Page 93 of Exposed

Laken glances at the woman who raised her. “Unless you’re holding out on me, it was high school, right?”

King gives my hair a tug. “Everyone was afraid of Trippy. Not Don, but Trippy.”

“A healthy fear is a good thing when you’re trying to raise decent humans.” Trippy looks straight at me and doesn’t mince her words. “I had to do my best to make sure these two didn’t fall victim to their genes. There’s nothing on earth I love more than my late husband and these two kids. And now Willa. But Don’s family was something. How they never showed up on Dateline, I’ll never know.”

“Did you miss the part where King is trying to woo this woman?” Lake asks.

“Tsk.” Trippy waves Laken off, and King isn’t fazed one bit, proving the fact he doesn’t care about impressing anyone. Trippy turns to me to spill the tea on things King has hinted at, but didn’t give me a lot of details on. “These two ended up in foster care up in South Dakota in the middle of the mountains where foster care families were scarce. They were about to be split up, and the system was searching for family who would take them together. There was no one but us.”

“Spoiler alert,” Laken announces. “They separated us anyway.”

“They did?” Willa asks. “I’ve heard this story a gazillion times, and I didn’t know that.”

Trippy looks up at Willa since her granddaughter stands at least four inches taller. “Yep. Your grandpa and I had to go through the system quick-like, but we made it happen. We couldn’t have our own kids, but we were lucky enough to get these two, even if it was later in life. You know the rest of the story.”

I break into the conversation. “I don’t.”

“There’s not much more to tell,” King says.

Trippy ignores King and keeps talking. “For the next fouryears, we were considered foster care. Don’s attorney worked on it the whole time, but because their mama?—”

“Our birth mother,” Laken interjects.

“Yeah, her.” Trippy rolls her eyes. “Because she would start to get her act together and then end up thrown in the slammer again. Sometimes it was for silly stuff and other times it was for some pretty bad stuff. But we finally adopted them. We were the oldest parents on the block, but we didn’t care. The house was quiet until the day they arrived, but after that it was the four of us until we lost Don.”

I turn to King. “You grew up here?”

He nods. “Trippy refuses to sell, so I live here while she’s living her best life at the old folks’ home.”

“Stop calling it that. It’s a retirement community,” Trippy scolds him.

“More like a monster jam with golf carts,” he amends with a teasing smile.

That smile makes my insides do things I’m not familiar with.

As the evening has progressed from getting caught kissing in the garage to dinner to listening to Jennings family stories that made me laugh and tugged at my heart, I’m more and more comfortable around the women in King’s life.

It’s hard to reconcile the agent with the devoted son of Trippy Jennings. It’s the last thing I expected from him.

Laken looks at her watch. “It’s getting late. We’d better get Trippy home. Willa and I leave early in the morning.”

“We can drop her on the way to Goldie’s,” King offers.

“But I want to drive the golf cart one more time. Please?” Willa begs.

Trippy leans over to kiss her granddaughter on the forehead. “Of course you can.”

Laken stands and helps Trippy to her feet. “I cooked, which means I am not cleaning that kitchen. We’ll take Trippy and saygoodbye until next time. You clean, but Goldie can’t lift a finger since this is her first time here.”

King gets up and pulls Trippy into his chest for a hug. “I’ll get over to see you soon.”

She takes his hug, but then gives him a little slap on the abs. “That’s what you always say. You’d better make it happen and bring Goldie with you. I’ll take her for a ride around my neighborhood.”

King sighs.

I smile. “I’d love that.”

“She’s a risk taker,” Laken notes. “I like that about you, even though you’d better think twice before putting your life in jeopardy.”

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