Page 87 of Sneak Attack

“You drove drunk to my house and wanted to put our son in the car with you. Yeah, Selma, I’m still pissed. Mad you made the scene in the first place and didn’t take the fact that I ignored your calls as proof I didn’t want to speak with you, but you showed up and demanded crap that isn’t yours to demand.”

“How do you know? It’s not like we have an agreement or anything. I can take Jasper whenever I want, I’m his mother.”

Oh, the irony in all of that, and I was done letting her use Jasper as a tool to manipulate me.

I smirked and rocked back on my heels. “Then it’s a good thing I already have an appointment with a lawyer, isn’t it. Have a good day.”

She didn’t need to know I hadn’t called him yet, but I would be doing that immediately now.

I turned on my heels and hustled across the drop-off line, Selma’s footsteps pounding behind me.

“Cole. Wait!”

I stopped outside the door to my truck. “Gotta get to work, Selma, and I think you’re right. We don’t have all that much to say to one another anymore, so maybe it’s best our lawyers speak for us.”

“You can’t mean that.” She shook her head, fear paling her features. “We always said no lawyers. I can’t believe you’ve done this.”

“You left me no choice.”

“It’s because of her, isn’t it? Eden.”

“Fucking hell, Selma. The only one who thinks any of this is about Eden isyou. You’ve been batshit crazy since you heard she was coming back into town because you still can’t let go of the ridiculous idea I’m ever going to want you. I don’t. End of. But since you’re acting irrational lately, you bet your ass I’m going to do what it takes to protect Jasper, even if it means lawyers and taking you to court, because here’s the truth that’s going to send you into a tailspin if you don’t grow the hell up. I love Eden. Always have. Always will, and when it’s time for her return to Florida, I’m going to be working my ass off to make sure she doesn’t even think of leaving. She’s going to be here, Selma, for hopefully the rest of my damn life and you’re going to need to get used to that.”

“So what? You’re seeing a lawyer so you can get custody and Eden can just move on in and become Jasper’s new mom? You’re trying to take him from me?”

Fucking batshit crazy. How had I never seen the depths of this before?

“No, Selma. The only person who’s going to be the cause of losing Jasper, ever, is you and how you treat him and how he sees you treating other people, including me. You are twenty-seven years old, for shit’s sake, stop blaming everybody else and start taking some damn responsibility for once in your life.”

“Fuck you, Cole. Fuck you!” She screamed the obscenities, regardless of location or company and I wasdone.

I turned my back to her as heads swiveled in our direction and parents frowned at her language and backed out of my truck.

I left Selma stomping her foot on the sidewalk by my truck while inside, fear curled in my gut.

She knew everything about me. The good, the bad, and the horrific. It was possible I just lit a match and gave her all the ammunition to set my world on fire.

CHAPTER27

EDEN

Iwas anxious. I knew it. Marley knew it. Heck, the squirrels sitting happily on the edge of the bird feeder out back and the vultures circling the pines above probably felt it.

It was Jasper’s first day of school and when Cole and I spoke on the phone last night, he told me about how Jasper wasn’t looking forward to going to school and his worry that Selma was going to cause a scene. I was pacing Marley’s living room, wearing down her original wood floors, while she sipped her tea and guessed the prices onThePriceisRight.

“Can’t calm anything down by being this worked up, Eden.”

“I know. I know that, but I’m worried, and I want the day to be easy for Jasper and I don’t want him to see his parents fight, and…”

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I answered it without looking.

“Hey, how’d it go?” I asked.

“Eden?” That was most definitely, not Cole’s voice and it’d been so long since I heard it, emotion swelled.

I collapsed into Marley’s couch.

“Are you…are you okay?”

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