For You (Coming Home To The Grove 5)

I clench my fists at my sides. “I could get you for obstruction of justice.”

“Sure, if you think you should. I was just worried about having all that cash here, so I was concerned for the safety of my employees. I thought that was the best thing to do. You know, for the safety of everyone.”

I shake my head. Well, he’s not a stupid man. No one can argue with his logic, even if it’s only an excuse. “Let me see the paperwork.”

He grabs me the paperwork, and I look at it, noting that David used Chrissy’s address for it. Other than that, there’s nothing out of the ordinary. It says he’s self-employed, but since he paid cash, there’s really nothing that would have been questioned.

I hand him back the paperwork and go to my car. I refuse to let David get away with anything. I’m going to nail him on everything as soon as I get all my ducks in a row. But I know I’m going to have to come clean with Chrissy and tell her that I’m investigating her ex-husband for a number of crimes and see if she can give me any helpful information.

9

Chrissy

The day at the gym is hectic. But in a way that’s a good thing because if I wasn’t busy, I’d be thinking about going for drinks with Bart tonight. I wasn’t prepared for him to come back into my life. And now that I’m even more vulnerable than I’ve ever been, it’s going to be so easy to fall into my full-blown attraction to him. And then he’ll leave. Again.

It’s almost time for me to take Katie to my mom’s, and I’m about to cut out when the new big-time attorney comes by the gym. He already has a reputation in Forest Grove for being a hard-nose, and I have to admit I’m a little intimidated by him.

“Hello. I’m Chris Erikson.” He puts his hand out to shake mine, and I reluctantly take it. He doesn’t have to tell me, I already know why he’s here. I can tell by the way my stomach is turning. “I’m the attorney representing your ex-husband in the custody case.”

“Okay, so shouldn’t you be talking to my attorney?”

He smiles, but it’s not a warm smile. It’s an egotistical one that raises my blood pressure. “Maybe. But I always like to meet the spouse, or well, ex-spouse.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You mean intimidate them?”

My smart-alec remark doesn’t even faze him. If anything, his smile gets bigger. “Well, I just wanted to meet you. I’m assuming you’re here at your place of business a lot, and I’m sure your hours are NOT conducive to a child’s needs. Plus, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be interviewing friends, teachers, family, and will also need to interview Katie at some point.”

I bristle inside, but I’m determined not to let him see me lose my cool. “You can speak to Katie, but only when I’m present. As for everyone else, feel free to talk to anyone. I have nothing to hide, unlike my ex-husband.”

The attorney shrugs off my remark. “It’s fine. I’ll wait until the day in court to talk to Katie. I’ve already talked to the daycare owner, and she mentioned that she misses getting to see her dad.”

I could retaliate and tell the attorney that David has never been interested in seeing Katie, not until now. It’s his own fault for not seeing her. But now, after the way I saw him yesterday, he’s going to be lucky if I don’t run off somewhere to keep Katie safe from him.

The attorney leaves almost as quickly as he arrived, and I realize he did it to rattle me. Well, mission accomplished. I’m completely stressed at this point. I am stressed out now more than ever having the attorney implying that he’s going to try and take Katie away from me.

Now more than ever, I need a hug from my daughter. I drive over to the preschool and pick her up. “Hey, pumpkin! How was your day?”

“It was so good. I tried and tried to show Maggie the magic trick that Bart showed me, but I couldn’t figure it out. Do you think the next time he comes over he can show me how to do it?”

I don’t have the heart to tell her that Bart is only in town for a little while, and we probably won’t see much of him while he’s here. I can at least ask him about it. “Sure, I’ll ask him about it.”

Katie starts to tell me about her friend Maggie and all the happenings of the day. She almost seems like her old happy self, and I can’t help commenting, “You seem happy today.”

I drive a few blocks before Katie responds. “So is Bart a policeman?”