Page 50 of Liberating Love

I feel the motion of his head rising and falling against me as he nods. After several moments of holding him, I ask, “Do you have any idea what she was talking about regarding my ex-brother-in-law?”

He steps away, pulling out a chair and slumping down at the table. Our fun afternoon with my friends is forgotten as his body slumps with exhaustion. “Not a clue. It’s weird, though. The chief has always hated me and I’ve never known why. It’s like, from my first day on the job he went out of his way to demean me. I thought maybe he didn’t like redheads or something.”

I bark out a laugh. “Unfortunately, your mom’s right. He is a mean son-of-a-bitch, and if he’d had his heart broken by a redhead in his youth, that would probably be a valid concern.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t totally making sense. Even the stuff she was saying about you. I know you didn’t do what they accused you of, but you’d never met my mom before, right?”

I shake my head. “I honestly hadn’t. And she’s older than us enough that I can’t imagine why he ever interacted with her.” I snort. “Well, obviously he was having an affair with someone your mom knew so… who knows how that all happened?”

“But why would she think she had to threaten him?”

Reaching over, I rub his cheek. “Honestly, Freckles, you probably would’ve been better off if she hadn’t done that. You got your job fair and square, so I’m sure they would’ve worked with you or helped you come up with solutions. Putting you on his radar and intimidating him…” Aiden lets his face fall into my hand. “But what I do know is that your mom loves you, and if this disease was already starting to affect her, she was probably worried she was going to ruin your future without even knowing it. I bet it made her feel like she’d done a really good thing ensuring you had job security.”

Aiden wrinkles his nose. “All she ensured was the fact I know the inside of all of the men’s bathrooms intimately. I’ve never had a steady work partner, and except for your sons and Drix, I get treated like I don’t exist. I’d been so excited to be a police officer, be part of a brotherhood. After not having a lot of friends growing up and...”

“I know, Freckles. I’m so sorry.” He’d already told me about his lonely years growing up, and as surprised as we both are by his mom’s revelation, maybe with time, this news will heal some of those feelings of inadequacy and being unworthy he’s dealt with.

“Well, it’s true boys and girls. Blackmail never pays,” he mumbles randomly.

“What?” I ask, surprised by his PSA sounding statement.

Aiden chokes out a laugh. “I wanted to be a cop to protect and serve. The first thing my own mother does once I’m official is blackmail a chief of police. Delaney, come on, if I don’t laugh”—he shrugs—“what can I do?”

“Eat cookies?” I suggest, waggling my brows. So over his mom’s freshly baked oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies with two tall glasses of milk, we sift back through her ramblings to make sure we didn’t miss anything. The information she shared doesn’t change much for him, but the knowledge that she approves of me… Well, I didn’t need it, sure wasn’t expecting it, but I’ll be forever thankful that she gave it to me.

18

Aiden

“Would you quit staring at me?” I ask without looking up from my mountain of paperwork. Even when we get out of the office regularly, I’m still weighed down by forms and records and crap. Ugh.

“Nope,” Jovany says, and when I narrow my eyes at him, he’s got a shit-eating grin on his face.

“What? Why have you spent the last twenty minutes staring at me instead of finishing your file?”

He tilts his head. “Just trying to decide if I like my new step-daddy or not.”

A surprised bark out of laughter comes out of me, and I grab my pen and chuck it at him. “Shut up.”

He cracks up laughing, which makes me laugh harder.

“You’re a dick.”

I’d been worried what it would be like working together after he found out about Delaney and me, but besides ribbing me about his dad every once in a while, it’s been pretty normal. A year ago, I don’t think I could have ever imagined enjoying working with Jovany Caputo, but now I sorta love it. He’s become a good friend over the months, so I’m hoping we can keep working together for a while.

With a grin, he rolls his chair close enough to my desk to steal my coffee cup and take a sip, then immediately wrinkles his nose and makes a disgusted face. “What the hell is in there?”

“Sprite that’s probably mixed with my coffee from this morning.”

“Ugh.” He puts the cup back. “A little warning next time.”

“Serves you right for stealing my cup.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He rolls back to his desk, pulls out his phone, and sighs. “I say we call it a day.”

“You sure?” I ask.

“We’re only leaving thirty minutes early, and I really need to get out of our closet of an office. We didn’t even leave for lunch today, so yeah, let’s go.”

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