His First Choice
Page 51
Deathly silence fell as soon as Kacey and his son vacated the house.
Jem waited for Lacey to apologize. To explain. To say anything at all. He got angrier every second that she just stood there.
To her credit, she didn’t attempt inane conversation, talk about getting started or leave him to his work.
“You could say something.” After he bit back what he really wanted to say, he got the words out.
“No, I can’t.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ethically, I can’t.”
“Oh, no, lady, you aren’t going to play that card with me. No way. You think it’s fine to pretend to be a personal friend to my son and me and then turn on us and not be personally accountable for having done so?”
That hadn’t come out right. He was beyond caring at the moment.
“Sounds to me like you have a pretty skewed sense of ethics.”
He hadn’t meant to say that, either.
“I can, personally, discuss with a friend anything a friend wants to discuss with me, personally. I cannot bring up or speak to state matters that involve my employment with social services.”
He wanted to ask her how long she’d worked on that one, or if it was rote. Maybe she’d done this before—befriend someone just to spy on them because she couldn’t find proof of wrongdoing in the usual way.
The thought shamed him. And hung around, too.
She hadn’t negated his “friend” claim. She’d kind of supported it.
The realization calmed him. Not much, but some.
“You’re waiting for me to bring it up.”
“I can speak to you as a friend if you have something you want to discuss.”
He held his tongue and called it a victory.
“Do you have any idea what happened at my ex-wife’s house last night?”
“Literally, none at all. I can guess, though, based on what I do for a living.”
“They didn’t rescind his mother’s visitation rights, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I didn’t know.”
“But you were thinking it.”
“I knew a temporary request for supervised visits was a possibility.”
They were standing in her kitchen a few yards apart. He wondered if they should sit. But she didn’t offer.
Maybe he should just get his tool belt and get to work. Have the conversation later. Or never.
“There was no evidence to substantiate another look at her. Tressa’s a good mom. And an incredibly protective one.”
“Then why is he with you, and not with her for the weekend as planned?” He’d have thought the question a challenge, if not for the fact that she could only be asking as a friend.
He’d never had a friend feel less like one at the moment.