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“What’s wrong?” Blake asked. He slid his arm around his ex and guided her inside. “Come in. I don’t need you standing on the porch for the world to see.” He checked behind her as she entered, then he closed and locked the door.
“Jacinda,” he said smoothly. “This is my girlfriend, Lauren. Lauren, my ex-wife, Jacinda.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lauren said.
Jacinda’s lower lip stopped trembling, and she nodded. “You too.”
“Mom.” Tommy didn’t run to her and hug her the way he had Lauren. “What are you doing here?”
“I just found out you moved out,” she said. Her voice pitched up. “I didn’t—Cason just told me.”
Lauren’s eyebrows went up, but it was Blake who asked, “Where have you been, Jacinda? You didn’t know your son moved out two days ago?”
“I was in Newark,” she said. “I had a meeting there with the people who sell my bath bombs.” She barely spared a glance for Blake. “Cason told me your phone broke, and he didn’t have your new number.” She took a step toward Tommy, and then she hurried to him. He did hug her, and she cried against his shoulder.
She murmured apologies and other things Lauren didn’t want to intrude on. She clearly loved her son, and she had some things to work out with Blake, Tommy, and Cason.
They separated, and Jacinda looked at the two of them. Lauren felt like an outsider, because she was one. Her natural instinct told her to leave. Let this family work out their problems without an audience. One look at Blake, and she knew she wouldn’t be leaving.
“What are we going to do?” Jacinda asked.
“My son will never live with that man again,” Blake said. “Not unless he’s an adult and capable of defending himself.” He looked at Tommy and then Jacinda again. “I could press charges, Jacinda. Destruction of property. Keeping a minor against his will. Threatening said minor.”
Lauren edged closer, shocked to hear him speak like that. Blake caught her eye, and he reached for her.
“He said he’d just gotten bad news.” Jacinda’s hands went round and round each other again. “You won’t really sue him, will you?”
“Everyone gets bad news,” Blake said. “Heck, Lauren was questioned by two FBI agents in the middle of the night. She didn’t go around smashing cell phones and telling thirteen-year-olds that they weren’t good for anything.”
Jacinda hissed as she inhaled. “Tommy.” She shook her head. “Tom. Tell me he didn’t say that.”
“He said it, Mom,” Tommy mumbled. The doorbell rang again, and he went to get it this time. Lauren looked at Blake, saw the worry there, and followed him.
If Jacinda had come here, Cason could’ve followed her. They had no guarantee that the person on the other side of the door was indeed the pizza delivery man.
“Tommy, let me.” She darted in front of him while Blake and Jacinda continued to talk in hushed voices behind her. She put her foot only inches behind the door and opened it until it met her toe.
A boy not much older than Tommy stood there, three stacked boxes of pizza in his hands. “For Blake?” he asked.
“Yep.” She opened the door all the way then and took the boxes. After handing them to Tommy, she signed the receipt and thanked the boy. He left, and Lauren closed and re-locked the door.
“…could’ve called,” Blake said.
“I don’t have your new numbers,” Jacinda said. “If Cason does, he wouldn’t give it to me.”
“I didn’t call and give your abusive boyfriend our numbers, no.” Blake rolled his eyes. Lauren was surprised to see him in such a bad mood, because he’d rarely acted like this. He’d told her he got along with his ex-wife. He opened the top box of pizza, and it was her veggie delight.
She smiled and took the box while he said, “I don’t want him to have my number. Or Tommy’s. The end. He doesn’t need them. Only you do.”
“So he won’t come stay with me on weekends?” Jacinda asked. “You got him every weekend. All summer. Whenever you wanted him.”
“I don’t live with someone who’s dangerous,” Blake said, not unkindly. “Jacinda, I’m not going to give you an ultimatum. I’m not. But he threatened Tommy. He raised his hand to him—now, whether he hit him or not is irrelevant. He—”
“Did he?” she asked.
“No,” Blake and Tommy said together. “But he acted like he would,” Blake said quickly. “There’s a manipulation and fear tactic there, and Tommy won’t be around that. You’ll have to figure something else out.”
She threw her hands up into the air. “Like what?”
