Page 27 of Fabulous Filthy Friend

“Oh, I…” I glance at my watch to avoid looking the five-year-old in the eye while I dodge his question. “It’s almost 9:30. I thought your mom put you to bed.”

His brow wrinkles further. “But I’m not tired.”

I’ve already dealt with Connor’s boundless energy at school today. I don’t know how Alicia and Cade do it, especially with Brandy on top of it.

I squat down to his level. “I don’t think your mom is going to accept that excuse if she finds you down here talking to me.”

At his age, if I had been found slipping out of bed to wander around the house for anything hours after I should have been asleep, there would have been hell to pay.

He heaves out a heavy, exaggerated sigh, and I bite back a chuckle. Five-year-olds can be so melodramatic.

I point toward the stairs. “Go back to bed before your mom catches you.”

“Are you gonna tell her?”

I shake my head and pretend to turn a key against my lips. “My lips are sealed as long as I don’t see you back down here again. I’ll see you tomorrow in class, buddy.”

He grins and glances behind him toward the kitchen to check for Alicia. “Thanks, Ms. Rachel.”

Connor hustles back up the steps in the nick of time as Alicia rounds the corner carrying two glasses of wine.

She glances around the room. “Were you talking to someone out here?”

I shake my head, take the wine from her, and turn back to the window. With my free hand, I peek through the blinds again and stare at Flynn’s house across the street. “Did he say anything when he asked Cade to come over?”

Alicia drops onto the chair next to where I’m standing and shakes her head. “No, just asked if he would come over after we put the kids to bed.”

“Do you think they’re talking about me?”

She giggles and takes a sip of her wine. “I’m positive they’re talking about you.”

I glower at her.

Completely ignoring my disdain, Alicia waves and points to the chair across from her. “Move away from the window. You look like a stalker. “

Letting the blinds snap shut again, I scowl and then lower myself into the chair. “I’m not a stalker. I just…”

“You’re just staring out the window at his house like a fucking stalker. If anyone should know what a stalker looks like when she sees one”—she points to her own chest—“it’s me.”

I bark out a laugh and shake my head thinking about the way they met. A lot of people would look at the way he obsessed over her and made excuses to visit her at the law firm she worked at as pure stalker behavior, but seeing them together, it’s clear the feelings went both ways.

One of her eyebrows rises. “What? It’s true. I probably should’ve had Cade arrested.”

“Yeah, but you married him instead.”

She shrugs and grins at me. “Well, can you blame me? You have seen his ass.”

I drop my head back and laugh. “No, I can’t blame you.”

Because I have seen his ass—though, not intentionally. That was the last time I ever let myself into their house without texting first or ringing the doorbell to announce my presence. I’ve never seen anyone duck into a room as fast as Cade did when I came around the corner looking for Alicia.

I shake my head, drink some wine, and drop my neck back to stare at the ceiling. “You’re so lucky.”

“Why do you say that?”

Isn’t it obvious?

I sit upright again and meet her gaze. “Because you found your soulmate. You have the perfect life.”

---