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PROLOGUE
DANIEL
Using my shoulder,I pushed through the door and into the office, my hands full.
“You love gossip, Ang,” I said. “News at Steaming Hotties is that the Hunters–not the owner of the mountain, but the other ones–filed for bankruptcy, their house was repossessed by the bank and they relocated during the night to Florida for the guy to take a job at a golf course.”
I set the office manager’s coffee on her desk.
She eyed me, listening to my words, but not with the usual glee for small town tea spilling. I didn’t give a shit about the crazy antics of others, but I figured for once, I could get the edge on her with some juicy info.
“Gambling. Can you believe it?” I added.
She humphed. “There’s other ways to gamble,” she muttered and I frowned.
Usually, she was as fiery as her red hair and always knew the local news before me.
“What? Did I ruin it for you?” I asked, taking a sip of my black coffee.
“I think you ruined it for yourself.”
“What the hell does that mean? I don’t even know the Hunters. I know Eve, of course.” I raised my to-go cup with the Steaming Hotties logo on the side. “And that’s not the exciting part. I guess Eve’s ex is going to jail.”
I waited for Ang to react, but she didn’t. “What’s up with you this morning?”
Her eyes widened behind her reading glasses. “Me? I think you have more important things to worry about than other people’s problems.”
Frowning, I set my cup down, put my hands on her desk and leaned in. “What’s going on?” I asked. “No one’s hurt?”
Running a tree service company, I always worried about my employees. Chain saws, falling timber and other hazards meant the possibility of bad injuries. That was from working on the trees, not from falling ones. Like the one that we cut up that had fallen through Lindy Beckett’s house last summer. Fortunately, no one had been home when her neighbor had played lumberjack.
“No. No one’s hurt.”
I sighed because it was always in the back of my mind. “Then what’s curdled your milk?”
She picked up pink message slips and pushed them into my face.
I snagged them and stepped back.
“I thought you learned your lesson right after high school, Daniel Case Pearson. I mean, I thought out of everyone, you’d know about condoms. Talk about gambling. Getting a girl pregnant? Now? You’re forty years old.”
I blinked, looked more closely at what Ang wrote. Condoms? Pregnant? What the hell was she talking about?
The test came back positive. You need to call me.
I told you this would happen, but no. You thought a little fun wouldn’t have consequences. Call me.
Where are you? What am I supposed to do, take care of this on my own?
Fine, fun was had. Now we face the consequences.
I lifted my head, met Ang’s wise, pointed gaze.
“These were on the business voicemail?”
Ang nodded. “I copied those down from the weekend. Exactly as recorded.”
“And you think this was me?” I waved the papers. “Chad’s a little careless from what I’ve heard.”
