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“Don’t think so, princess. Have a nice life.”
He turned to leave, but before he could get far, Georgia said in a low voice, “We’re still married.”
“Fuck, no,” Dex muttered at the same time as Grey.
Banks stopped, his body as tense as piano wire. Dex had earlier thought this guy was so self-possessed, with Rebels arena ice shavings in his veins, and that nothing could bother him. But this statement changed all that.
When he turned, his face was undiluted fury. “What did you say?”
“I think you heard me.” She waved a hand, more casually now. Whereas before she’d been a ball of nervous energy, now she was back in control with Banks’s reaction fueling her confidence.
She liked his discomposure.
“What the hell is this?” Banks’s mouth was twisted in a sneer. “It was a done deal.”
“There was a paperwork error. The divorce didn’t go through.” She examined her nails, which Dex could tell infuriated Banks. “So much for the army of lawyers.”
If Banks could have glared Georgia below the peanut-shell covered floorboards, he probably would have stood there for eternity figuring out the right combination of expressions to do it.
As death-by-bad-mood wasn’t yet possible, Banks instead turned to Dex and Grey. “You heard nothing.”
Dex gave a zipped-lips gesture. Grey offered up a wide-eyed blink. Banks cupped Georgia under her elbow and dragged her to the other side of the bar.
During whatever-that-was, a text message had arrived from Ashley and Dex scanned it quickly.
Grey was still stunned. “Can you believe that?”
“Nope. But Banks has always been one sneaky fucker. Listen, I’ve got to go. Keep me posted on the hashtag-Borgia sitch.”
Grey grinned. “Will do.”
31
Twinkling lights splattered like gold dust on the walls and ceilings of Willa’s bedroom, but no amount of sparkle could fix the mood in the room. Ashley put her arm around her daughter’s thin shoulders and gathered her close. Her baby was hurting.
“What about some hot chocolate?”
“It’s just empty calories.”
Ashley started. “Where did you hear about empty calories?”
“Lottie says I shouldn’t eat or drink anything with no nutritional value.”
The list was getting longer. Another person Ashley would be having words with before the night was through.
“They didn’t believe me, Mom.” Willa sounded so disillusioned. Today in school, she’d mentioned that Dex O’Malley had come to her house for dinner, invited her to a game, and that she’d met several members of the Chicago Rebels. When she showed the video advertising Dex’s connection to the shelter, her “friends” had called her a liar.
“We’ll have to get a picture of you with Dex and that’ll show them.”
“They said he wouldn’t be friends with someone like me. I’m too ugly.”
Ashley’s mama bear instincts rose up. “You are not ugly. You are the most beautiful person I know and anyone who says different will have to deal with me.”
She’d already been on the phone to that little miss Shana Connors’s mom, telling her that her daughter was a menace. That went as well as expected. One less holiday card this year.
There was a knock on the door, and Vera put her head around.
“Hey, button, how ya feelin’?”
