason she should be hiding tampons. Her brother is a teenager and he might rib her because he’s a teenager. But he’ll one day be a man with a woman who has to deal with that shit so he’ll also have to learn to keep his mouth shut and roll with the cycle. I can teach him that. But who’s takin’ care of our daughter?”

Her face was pale when Mike was done speaking and he knew, whoever it was, it was not Audrey.

“Not you,” he whispered. “Shit’s goin’ down with her body and now she’s got a new boyfriend and she’s fuckin’ clueless with nowhere to turn but her friends who also are fuckin’ clueless.”

“I’ll speak with her,” Audrey said immediately.

“Not to be a dick but I’m not sure she’s open to that from you. You’ve been pissed, bitter and self-absorbed a long time, Audrey, so you bought that. Our kids do time with you. They live with me but they do time with you. My advice, you stop worryin’ about who I got in my bed and that finally wakin’ you up to the fact we are irrevocably done and you start worryin’ about your kids. No’s gonna be in college soon, Reesee not long after. You let them get that far without steppin’ up, you’ll find later it’ll be harder to break through. And you’ll also find that
you’ve
missed out on something precious that there’s no way in hell you’ll get back.”

“Since meeting Dusty, I’ve already found that, Mike,” she whispered, eyes on him, wounded, message crystal clear.

Shit, shit,
fuck.

“Not my problem.”

To that, she announced, “I’m still in love with you.”

Shit, shit,
fuck.

“Again,” he growled, “not my problem.”

“Mike –” she started and he leaned deep into her.

“Honest to God? Honest to fuckin’
God?
” he ground out. “I just told you your daughter got her period, has no clue but
does
have a new boyfriend and you don’t even ask who she’s seein’? You just wanna talk about you?” He sat back. “Nothin’s changed. Not one fuckin’ thing. You’re learning about yourself? Bullshit. You were, you’d learn you got serious issues, you’re a shit mother and you need to start dancin’ fast before the best things in your life you got left leave you behind.”

Her face looked like he’d struck her and he didn’t give a fuck.

Instead, he clipped, “We done?”

“I don’t…I don’t want this Dusty talking to Rees about –” she started.

“Too late,” Mike cut her off. “Reesee trusts Dusty and so do I. It’s already happening.”

Audrey straightened her shoulders. “I don’t know this woman. I’m not comfortable with her guiding my daughter through important times in her life.”

“Clue in, Audrey, if you’d been the Mom you should have been, your daughter would not have needed to turn to my woman in the first fuckin’ place.”

Again, she looked stricken but Mike again did not give one, single fuck. She’d bought that too and it was not his fucking problem.

“We done?” he repeated.

He watched with waning patience as she pulled her shit together.

Then she said quietly, “I’m sorry. Honestly, Mike, this was not how I intended this talk to go.”

“Well, this is where it went. Now, we done?”

She held his eyes.

Then she nodded.

He stood, leaving the once-sipped latte behind.

“Don’t forget the treats,” she said quickly, grabbing the bag and holding it out to him.