Page 9 of Body Check

“What, exactly, is your problem with me?”

“You are.”

Her glare sharpens. “Because I’m a woman in a man’s job?”

“Don’t you have a family at home?”

“Because I have a uterus, I automatically am not complete if I don’t have a child?” The scathing look sends chills up my spine. “Fuck you, McKittrick. I thought you were different.”

This is going all wrong.

“Because I saw you with your baby!” I burst out.

Her eyes widen. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“My apartment faces yours. I saw you—” I clamp my lips. Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to say that.

But I also couldn’t let her go on without knowing. I saw her intimately, in a way that she probably wouldn’t want her coworker to see her.

“You saw me?” The blood drains from her face.

And now she knows exactly how much I saw.

“Yeah. You and your husband. I notice you’re not wearing a ring, though.”

Amelia blinks a few times. “I’m not married. I live with my brother.”

Andrews coughs to cover a laugh. Rounding on him, he meets the full force of my glare with a pissed off scowl of his own.

“But—the baby⁠—”

“My niece,” she says tightly.

Scrubbing at my forehead, I try to make it make sense. It doesn’t.

“I don’t get it.”

“Ainsley is my brother’s daughter,” she says slowly. “We’re all living together, one big happy family.”

“Why?”

Her laugh is incredulous, on the border of manic. “Because rent is fucking expensive, because my brother has a newborn, because my other brother travels three quarters of the year. Because I have nobody in this city, I’m starting over, and I needed a fucking break. Fuck.”

“Hey,” Andrews cuts in. “You have me. I’m on your side.”

“I know. I appreciate you, more than I can possibly say.” Amelia smiles at him, but when she turns back to me, the sharp glare is back. “Did I pass your interrogation?”

There’s no saving this. No coming back from this.

With a curt nod, I turn on my heel and walk out of the bar.