The Chase

“Ha ha. Let’s get out before we wake her up. Gloria really will rip our balls off.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Seth gave Heavenly one last glance, then stepped back.

Beck bent and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Sleep, little girl. We’re going to have words in the morning.”

Damn straight.

After they left, the doctor led him to a nearby room nestled between Heavenly’s and a set of double doors, which Seth assumed led to the master. They stepped into another bedroom that looked similar to the last in size and decor. Fine by him. He was so exhausted that he didn’t give a shit about anything beyond having a shower and a mattress.

They took turns in the bathroom, and Seth was grateful that Gloria left a few assorted toiletries and fresh toothbrushes in the drawers. A shower washed away the day of sadness, panic, and road grime. As he stepped out in his boxers, he found Beck already lying on one side of the bed, scrolling through his phone.

Now that he had to share the mattress with the doctor—and without Heavenly—it looked uncomfortably tiny.

“Gloria seems pretty amazing.” Seth made small talk to cut down on the awkward quotient.

“She is.”

“I see why you two are close. And I totally understand why you’re getting divorced.”

Beck nodded. “It was time.”

“It must have been so weird when you were a teenager. She was your friend, your wife, your mother figure, and your lover…”

“At first, it was weird as fuck. I’m sure it was weird for her, too, having a rebellious teen as both her protector and her husband. I know I was a giant pain in her ass—”

“That’s a given. A psychiatrist would have a heyday with you two.”

Beck snorted. “They’re all pretty whacked themselves.”

“Can’t disagree with that,” Seth quipped, but his curiosity was flaring…along with his cop’s instincts. “Sounds like Gloria also saved you from being a juvenile delinquent.”

“It was ironic. She was always on my ass about staying on the straight and narrow, but she made a living by breaking the law.”

Seth nodded. “Where did you meet the thugs with the stolen TV? High school?”

“Hell no. Gloria sent me to an ‘academically challenging’ private high school. The other kids were focused on getting into an Ivy League college, not starting a rap sheet. But since I spent my nights watching over her in some seedier parts of town, I met people.”

The kind Seth had arrested in his past. “So your extracurricular thieving… Was that a teenage hell-raising thing? It can’t have been an I-have-to-eat thing. Gloria had that covered.”

Beck shrugged. “I was bored.”

“So it had nothing to do with making money because you didn’t entirely trust her to take care of you after your mom abandoned you?”

“My mom turned her back on me long before that shit, so put your shovel away and stop digging into my psyche.”

Seth manufactured a good-natured chuckle. “Since we might spend our lives sharing the same woman, I thought we should get to know each other better.”

“You know everything that’s important. I’m a vascular surgeon who lives in LA, in love with the same pretty blonde as you.”

“Just thinking… It would help to understand each other since we come from different backgrounds. You were kind of an orphan. Me? I’ve got this big, loud Catholic family. My brother Danny is married to Maggie. Last Christmas, they had a little girl named Anna, who’s cute as can be. Next is my brother Matt. He’s a great guy. Took over my business back in New York when I moved out west. Then my mom had the terrible twins, Jack and Conner. I swear, if I get prematurely gray, they’re the reason. I can’t tell if they’re twenty-one going on forty or twelve. It depends on the day. And my mom is finally getting remarried this fall to a guy named Carl.” Seth grimaced. “Our introduction was awkward as fuck since I walked in on them having sex in our kitchen…”

Beck shrugged. “In the past, I saw Gloria bang lots of dudes.”

“But this was my mom. Before that, I was convinced she’d only had sex four times in her life, once for each of her pregnancies.”

Beck laughed. “Dipshit.”

“It made me feel better.” Seth slanted a glance his way. “How about you? Any siblings?”