Page 78 of The Cowboy's Second Chance Bride

Cricket and I nodded in harmony. Cori leaped up and thrust her diaper bag at me. “The front pocket has a freezer back with six breast milk storage bags. She will probably wake in another twenty minutes to eat.”

Cori had come prepared.

“You know you could have just asked us.” I grinned.

“You have a lot going on. I felt bad asking.” Then she was up the stairs and out of sight.

“She totally played us,” Cricket said.

I shrugged.

Cal came back into the room with an ice pack. He handed it to me and nodded toward my knuckles.

“Fighting is stupid.” I placed the pack on my sore hand.

A Facetime request popped up on my phone, which, coincidentally, was right where I’d left it when we went into town. On the coffee table.

Nick Trask. I accepted the request. It was not unlike Nick and me to Facetime, but maybe because the day had taken a shitty turn, I couldn’t ignore the tinge of apprehension coiling in my stomach.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

Nick’s normally jovial face and easygoing manner was gone. He leaned closer to the screen and looked over his shoulder, then back at me. His brows were knitted in anger. My heart sank. It looked like he was sitting in his car.

“Goddamn producer.”

I told myself this wasn’t a big deal, but the world suddenly felt small and claustrophobic. “What happened?”

But I thought I already knew. Maybe I’d been expecting it, because what else was there left to take from me, other than Cal?

“He said he wanted you off the project. Said he loved the idea, and I was perfect because—no, duh, dipshit—we were going to do this without a show, so it’s not like he’s casting me in a role. Asshole. But he wanted to use a different matchmaker.”

I exhaled.

“I’m fucking raging right now,” Nick said.

I dropped my head into my hands, using the tips of my fingers to push back the tears. “I’m sorry.”

“For what? I was only on board because you were. I don’t need this. And I told him just that. I told him he could stick his proposition up his ass and forget ever working with me again. I also told him he was going to regret this. Then I walked out, caught his assistant in the copy room down the hall, and asked her what was up. Took me making a personal happy birthday video for her sister to get the details, but apparently, some conglomeration called Beck Group funded that asswipe’s pet project on the condition he dump you.”

Cal sat down next to me and came into the phone’s field of vision. “That’s my dad’s company.” There was no mistaking the apology in his eyes. I put my hand on his and squeezed.

“Dude, he’s jonesing to take you out. I have a friend in the press who’s been good to me, so I drop him leads every so often. He called me right before my meeting and said there’s a reporter, a bad actor, named Smith, who’s digging around, trying to find some dirt on me and Sabrina. Trying to say we’ve been having a secret love affair”—he sang the last three words with a hint of anger but still holding on to his sense of humor—“since before Melissa died.”

“Oh, Nick, I am so sorry.” Nick was very protective of his deceased wife and their relationship.

He waved me off. “I got my lawyer on it. He’s a shark. He’ll tear Smith apart by ripping off his head and spine, then beating him with them. He’s already gathering the info to show it’s part of your smear campaign. This Smith is a dimwad who doesn’t do a good job of covering his trail. But I really just called to say I’m sorry. The news is gonna break soon, and I wanted you to hear it from me first.”

“I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into this.”

“Shit, Sabrina, you know I’ve been through worse. This is nothing.”

And he had. He and Melissa had been childhood sweethearts who’d met while living on the compound of a cult their parents belonged to. The cult was known for its wicked disciplining practices. When they were sixteen, they ran away and started fresh. But none of it had been easy.

“In other news, I punched a person.” I held up my hands and showed my bruised knuckles.

“Damn! This, I gotta hear.” He grinned at me.

I filled him in on Rod and my ankle and how they all led to the approach from Kathy.

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