Page 40 of Sneak Attack

“Good as anyone that selfish can be, but can’t blame her fully for that, knowing who she comes from. But Jasper’s the best thing to happen to us, always will be. And I suppose you’re right, she’s not so bad. Picks him up and spends the day with him when she’s not working at the hospital. Has him while Cole’s working and training. Traveling most of the time. She wasn’t what I wanted for him, either of them, but they make do.”

I snorted, surprising myself. There was no love lost between Kate and Dave and Selma’s parents, Irv and Teresa. I’m sure knowledge of the feud of theirs had spread from Nashville to New England due to the fierceness of it. “Y’all haven’t made up yet, I take it.”

“There’s a greater chance of a meteor landing in Marysville.” She finished her drink and stood, pushing off the rocker with the grace of a gazelle, but that was Mama B.

Although I was learning she was also sweet when she was manipulating people, like she’d just done to me.

“I should go home. Need that beauty rest and it increases the older you get.”

She was fifty if that and looked ten years younger, probably because the only time she drank was when she was trying to get close to people to tell them everything they didn’t want to hear.

I didn’t let on that I knew what she’d done. She was too sweet to admit it.

Tricky was Mama B. I shouldn’t have underestimated her visit.

“Have a good night, Mama B.”

“You too, darlin’.” She leaned over and brushed a kiss onto the top of my head before brushing her hand down my hair. “Good to see you. Always has been. Always will be.”

Pretty sure she skipped down the steep drive, pleased as all could be with herself.

Leaving me alone—thinking of everything she’d said—and everything she hadn’t said along with Cole’s words still ringing in my ear.

You’ve always been mine.

Well…shit.

Now what did I do with all of that?

CHAPTER14

COLE

Crazy the things that changed once you had a kid. Back in college, my roommates gave me shit all the time for burning toast, even though the toasters had that little dial on them. I once burned a pot of noodles so bad we had to throw out the pot. No amount of football players scrubbing the hell out of the thing was getting them off the stainless steel. Nope, that ramen was cemented to the sides for as long as the earth spun. Probably still were, even in a landfill.

But once Jasper came into my life and I started solo parenting, it became a necessity. While I didn’t mind the occasional morning of cereal and milk, I also remembered waking up to the full breakfasts my mom made. Biscuits, eggs, bacon, and toast made to perfection. The whole set up, every morning.

I might have been a young, single dad, struggling to make everything work between football and family and school, but I was damn motivated to make sure Jasper never felt like he’d ever lacked for anything—including mealtimes. So, I learned, and after a boatload of badly burned dinners and breakfasts, and a shit ton of takeout I couldn’t keep eating if I wanted to stay in shape for football, I finally found my groove in the kitchen.

I was flipping pancakes, the seats at the kitchen table already set, complete with placemats and syrup out, three different flavors because Jasper was adventurous with his food toppings and frying sausage when he sleepily ambled down the stairs, straight to me in his pajama shorts and a T-shirt withPaw Patrolcharacters stamped all over them.

As he always did first thing in the morning, he came directly to me, rested his head at my hip and wrapped his arms around my thigh. I made sure he was out of the way of any grease spittle and ran my hand down the top of his head to his back.

“Morning, bud.”

“Ga-mornin’. Where’s Bongo?”

“Sleeping in the living room. Want to watch some shows while I finish up breakfast?”

“Good here.” He held me tighter and I took a break from cooking to pick him up, settle him on my hip. At five, he was young enough I could still easily do it, and since he liked it, I did it as much as I could.

There’d come a day, and probably soon, where he’d be calling mebruhand handing me a fist to pound instead of wanting hugs and sleepy morning wake-up snuggles. I’d take this for as long as I could get it.

“You sleep good?” I kissed his temple and flipped another pancake.

On top of learning how to cook, I had to learn how to do it with one arm while holding Jasper, so I alternated between the sausage and pancakes easily.

“All right.”

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