Fighting for Love (Boston Love 2)

One crazy lady and one suspicious father

All eyes were on me, waiting for me to answer how I knew about Robert volunteering at the library. Why, oh why, did my father have to show up?

Before I blurted it out like I had earlier, I stopped and took in a deep breath. “No. A friend of mine does, and I noticed another firefighter volunteering. I asked the librarian on a hunch if you volunteered there as well.”

Robert’s expression softened as he spoke. “Yeah, it’s kind of a tradition for us to go and spend some time with the kids. I really enjoyed it.”

“She said you had somewhat of a stalker there and that you had to leave the main branch and transfer.”

Rochelle grunted. “That woman was insane.”

I asked Rochelle, “Did you meet her?”

She shook her head. “No. I never met her, but Robert told me about how she started asking him to do all this stuff for her. Then she was following him to his car, and found out what station he worked out of and called up there a few times. I thought he should call the police about her.”

With my eyes back on Robert, I asked, “Did you ever call the police on her? Why didn’t you mention her to Russell or me?”

“No, I never called the police, and to be honest I didn’t think she was relevant.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “I think she made Rochelle more uncomfortable than she did me. She had a crush on me, that was obvious. I made it clear to her I wasn’t available and asked her to not call me when I was at the station. She did what I asked.”

“So you never heard from her after that?”

Robert moved about uneasily in his seat.

“Oh. My. God. You did, didn’t you?” Rochelle asked.

Robert’s hand went through his hair as my father leaned over to me and said, “I think you just made a bad situation even worse.”

Glaring at him, I replied, “Dad. Please be quiet.”

He lifted his hands in surrender.

“Um, Rochelle, I don’t mean to be rude, but if I could ask Robert the questions and have him answer them without interruption, that would make this a lot easier and faster. That or we can plan to do this in the office, in private.”

Rochelle shot me a dirty look. “Fine. Ask away.”

“There’s no need to be rude to my lawyer, Rochelle.”

She turned away and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Robert, did she contact you again?”

“Not really. Every now and then I would see her and her son walking by the station. Or they would be in the same store as me. Little encounters every now and then. She lived close to the station, she said, so I wasn’t surprised when I would see her at the grocery store, ya know. Half the time she wouldn’t see me, so I didn’t even think anything of it…

until the night at the club.”

Rochelle looked back at him with a shocked expression. “What night at the club?” I asked.

“Me and a few other firefighters went out to celebrate one of the guys getting married. I saw her at the bar and at first, didn’t think anything about it. Then she came up to me. Started asking me to dance, telling me how much she liked me and her kid liked me. She said she wanted to marry a firefighter. I laughed it off at first and told her I was there with the guys and that my fiancée would be joining me soon.”

I looked at Rochelle. “Did you join him?”

She nodded, and said, “After I got there, she started hanging on a few other firefighters. Flirting big-time with them. Even tried to get one of them to…you know…take her home.”

“Do you remember who the firefighter was? Did he take her home?” Why did I ask that? A part of me feared it was Finn.

Robert laughed. “Hell no. As much as people think we’re out for one thing, that ain’t the truth. Some of the guys like to have fun, but they’re not stupid. Colton told her she needed to take a cab home.”

“Colton Harris?” my father asked.