"Well I need to know more about this Colton, what"s his last name?"
I gave her the information she wanted and then hung up, hoping my crazy ex didn"t show up here with guns blazing.
Kat was what you might call a late in life baby, Tina and I had been trying what seemed like forever without success, then one day out of the blue, after twenty years of marriage she decided she was done.
By then we"d drifted apart, the marriage was basically in name only.
Imagine my surprise when she called me up two months later with the news that she was pregnant.
Six and a half months later I was the proud father of a beautiful baby girl, broke my heart that after all this time I wouldn"t get to raise her, but I got to see her every year after her birth.
When that business had happened a few months ago it had taken all my training not to commit murder, my profession warred against my fatherly instinct.
I wanted to string those little b.a.s.t.a.r.ds up by their b.a.l.l.s and flay them until there was nothing left, and the one that got away, sheesh, don"t get me started, there were many a night I wanted to go hunt that little f.u.c.ker down and bury him somewhere.
The only thing holding me back is that I would essentially be leaving my little girl unprotected.
Nothing is more important than her safety and happiness, if Colton Lyon was the answer then I wouldn"t stand in the way of that.
For the first time in months I"ve seen a glimpse of my little girl, the sweet, bright, funny tomboy who plagued me every summer to do more and more outdoorsy things with her, never a dull moment.
"Char hurry up before you let the steam out."
"I don"t know about this El, smoking in a steam room just seems like a c.o.c.ktail for disaster."
"Oh pooh, Daniel"s been doing it and he seems fine."
"I"m not sure we should be using him as a yard stick..."
"Never mind that we have bigger fish to fry...so guess who I got a call from?"
"Who, pa.s.s it El you hog."
"Tina Sloan,she"s Drake"s...well I guess you can say wife because they never got divorced..."
"Why"s she calling you?"
"Because of Katarina of course, seems that my boy, who I apparently raised very well approached the chief and get this...asked him for Kat."
"What do you mean asked him for Kat?"
I waited until her coughing fit was over before retaking the joint from her hand, don"t ask me what the h.e.l.l I was doing getting stoned.
"He didn"t ask for her hand in marriage, he asked or rather told the chief, and I quote, " you did your part for the first eighteen years of her life, now I"m taking over"."
"Oh wow, he said that?"
"Get that look off your face heifer, cougar you ain"t."
"Hey, I look good chick."
"Yeah, for a coyote maybe."
We cracked up at our own silly jokes as I rode the high of finally being on the road to having some grand babies.
"s.h.i.+t, I didn"t know Colton was such a smooth talker...man."
"He"s his father"s son, let"s hope for Kat"s sake that"s true in more ways than one."
"You"re a bad a.s.s El."
We were off again.
"Well, well, well, what have we here, you two bombed?"
"Hey doc how the h.e.l.l are ya?"
Chapter 16.
For the past three days I"ve been laying low, I got an extra day because I made the mistake of flinching when I accidentally touched one of my nipple piercings, which truthfully didn"t even hurt any more, just a little stiffness.
The other ones down below were still a little uncomfortable but not too much, Colton took very good care of them and me so that I didn"t get an infection or any other disaster.
Anyway, I flinched and was ordered to get undressed and though I wasn"t confined to the bed I couldn"t do anything.
"Why don"t I go get my things from dad"s today then?"
"Because I don"t want you bending and lifting things just yet..."
"I read about piercings online and people said that it was quite alright to go on as usual..."
He just turned and gave me this look that I clearly read as his signature "the f.u.c.k I care?" so I closed my lips up tight.
"As I was saying, I don"t want you doing anything, we"ll get your things in a few boxes are for your personal effects, books and knick knacks and all that girly s.h.i.+t, don"t bring any of those f.u.c.ked up clothes over here or I"ll start a bonfire in the back yard with that s.h.i.+t."
"But I didn"t really bring anything else to wear and ..."
He opened his wallet and threw a black card at me.
