Page 42 of Sneak Attack

“Yeah? Happens sometimes, you know?”

“She yelled at me.” His little chin quivered. Typically I’d try to have Selma’s back. We’d always agreed, no bad-mouthing each other in front of him. And everyone lost their temper, Lord knows I was guilty of it a time or two.

“She say anything?” I prodded. Because so help me…if she was trash talking…

He shook his head, but his chin was still wobbling.

I didn’t push. I wasn’t always the winner of the Best Parent of the Year Award and despite my personal frustrations with Selma, I’d trust she was still trying her best to keep her personal feelings toward me away from our kid.

But I’d be keeping a close eye on him, that was for sure.

Ten minutes later, he was done eating breakfast and I’d sent him upstairs to grab his shoes. “Make sure you use the spinny brush on your teeth today, okay?”

No way a manual toothbrush would do the job after the syrup he drank off his plate. Normally I’d help him, but I wanted him occupied.

“Okay Daddy.”

I hurried down the stairs, feet pounding and echoing against the wood floors and pushed Bongo away from the front door. “Not yet, Bongo. Wait.”

Selma was resting on the front bumper of her Armada when I opened the front door. She glanced up from her phone screen as I opened it and pushed off to come toward me.

“Don’t start,” I said as she opened her mouth and jumped down the few stairs of my front porch to the driveway. “It’s been less than the fifteen minutes I said and you’re still getting him earlier than normal.”

“I had a long night, and I don’t need this from you.” She was fire and brimstone and not nearly in the same way Eden could be. Selma’s fire was straight from the pits.

“If you’ve had a long night, maybe Jasper should spend the day with one of our parents so you can rest.”

I said it casually, tried to at least, must have failed because her lips pushed out and her eyes narrowed. “Now who’s trying to keep the kid away?”

Lord help me from toxic women. “Not doing anything of the sort. If you need your rest or are stressed, I’m trying to help you out. Jasper said you were grumpy yesterday.”

“I thought we weren’t going to ask about what happened at each other’s houses.”

“I didn’t.” Damn, she made my blood boil. Always the victim.Please.“But you showed up and he started to cry, so maybe drop the innocent act, Selma. You got a problem with me, you got a problem with anyone or anything, that never gets taken out on Jasper so maybe think about that today. He froze as soon as you rang that doorbell. He started crying as soon as I got back inside.”

“Well maybe if you’d let his momin,he wouldn’t have been mad.”

“Frankly, from the way he behaved, that had shit to do with me not letting you inside, it was all you and however you treated him yesterday. Get your head on straight, Selma. I’m not attacking you. I’m thinking of our kid. Are you?”

I was surprised flames didn’t shoot from her mouth, but the front door slammed shut and Jasper was there, Bongo dancing around him.

“Come here, bud.” I held out my arm and he ran right to me, hugging my waist again.

Bongo barked from his perch on the front porch.

“Have fun with your mom today, okay?” I bent down and kissed the top of his head. “Love you, kiddo.”

“Love you, Daddy.”

I glanced up at Selma, and while she’d been pissed as a kicked hornet’s nest a minute ago, she smiled easily down at Jasper. “Come on, Jasper. Let’s go see what Nana T is doing this morning. Maybe you can help her bake something?”

“Cookies?”

I chuckled, and still grinning, told Selma, “Be warned, he had pancakes for breakfast.”

“And a bowl of syrup?” she asked him.

His nose scrunched up in a way that mirrored hers when she was pouting. Fortunately, Jasper’s look was cute. “You eat pancakes off a plate.”

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