Page 16 of Down & Dirty

Spinning on his heel, he flung himself toward the back deck,where I knew Tommy would be waiting. I could smell the grill from there, and if I had to guess burgers were on the menu. Micah’s favorite.

“Here’s his bag.” I handed the small duffle to Geena and was turning to walk away when her voice stopped me.

“So, we have some news.”

I hesitated on the step, looking back over my shoulder in time to see Geena stepping out behind me and pulling the door closed. My gut twisted.

“Tommy was going to tell you, but since he’s out with Micah, I might as well. We’ll tell him a little later tonight.”

“Tell him what?”

Geena raised her left hand, and the sparkling jewel on her finger caught the last light of the day.

I tried to school my expression into one more like awe, and less like confusion. “Oh, wow.”

I wasn’t upset Tommy was getting married to someone else. Hell, no. I was just surprised that he’d actually pulled the trigger. Other than our son, the man had never shown commitment to much.

“Yeah,” she gazed down at the ring adoringly. “It was such a shock. He brought me to the beach and when I turned around, he was on one knee, and I just...” She sniffed. “You know.”

I didn’t know. I was never more clueless about anything in my life. But I nodded emphatically. “That’s great.”

She sighed, laying her hand on her heart in dramatic Geena fashion. “It’s perfect. And I think it’ll really help solidify some things.”

“Sure.” What kinds of things? I had no idea.

Geena took a deep breath, her expression cooling. “I know Tommy hates talking about this with you. He thinks it turns Micah into a piece of furniture or something.”

As she paused, I felt my already twisted gut wrench even tighter.

“But with all the changes coming, it’s going to be really importantto make sure we clear up all these blurred lines and gray areas.”

“Blurred lines?” I had no clue what this woman was talking about, but her mentioning my son and gray areas in the same breath had me counting in my head to keep my composure. I didn’t like the look on her face.

“You know that Tommy has been footing the bill for all of Micah’s medical coverage. And most of yours too, right? Well, we just think that as we move forward, we need to untangle that mess. And that everything should be split from now on. You taking care of yourself, and sharing Micah’s costs fifty-fifty.”

Micah’s medical insurance had always been higher than average because of his asthma. And since Tommy made more money than me, but I took primary care of Micah, he’d always paid for the private insurance policy for the three of us.

“Tommy agreed to the way we split things.”

Geena nodded slowly, spinning the ring on her finger. “Right. And now we’ve decided it’s time for a change.”

My pulse throbbed just below the skin of my neck, and I was sure if I turned to the side, she’d see it jumping like a twitch, racing out of control. “If Tommy wants to change our arrangement, he can tell me himself.”

Geena’s eyes narrowed, but she smiled, as if she’d expected me to say that. “He can do that, if that’s what it takes. But you and I both know nothing was ever written down, Sky. He has every right to change his mind on this.”

The fucking coward. He’d been the one who didn’t want to sign anything when we broke up. My father had tried for months to get him to sign a simple custody agreement, but Tommy had always said paperwork couldn’t tell him how to be a father. And when he’d hinted that he’d contest my primary custody, going so far as to imply he’d be willing to give up racing,we’d agreed to drop it. Being on the road with Ronnie wasn’t hurting Micah, but it also didn’t outwardly appear like the most stable homelife. Given the choice, no court in theirright mind would have picked me over Tommy if he left the tour.

“Just tell me what he wants, Geena. How much money a month will unblur these lines for you?”

The way her smile went saccharine sweet made me sick. No way she wasn’t behind this.

“I’ll have him send over the numbers.” She turned to head back inside, but stopped short. “And Sky, this is a good thing. We’re all moving on. It’s about time we stopped acting like things were always going to stay the same.”

Real deep Geena, I thought as I took the stairs down. She was a philosopher now, too, apparently. In addition to teaching yoga and messing up my life.

This whole thing was a power play. She always hated how much I was still in Tommy’s life. Considering I was the mother of his child, there was no way to give me the boot entirely, but this had to feel like the next best thing.

Whatever her reasoning was, it mattered a hell of a lot less to me than the reality of what this meant to my bank account. Private insurance wasn’t cheap, and my policy alone was going to be a hefty lift. Adding half of Micah’s on top of that was going to mean a serious cut to my cash.

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