CHAPTER ONE
Jayme
“I DON'T have time to argue with you right now, Mallory.”
He snatched his pants from the end of the bed and hastily yanked them on. He was not in the mood for this shit right now. He had to get to work. He put his boots on and stood at the end of the bed.
“When are we going to talk about this? You never have the time!” Mallory complained.
He zipped and buttoned his pants while glaring at his wife.
“We have talked about it. You just don’t like the answer, so you want to beat it to death.”
“I want a baby, Jayme.”
“And we agreed before we were even married that neither of us wanted kids. Now you do, and I still don’t. We’re not going to agree on this!”
He was sick and tired of arguing over this. It was becoming an everyday occurrence, and he was starting to resent his wife for continuously bringing it up. Couldn’t she see that he wasn’t going to change his mind?
They’ve been married for two years, and this whole baby thing started about six months ago. He thought it was because all of Mallory’s friends were having babies, and she wanted to be part of the “in” crowd. They had agreed from the very beginning of their relationship that kids weren’t something either of them wanted. Now for her to go and change her mind, kinda pissed him off. It put more tension on their already not-so-great marriage.
He pulled on a white undershirt and his tan uniform button down, buttoning it up and tucking it into his pants. He grabbed his utility belt off the bed and put it on. Mallory continued her bitching as he went to the gun safe in their walk-in closet, and took out his duty weapon. He checked and holstered it. Ignoring his wife, he left the room and headed downstairs for a cup of coffee and breakfast.
As he was making himself an omelet, Mallory stormed into the kitchen. Her dark hair pulled up in a messy bun, her brown eyes smudged with makeup that she didn’t take off the night before, and her normally full lips formed into a thin, angry line. She was a beautiful woman, it was one of the reasons Jayme married her. However, her attitude lately was turning him off.
“I hate when you do that!” she barked.
“Do what?” he asked, knowing full well what she was talking about.
“When you just walk away while I’m talking to you.”
“You weren’t talking to me, you were talking at me and I’m tired of hearing the same shit over and over,” he murmured as he flipped his eggs.
“I don’t see what the big deal is--“ Mallory started.
He whipped his head around to glare at her. He laughed incredulously. “Are you kiddin’ me? A baby is a huge deal. A baby changes everything. I don’t want kids, never have. You’re not going to change my mind.”
Mallory let out a frustrated scream as she balled her fists at her sides and stomped her bare foot.
He rolled his eyes and turned back to his eggs. “Great, and now you’re acting like a petulant child. Giving me even more reason to say no.”
He turned off the stove, slid his omelet onto a plate, and carried it and his coffee to the kitchen table and sat down to eat.
“You’re such an asshole!”
“Love you too, Babe,” he muttered before shoveling a helping of omelet into his mouth.
Seeming to have given up for the moment, Mallory stomped out of the kitchen. He could hear her upstairs. She was still having a fit. Her footfalls heavy as she went about her morning routine. He shook his head, this was going to come to a head eventually. How could they work this out? They were on two opposite ends of the spectrum on this. He had a feeling this was the first step towards the end of their marriage.
After finishing up his breakfast and coffee, he headed out the door without saying goodbye to his wife. He knew it wouldn’t help things, and it would have opened the opportunity for her to bitch at him some more. He drove to the station in a pissy mood, he hated starting his day like this.
He pulled up to the precinct and parked his dark green, state-issued truck in an open spot. Taking a deep breath, he promised himself that the rest of the day was going to be better than his shitty morning. Maybe he’d even catch a bad guy or two.
Grabbing his outer carry vest from the front passenger seat, he slung it over his head and fastened the Velcro on the side. With Texas Game Warden written across his chest, he headed into the building to start his day on duty.
He smiled and nodded to other officers as he walked through the rows of desks toward the conference room where their shift meetings were always held. He walked into the room to see a few of his friends and a couple of fresh-faced rookies. Jayme sighed and shook his head. Some poor assholes were going to get shackled with the two new rookies.