Page 52 of The Girl He Loves

“Nope, this is one-third of what he owes me for one month, and he’s three months behind.”

“You need to get your lawyer after him.”

I fold the check and leave it on the workbench counter. “In the three years we’ve been divorced, I’ve had to do that four times.” I hold up four fingers. “You know how much it cost me to have my lawyer make him pay?”

Dax shakes his head.

“Almost a grand. Each time. It’s like he does it on purpose just to be a butthead to me.”

Dax shifts his weight and rests against my minivan, kicking his broken leg out in front. “Humor me for a minute. What if he is doing it on purpose?”

I laugh because the idea is absurd. Justin couldn’t care less about us. “Why? He barely noticed us when we were married. What’s his motivation?”

Dax shrugs. “That I don’t know, but listen. I’m on the couch watching Ridiculousness and telling myself not to take a pain pill even though I want to. Whenever I do, I consume an entire bag of chips and we’re out of chips and I don’t have training camp coming up so I don’t want to put on weight.”

I wave my hand to show he needs to speed this up. Though it's cute that he’s thinking about his weight.

“Anyway, I hear a noise in the garage, so I put the TV on mute. Then I hear that door open.” He points to the interior garage door that leads to my kitchen.

“How is that possible? I lock the exterior door, and the garage door is fixed.”

“He had a key. I saw him pocket it when he came in. He hadn’t noticed me yet.”

I feel sweaty and slightly sick to my stomach. Why would Justin have a key to the house and come in when he knows good and well we aren’t home? “What did he do then?”

“Went through your mail. Broke the light to the microwave.”

“How’d he do that?”

Dax’s lips are pressed thin. He’s furious.

In hopes of lightening the mood, I say, “Is he still alive?”

“He’s lucky he is,” he says. Effort thwarted. “He took the bulb out and shook it until he broke the filament. I just sat there and watched him. I wanted to see what else he was up to.”

“And?”

“That’s when he came into the living room and saw me. He was holding your laptop. Tried to tell me he comes by to check on things for you every month. Wants to make sure you’re all safe.”

“But he just broke—” I gesture toward the house.

“Yep, and he knew I knew he’d done it, too. That’s when he whipped out his checkbook and said he was also leaving a check. Wanted me to tell you he’s sorry it’s late, but the first chance he gets, he’ll make good.”

“Bullshit,” I say.

“Here’s the thing. When I cleaned out your gutters the other day, the clogs didn’t look normal. They looked like someone had packed leaves and rocks and bark in there.”

“Rocks?”

“Yeah. To cause the water to pool in that one corner of the house where, with enough exposure, you'll have a leak and bigger issues.”

I’m stunned. “None of this makes sense. Why would he do this?”

“I don’t know. But I called Doug to ask about the things he’s fixed over the years. Justin could be the reason for at least half of those issues.”

I shake my head, unable to take in the enormity of what he’s suggesting.

Dax gestures for me to follow him. “I have to check on the steaks. But here’s another thing. He wasn’t happy to see me. Not because I busted him, but I don’t think he wants to see you with any man, especially me. He brought up college. Talked about how I let you go, and he won, and that I needed to know when it came time for you to choose, you picked him.”

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