His First Choice

“I thought you were going to the city with Amelia.”

“We had a fight.”

His gut clenched and he longed for the beer in his refrigerator.

“I had errands to run yesterday.” The words burned his tongue. He couldn’t stand to lie. Ever. But to tell her the truth was just plumb dumb. He was not a masochist.

“And today?”

“You came by again today?”

“Twice.”

“Tressa.”

“I know. But I needed you, Jem.”

“You didn’t call.”

“I wanted to see Levi.”

She was feeling insecure because she’d panicked and called him to pick up her son. She was afraid that it made her look like a bad mother. He understood. He just didn’t have patience for her at the moment.

He had real problems to deal with.

Like the fact that he was falling for a woman who didn’t appear to want a relationship with him.

And a son who’d been clingy again that night, wanting Jem to lie with him in his bed until he fell asleep.

Because of a weekend spent with Lacey?

Tressa had intimated that Levi’s nightmare had been because of his visit with the other woman.

But he begged to go see her. Hell, he’d practically thrown a tantrum on Friday when Kacey and Lacey had been gone.

And while he was spending a good deal of his time with Kacey, he seemed to like Lacey equally...

“Where were you, Jem?”

“On a job. I thought I had the weekend free, remember?” He’d lived with her a long time. And knew that the only way to deal with her sometimes was to go on the defensive.

“Where was Levi?”

“At a sitter’s.”

“Who? What sitter? I thought we talked to each other about his sitters. You don’t want me leaving him with just anyone, you said.”

Shit. He stood up, paced the pond. He’d gotten soft. All this time spent with Lacey and her sister, he supposed. “The woman whose house I’m working on has a sister. She watched Levi while I worked. I was there the entire time.” Levi hadn’t been, but she didn’t need to know that. If she’d seen the boy out with someone else, he’d already have heard about it.

“A woman? How old is she?”

The tornado was back in his gut. He’d thought divorcing her would get rid of that at least. “I don’t know how old she is,” he said, letting his irritation show. Sometimes she’d back down if she knew she was pissing him off. “I don’t ask those kinds of questions. She wanted work done. I’m doing the work.”

“You’re doing the work?” She squelched. “Why isn’t one of your crews doing it? What’s wrong, Jem, are you having problems with the business? You need to let me take over again.”

When he’d first started the business, Tressa had been in charge of his finances, of investments and payroll. He’d run quotes through her, too, as together they’d found the most cost-efficient way of doing quality work. That had been a long time ago. He’d still viewed her as a life partner then.

Before she’d started keeping tabs on every woman he talked to, seeing affairs where there were none. Before she’d accused him of taking cash from clients so he could go to strip clubs without her knowing where the money was going.