Page 97 of Can't Take My Eyes Off You

‘Has Will ever mentioned Uncle Teddy?’

‘Uncle Teddy?’ I shake my head.

‘He was Dad’s little brother.’

Holy… ‘Wait. Are you saying your mom slept with her husband’s little brother to get back at him?’

‘It’s looking that way,’ Mike says as if it disgusts him too. ‘Ithasto be him. I’ve seen photos of Teddy in his younger years, and Will’s always looked just like him.’

‘Blech.’ I practically gag. ‘She slept with her brother-in-law to piss her husband off, and he knocked her up?’

The horror on his face no doubt matches my own.

‘This is insane, even for my family,’ he says. ‘I’m starting to loathe being an Adler too.’ He drags a hand down his face.

‘Tell me about Teddy. Is this good or bad?’

‘He and Dad hated each other. They tried to outdo one another both financially and personally pretty much their entire lives. Dad always said Teddy needed to be taught a lesson.’

Suddenly, a visible light bulb goes off in his head, and he lets out a weird gasp. ‘Jesus Christ, Dad was trying to make me hate Will in the same way he hated Teddy. And I fucking fell for it.’ His hand is in his hair the same way Will’s is when he’s stressed.

‘You were a kid, Mike. You couldn’t have possibly kno—’

‘Hey.’ Will interrupts our conversation, suddenly walking our way from the back hallway.

Mike’s eyes go wide, his back to his brother. Will side-eyes him as he rounds the front counter to me. ‘Is this sleazoid bothering you?’

‘Yes.’ I smirk Mike’s way. ‘But he’s not being a total cockroach, so I can deal.’

‘You drop the sample off at the lab?’ Mike asks, pretending we didn’t just find out what we did.

‘It is in process.’ Will nods. ‘Now we wait.’ He glances at me. ‘I also checked out of my hotel and picked up the muscle relaxers the doctor called in for me.’

‘William.’ Melinda acknowledges his presence as she walks back to us, her glare quickly moving to Mike and me as she passes.

‘Mom.’ Will returns her manners, not noticing the looks she’s spearing my way.

‘Well, this hasn’t been fun at all,’ Mike says, backing away from us towards Liv’s department. ‘I have books to put on the shelf backward, so if you’ll excuse me…’

That explains why I walked into my office this morning to find every other book facing the wrong way on my office shelves.

‘I can help you bring your bags in,’ I suggest, glancing back at Melinda. ‘Think you can handle the front desk alone for a few?’

‘I was a lawyer,’ she reminds me, saying the words slowly, proving that she may currently look human but the demon within hasn’t yet left.

‘And that means… yes?’ I ask, matching her douchiness.

‘Go.’ Her dead stare gives me the reason to back away from the counter.

I can’t possibly tell Will what I just found out. Not yet. I’ll have Mike do some research and find out for sure before I go freaking him out. Here I thought Mike and Will’s relationship was fucked up. Those two suddenly seem very vanilla.

33

WILL

I know Berkley is enjoying tormenting my parents a bit, but I don’t get why Mike seems suddenly on board with everything she says. Those two have never bonded and the fact they have now worries me. Because my mother has had enough of the ‘public’, she’s disappeared to the storeroom with a ‘headache’. I think really it’s just a deep heartache at her situation. I know she was some high-powered lawyer at one time but she just took a sick day on the first day of a new job. Her résumé won’t thank her for this and I have a feeling she’ll be needing one soon.

‘Hello, ladies.’ I glance through the books they’ve set on the counter in front of me. I took over for my mom so Berkley could take care of other things. ‘Romances, eh? Did you know we have the largest romance collection in the city?’ I ask, flashing the two women a smile. ‘The owner of the store is a huge fan so if you ever need a recommendation, she knows every romance book in this place. She’s like a walking card catalog.’

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