Page 55 of Already Callin’ You Mine

“One night I got home from work and heard something that sounded…off. So I went to our bedroom and found Cody…errr…playing cops and robbers with a brunette who wasn’t me.”

Oh, shit.

“I was seven and a half months pregnant.”

Fuuuuuuck…

Fury rises in me, and I bite down on the inside of my mouth trying to keep my reaction hidden. What kind of complete asshole cheats on his pregnant partner? Especially after that many years together. This loser, apparently.

“Pres, I’m so sorry. I⁠—”

She holds up a hand. “Jace, no. Don’t apologize for him. You were not the one using your department-issued handcuffs on a woman you met while arresting her boyfriend for drugs, while wearing nothing but your badge and cap.”

Oh, fuck. He really was playing cops and robbers. Here I was thinking that was a euphemism.

“Needless to say, that was the end of that relationship.”

“Understandably.”

“But that’s when he showed his true colors.”

Wait, sticking his dick in someone else while she was pregnant wasn’t showing his true colors?

Guilt starts to gnaw at my chest. She’s already been through all this—and there’s apparently more—and here I am, still acting like this is high school. Like we’re still waging the same stupid teenage rivalry over who’s smarter and sits at the top of the GPA list.

“I’m a little afraid to ask how it goes downhill from there,” I comment, pushing the rest of my meal toward her. There’s not much left and I can tell she wants it.

Taking it from me, Presley digs in, her smile brightening. “He claimed the baby wasn’t his.”

That fucker…

My expression falls and there’s no hiding my anger now. Words fail me, leaving me only with a desire to hunt this guy down and rip his nuts off. That and wrap my arms around both Presley and Otis, never letting go.

“Even though I listed him on the birth certificate, Cody refused to acknowledge Otis or add him to his benefits. I wasn’t worried about insurance or anything like that. I’ve always been able to support myself, and adding Otis into the mix was a challenge at first, but I made it work. It was more his survivor benefits. Cody’s a cop, and God forbid if anything happened to him, I wanted to make sure that Otis qualified to receive what he was owed. So, after a year of fighting about it, I lawyered up and took him to court. Still took a while to get it all processed and handled, because Cody was a shithead every step of the way, because he could be. But in the end, I proved paternity and got what I wanted. Only took three years.”

“And now you’re back here. Dealing with my dumb ass.”

She stops, fork midway to her mouth. “I am. And your ass is dumb. But I’m used to it by now. Boys are dumb in general.”

“You’re raising one of those, you know,” I retort.

“He’s going to be the exception.”

I don’t doubt that…

“Enough about me. That’s the past.” She waves off the topic with her hand, like pushing steam out of the way from her plate. “Can I ask about you?”

“What about me?”

“Where the love of personal safety came from. It’s gotta be a girl, right?”

Ha…well…

“Sorta. Marigold.”

Presley knits her brow. “As in the founder of EmpowHER?”

I nod, launching into the whole story. Our senior community service hours, the women I met there, all of it. How each time I looked at them, I saw Miss Belle and Willa. How I wanted to teach these women to be able to fight back. So I did.