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His shoulders slumped as he dug his crayon harder into the paper with every stroke. I hated disappointing him like this. After my dog passed away, I thought about getting another one, but the timing was never right.
“Hey, buddy. If you want, I can take you to the police station sometime and show you our K-9 dog. You’d love him.”
Parker’s gaze whipped to Pete’s in excitement. “Really?”
“Of course. We’ll set something up on my day off.”
I almost kicked him under the table. He had to stop offering to do things with my son. We barely knew him, which made me uncomfortable. And on top of that, he had enough disappointment in his life without another man stepping in and offering things I had no idea if he’d follow through on.
It was one thing to mess with my head. It was another to do that to my kid.
12
JACK
I checkedthe time on my phone again. It was almost seven and Skylar still wasn’t home with her kid. Not that it was any of my concern. I didn’t really care, but it was unusual. Skylar wasn’t the type to stay out late or party. She was very focused on work and her kid.
I grabbed the socket wrench out of the toolbox and kneeled down next to the bike. I wasn’t out here waiting for her. I was just trying to keep busy, to stop myself from thinking about heroin. Today was actually a good day, which surprised me considering the way it started. Usually, stress drove me to the edge, but to my surprise, making sure Skylar got to work actually relieved some of that ache.
It had to be that I’d accomplished something. Ever since I was in prison, it didn’t feel like I did anything productive. Sure, I was doing my job, but actually taking care of someone who needed help was something I hadn’t done for a while.
A police car turned down the street and I tensed up, waiting for it to drive past. Instead, it stopped at the curb right in front of Skylar’s house. My eyes narrowed on the pretty boy who stepped out of the driver’s side, walking around to open the door for Sky. She was smiling when she stepped out, so I could assume she wasn’t in trouble. Maybe he just offered her a lift home.
I gave her my number. She could have fucking called me. I grunted as I turned back to the bike and ignored the woman and her kid. But the cop…I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, like he was going to cause trouble for me just because of the way I looked. I fit the part well, but that didn’t mean I was anything like the man I was portraying. That was the downside of being the bad guy. Everyone looked at you like a piece of shit, and eventually, you started to believe it was true.
“They didn’t pick up my car,” Skylar said, pressing her hand to her head as she stared at the vehicle.
I had assumed that someone had picked it up while I was gone and then returned it.
“Who did you call?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll have to find someone else,” she said, brushing him off.
I did my best to ignore them as he walked her to the door like a fucking gentleman. I tried not to look over my shoulder or shift to the other side of the bike for a better view, but despite my restraint, I couldn’t help myself.
“Can Officer Pete come inside?” Parker asked excitedly. The kid was bouncing up and down like he’d just won a toy. It shouldn’t bother me how happy the kid was, but it did.
“Parker, we have to get you to bed.”
“Maybe another time,” the guy grinned, bending down to give him a high five.
I snorted, shaking my head at how obvious he was being. I’d seen it before. If you wanted to sleep with the single mom, you had to get the kid on your side. He was doing a hell of a job with that.
“Go inside and start getting ready for bed,” Skylar said, shooing him through the door.
If she kissed him, I might lose my shit.
“Pete, thank you for tonight…”
“But?”
“But I need you to understand that Parker doesn’t have any men in his life.”
“Okay,” he said warily, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I need you to stop offering to do things with him.”
I did not see that coming, and from the look on Pete’s face, he didn’t either. Fuck, I wanted to move closer, but there was no way to do that without drawing attention.