"So go shopping."
"Wha..."
"Go shopping for what you need."
"But it has your name on it, I don"t think they"ll let me use it."
"Take carol or Elena with you, trust me those two would know what to do."
"But I can"t just take..."
"Had that conversation already babe, not going there again."
He continued getting ready for work totally ignoring my angst.
Well, a part of me was excited at the thought of shopping, and then as is the norm when dealing with Colton, there is that other part that"s not one hundred percent comfortable doing these things so early in our relations.h.i.+p.
Colton of course didn"t even let me get the words out of my mouth.
"In fact I think you should call one of them to go with you, have some fun, I"ll be gone longer today than the last couple days so that"ll be good, but nothing strenuous."
I guess I"m going shopping.
"Call me if you need me okay Angel!"
"Okay."
"And listen, buy whatever you want, none of that bulls.h.i.+t, I know you don"t get this yet, but I"m going to take care of you from now on, that means your food, your clothes, your shelter, that"s on me, all that other odds and ends girlie s.h.i.+t you can take care of if you want to, but I can cover that too if you want."
Color me crazy but is this guy for real, like seriously, who does these things, not anyone I know or have ever heard of.
Jared"s my friend, he"s a good guy, but I know for a fact that he doesn"t treat any of his girlfriends this way.
I would ask my mom but our conversation two days ago hadn"t left much room for such questions.
I understood that she was afraid for me, that she will always be worried after what had happened, but she had really gone off.
It"s almost as if she was mad that I had fallen for someone, I thought telling her about my coming out of my sh.e.l.l with Colton"s help would make her happy, but instead she seemed offended somehow.
When she"d questioned the rashness of our relations.h.i.+p and I"d started crying because she just wasn"t hearing my side, Colton had taken the phone and told her rather forcefully that no one was allowed to make me cry or feel bad not even her. Then he"d hung up.
She"d sent me a text a few hours later with just one word.
"Wow".
My thoughts exactly.
I haven"t seen anyone in the last couple days but my phone have been almost glued to my ear, I"ve heard from his mother, my father, Carol and Jared, somehow I think Colton told everyone no visitors for the next few days.
I wondered what excuse he gave them for that but didn"t ask.
After he finally left I called Carol up to make plans for our day of shopping, of course she was excited, it"s like in her blood.
Having been cooped up for so long it was great to get out and about and carol was full of ideas and suggestions, especially after she realized that I had Colton"s card.
Halfway through I"d had enough, not because I was tired or anything but because I"d already bought too much.
When I complained about the thousands of dollars we"d already spent and believe it or not we"d only bought undergarments as yet, she"d whipped out her phone and called Colton, pa.s.sing the phone to me after squealing on me.
"Babe seriously, I got s.h.i.+t to do here, buy the s.h.i.+t, if you don"t then I"ll have to and I"ve got s.h.i.+t lined up for the next few weeks so help me out alright."
Oh my word!
He just hung up after that, my panties were shot.
Of course Carol was grinning and hopping up and down and off we went.
"Well if it isn"t Colton"s flavor of the month."
d.a.m.n, that thing sure got around.
"Jennifer that"s uncalled for..."
"No no Carol, let it speak.
I hate this b.i.t.c.h, I kid you not, just the sight of her makes me want to taste blood, not because she"d once shared Colton"s bed, (though she"d never physically been in his according to him), but because I could sense that she didn"t want to move on, to let go, and after tasting of the fruit so to speak, I could certainly understand why, but she wasn"t his ex-wife or the mother of his child or anything like that.
She was just one of a long line of nothing special so she had no jurisdiction and if she thought I was too young or too stupid to know that, then she was sadly mistaken.
She sneered at me from head to toe until her eyes caught sight of my anklet.
That"s a Simon piece where did you get that?"
Before I could answer or not Carol intervened.
"Jennifer just leave us alone, where Kat got her jewelry is none of your business." She tried going around the annoying twit to no avail.