Page 27 of Talk Birdie to Me

The name sounded familiar, but Geena couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t someone she knew well, that was for sure. “Who is he?”

“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “But there was a sizable check deposit to your joint account from him several months ago.”

While they kept separate individual accounts, they maintained an account for paying the mortgage and other joint expenses. She kept a close eye on her own accounts, but she never paid much attention to where Ricky’s money came from. Just that he put in his share and rarely took anything out that wasn’t a legitimate expense.

At least, he didn’t while they’d been together. Post-separation was a different story.

“A client?”

Ricky occasionally worked for people outside of his law firm. He technically wasn’t supposed to, but he’d insisted it was fine if he did work for friends off the books.

But that name didn’t ring a bell as a friend she’d ever heard of.

“Maybe,” Lisa said. “But in his declarations, he has a $500 a month cash deposit line item. Sounds like a side job retainer. I’m thinking maybe the Anthony person.”

“Okay. Is that a bad thing? I mean, for settlement purposes?”

“Not on its own, no. If he’s off the books, that’s between him and the firm.” She took a long pause before continuing. “But I’d bet he’s getting paid more than that. And if it’s coming in as cash, he’s not claiming it as income. It means he has more income than he’s claiming. I’m guessing a lot more. But I don’t know how hard you want to fight to uncover it. My guess is it’s impossible with mediation, so you have to decide if you want to take him to court over it.”

She definitely didn’t want to go to court if she didn’t have to. Whatever extra cash he was hiding was his business. She didn’t want to be tied up with it if his firm found out about it, either.

A knock jostled her attention back to the apartment and her next order of non-divorce business.

“Thanks, Lisa. I owe you.”

“You don’t,” Lisa said. “But I’ll take a lunch one day to catch up on life as payment if you insist. I miss seeing you around.”

“Same. And it’s a deal.”

She ended the call and stood, heading toward the townhouse’s front door. She opened it to find Cody standing in front of her wearing khaki shorts, his green zoo polo shirt, and a big grin. In his hands were a clear blue plastic container and two pizza boxes balanced on top.

He’d texted her to give a heads-up that he was on his way from the zoo. She’d been relieved to get the text because she had no idea what she would do with this animal if Cody flaked out and forgot he’d promised to check on them.

There was a loud squawk behind her, followed by, “Who the hell are you?”

“I see he’s still at it.” Cody entered and placed the container on the floor near the cage, balancing the pizza boxes on top. Gary paced back and forth on his perch, bobbing his head up and down as he stared at the new items in his environment. “I brought food for both of you.”

“Thanks. That was… thoughtful.” She tried not to sound surprised, but her tone gave her away. Her stomach also gave her away with a low growl from forgetting to eat dinner. “I’ll grab some plates.”

When she returned with the plates and a stack of napkins, she recognized the logo on the cardboard boxes. Her favorite pizza place in town. And it wasn’t just around the corner, either, so this hadn’t been an impulse stop. He had to have gone out of his way to pick these up.

“This is my favorite place,” she said. “Did you know that? Did Taylor tell you?”

“Nope. It’s my favorite, too.” He put the boxes on her coffee table, then opened both to show her the contents. “I didn’t know what you’d want, but I remembered you ate a chicken wrap when we went out. So I got the blackened chicken and artichoke along with my favorite, boudin and jalapeños, drizzled with cane syrup. Take whatever you want. I like them both.”

Geena stared at the pizzas, her brain spinning around the comment about her chicken wrap.

He’d remembered what she ate on their date?

A shiver ran up her spine as she processed that and inhaled the aroma from both pizzas mingling in the air. “I love both of them, too. You sure Taylor didn’t tell you that?”

He shook his head, a proud smile stretched across his face. “Lucky guess.”

“But I thought you said you lived in Breaux Bridge?” It wasn’t far from her townhouse in Lafayette, but it was farther than most would go for a pizza. “How’d you know about this place?”

“I grew up near here. My parents used to get pizza from there all the time.”

Geena’s brain stalled out, stuck on the realization that she and Cody had grown up in nearby neighborhoods. She’d known that Taylor went to school with him after Geena left for college, but something about knowing they’d been physically so near each other did weird things to her insides.

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