His First Choice

Tressa had no right looking into his soul. He’d taken all rights back from her when he’d left their marriage.

“You’re a damned loser, Jem. You know it, and so do I. She’s welcome to you.”

She turned to leave and Jem breathed a sigh of relief. Until she turned back. “Don’t you think you’re going to get away with this, Jem.” Her voice was lowered, but not enough. “I came over here to make love with you. Because I know it’s been a while for you and I know you have your needs, and how do you repay my kindness?” If a guy could die of the cringes, he’d be gone. “This is how you repay me? By tramping around on me? Well, forget it, buddy. You better hope you get some from her, because you sure as hell aren’t getting it from me. This door is closed.”

He’d heard that one so many times it didn’t even faze him. He only wished it were true. When was Tressa going to figure out that he couldn’t get it up for her anymore? Not even if he’d wanted to.

“I hate you,” she said. “If Levi weren’t asleep, I’d take him out of this house right now. He’s way too good for you, Jem. I wish to God you weren’t his father.”

She’d been back down the walk as she spoke. Reaching the grass, she turned and fled to her car.

But not before he’d seen the tears pouring down her face.

She was hurting. More than she could bear.

And he was sorry.

* * *

SHE HADN’T WANTED to overhear, had tried her best not to. But then, when she’d resigned herself to her fate, she’d tried to hear every word so that she could know what they were dealing with. She’d expected him to reappear as soon as the screaming stopped. She heard the front door shut and heard Tressa’s car starting up in the distance.

It was another two or three minutes before Jem reappeared. His gaze sought hers. And then moved away.

“I’m assuming you heard that?” he asked almost nonchalantly as he stacked their dirty dishes, silverware on top.

“Most of it.” All of it. But having counseled many people on the victim end of abuse, she wanted to spare him as much humiliation as she could.

Instead of sitting and talking to her like she expected, he carried their dishes into the house and came back for their wineglasses.

“Sorry about that, I just wanted to get them rinsed and in the dishwasher before stuff hardened.”

Since when did steak juice harden? But she understood. He’d needed time to collect himself.

He might be forgetting, but this wasn’t her first rodeo. Or even her fiftieth.

“And I’m sorry about back there, too.”

“You have no reason to apologize.”

Their wineglasses sat on the table, untouched. The bottle looked forlorn next to them.

“You ready to go?” He was still just standing there.

“If you want me to,” she said, not sure what was going on. Weren’t they going to talk about what had just happened?

He knew what she did for a living.

“Of course I don’t want you to, but I’m sure you want to. Come on, I’ll take you home.” He reached out a hand to her.

She ignored it. “If I wanted to go home, I’d say so, Jem.”

Even if he wanted her to go, she didn’t feel like she should. What she’d just witnessed... It had strengthened the suspicions she’d been having since Sunday. Mara was right. Levi was being abused. By his mother.

The woman was cl

early out of control.

She thought Jem was going to argue with her, insist on taking her home. He surprised her when he sat down.