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Josh watched as she shook her head, almost as though she were having an inner conversation that was irritating her. Then, she didn’t disappear as she’d threatened, instead pinned him with a gimlet stare. “Do you think Frank and Janice were good parents?”
The question surprised him, but he was honest enough to admit, “No.”
“Why not?”
Unease filtered through him. Janice and his mother, Elizabeth, were best friends. And anyone in Elizabeth’s circle, he didn’t trust.
Somewhat clinically, he explained, “Well, Janice drinks too much, and Frank is a workaholic. He also has a pretty bad gambling addiction.” Not that that manifested itself normally. Multimillionaires didn’t usually worry about petty bets, after all. Frank played the stock market like a fiend. Dropping millions like whores dropped their panties.
She seemed to appreciate his honesty, because she whispered, “You loved Jamie, didn’t you? That’s why you’re always so mean to me. Because you love him, and you think I was using him.”
“Yes,” he said gruffly, his hands once more tightening around the putty. The death grip made his knuckles ache. “I loved Jamie. Like a brother.”
“So, knowing what you do of his parents, do you want his son to be raised by them?”
He studied her, not too surprised by her words having surmised that was the situation, but still shocked that Frank and Janice wanted custody.
Just like Elizabeth had with him, they’d palmed Jamie off on a nanny from birth to adolescence. Why they’d want a four-year-old, Josh didn’t know.
But then, they could just do the same. Shove Erin with a nanny. Take him away from the one person who actually gave a damn, his mother.
“I think you need to start from the beginning, Samantha.” He dropped the putty, placed both sets of his fingers against the desk once more, and in a conciliatory tone, said, ”Take a seat and tell me what’s happening.”
Chapter 2
Samantha
The urge to unburden her soul, to reveal all the nasty details of what she was embroiled in with Frank and Janice, was enormous. But she’d be a fool to trust this man. Joshua Lewis, Jamie’s best friend had never liked her. She’d never understood why, not while Jamie was alive anyway. After his death, she’d learned things she wished she could forget.
It was almost laughable to think that she had had any control over Jamie. Josh seemed to believe that she forced him to work all hours godsent, that she’d been the reason for his heart attack. But she’d had about as much control over him as a drunk driver did over their vehicle.
Jamie had been destined to crash and burn long before he met her.
Though that belief soothed her, it was more like a silent prod. A reminder. Jamie’s death had liberated her from the prison that was her marriage. Yet, the only good thing Jamie had done with his life, the only good thing that had come from their miserable matrimony, his parents were trying to steal from her.
She wasn’t about to let that happen, not even if it meant dealing with this bastard here.
“You want coffee?”
Surprised by Josh’s sudden politeness, she frowned. “Why? Will you dose it with arsenic?”
His nostrils flared with irritation again. She spied the irritated gesture, but refused to wince.
Samantha could quickly manage to ascertain if someone in the vicinity was angry, was getting aggressive. She’d seen the signs, had come to recognize them over time. Back when her father had beaten on her mother, and then, though she’d vowed never to be in the same position as her mom, when Jamie had begun hitting her, she felt sure her experience with abuse had saved her life more than once.
Well, until his drug use had grown out of control.
Then, Jamie’s mercurial moods had led to his fists connecting with some unfortunate part of her body with little to no warning.
Unlike his best friend, however, Josh wasn’t volatile. In fact, he was anything but. He was cool, calm. Far too collected, because she truly believed that in any given situation, there should only be one control freak in a room. Considering she labeled herself as one, it was no wonder being around Josh, regardless of his opinion on her, was always disconcerting.
If Jamie was a tidal wave, Josh was a calm expanse of ocean. Fitting, considering the cerulean blue of his eyes. She’d always been wary of him. He was too handsome for her own good, any woman’s own good, and as a result, Samantha avoided him. The last thing she’d wanted back in the day was to anger Jamie, and even innocent flirting with his best friend would have been enough to…
Well, she didn’t have to think about that now.
She was safe.
Safe to look at the man opposite her, a man who loathed her, but she could still check him out.
