Page 95 of His Wounded Heart

I nod, then answer the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Commander.”

“It’s just Simon these days.”

“Okay, just Simon. I want to thank you for giving me something to work on. The first part was way too simple so I did a little extra digging which was actually fun.”

I would put the phone on speaker, but I don’t want to do anything that might wake up Bella.

“Do you have information you can email to us? I have Trenda Avery sitting right next to me. I’d put you on speaker, but her daughter is asleep down the hall.”

“I know how that goes,” Dex laughs. “Yeah, I’ll forward everything to her email. It’s clear as day that the email came from the widow, but based on what I’m seeing on the will? I’m going to do a couple more checks. The widow isn’t the only one with skin in the game. You’ll see what I mean. I just hate leaving things unfinished.”

“Okay, Dex. Do what you think is best.”

“I will probably have something for you in forty-eight to seventy-two hours. I’m going to dive deep.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Like I said, I’ve been bored.”

I don’t understand. I read the words on the screen for a fourth time, then turn to Simon.

“Why would he word it that way? How many illegitimate children does he think he has?”

“By the way you described how he reacted when you told him you were pregnant, I think you’re the only probable candidate.”

“But he hated me. He didn’t want me to have the baby. Why would he add that clause into his will? It reads clear as day. Carla gets two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and then the rest of his estate is to be distributed equally amongst all of his remaining children. He doesn’t name any names. That’s just odd. Seriously, Simon, I might not have finished my paralegal training, but I got close, and leaving that open-ended like that is just not done. Plus, he must have told his lawyer about me or how would he know to contact me otherwise?” Which means Brantley looked me up at some point. I shiver.

Simon is still looking down at the printout.

“What? What are you thinking?” I ask.

“Dex confirmed that Carla sent the emails. But tell me, was she the type of woman who would be coming to Jasper Creek to take pictures of you and Bella?”

I think about it. “Absolutely not. It might ruin her manicure to press a button on her camera.”

“Thought so. So, she arranged to have someone take pictures of you. I want Dex to track that down. There’s something else I want to tell you. Dex said there were a couple of other things he wanted to check out. If he found anything, he’d let me know.”

“What are they?”

“He didn’t say. It sounded like he wasn’t sure they would pan out, so he was just going to wait to give us something if it did.”

I nod. It feels good to have Simon and this Dex guy on my side. “Thanks for calling your friend. I was thinking I’d have to go talk to Mr. Fortnum. I mean, I trust him, but I really didn’t want to talk to him about all my dirty laundry. But he might have been somebody who could…” Simon’s smiling at me. “I’m babbling again, aren’t I?”

“Just a little bit. It’s really cute.”

“I have never babbled in my life until I met you. You have brought out the babbler in me, and I’m not happy about it.”

He bends over me and puts a hand on each of the arms of the kitchen chair. When he opens his mouth to talk, I smell rocky road ice cream. “How about the pouter? Have I brought the pouter out in you? Because if you stick your lower lip out like that, I’m duty bound to kiss it.”

“In that case, I’m going to be pouting a lot.”

“Hmmm,” he hums right before he kisses me. This isn’t a soft, getting-to-know-you kiss. This is a kiss that electrifies and sensitizes every nerve and synapse in my brain and body. I yank at his beautiful head of hair, trying to get the kiss to go deeper. I moan when I realize we’re not close enough. I try to stand up without losing his mouth.

He takes a nip of my lower lip.