The Good Father

But this wasn’t about him. This was about Jeff. A man who was the definition of gentle.

“You want me to call her?” he asked now. He was going to talk to Chloe. No matter what Jeff wanted.

His friends were in trouble.

And unlike Jeff, Brett knew exactly where Jeff’s wife was staying.

“She always liked you,” Jeff said now. “Would you mind talking to her? If that doesn’t put you in a bad position with Ella. The two of them, they’re more like sisters than sisters-in-law, you know.”

“Ella’s the one who asked me to see you, to get involved in this. I hardly think she’d object to me trying to see if I can help.”

“Okay, then.” Arms crossed, Jeff walked with him out the door. They looked over his bike. Talked again about a time or two they’d hit the open road. Talked about doing so again.

If Jeff ever got a hold of another bike.

And then Brett mounted his machine, determined, as he left his friend standing alone on his long, winding drive, surrounded by his meticulous yard and a home that spoke of success, that for as long as he was needed, Jeff was a priority.

For all that the other man had done for him, it was the least Brett could do.

* * *

ELLA’S TEXT NOTIFIER sounded while she was scrubbing her toilet, part of her Sunday-morning cleaning routine. Chloe, who already had the rest of the apartment looking spotless, had taken Cody to the playground a few units down from them. In addition to their shopping and movie plans, they were going to be trying out a couple recipes that evening. Chloe wanted her opinion on their mass likability and was planning to invite the single mother she’d met earlier in the week to join them for dinner.

Thinking the text was from work—her nurses had been instructed to text her if they lost any patients when she was off shift—and dreading what she would read but knowing there was nothing for her to do about the heartbreaking news, she finished what she was doing before she looked at her phone.

The number wasn’t work. It wasn’t in her contacts. But she recognized it.

Damn him. How was she supposed to succeed in keeping him completely out of her day if he was going to text her like this?

Knowing she was being irrational, Ella opened the message she’d been waiting all day yesterday to see. The same two questions in her mind now that had occupied a good part of her Saturday. Had he contacted Jeff, and how had it gone?

Going to call Chloe today.

She’d asked him to speak with Jeff. Thinking he’d take care of her brother, while she dealt with Chloe.

Like maybe between the two of them, they could do this good thing. Save a man. A marriage. A life.

I’ll talk to her.

Her fingers moved quickly across the small keyboard.

I have her number.

More speed texting.

I didn’t tell her yet that I’ve been in touch with you.

He had to understand that Chloe was vulnerable at the moment. Ella was having a hard enough time keeping her sister-in-law emotionally strong without Brett coming at her.

Let me know when she knows.

She’d asked for his help. Needed his help.

Okay, she wanted his help. This was Chloe and Jeff they were dealing with. They’d been family. Close.

The happiest years of her life...

Will do.