Choosing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 2)

by Kris Jayne

  He needed to be more careful. If she had jewelry like that, she’d make sure she knew where it was. Hell, she might not ever take it off.

  In a moment of rationalization, Shannon had dropped the watch into her jeans pocket, tugged down her sweater, and then hustled back to the table. Once she escaped the house, she moved it from her pocket to her bag.

  Shannon never had anything that expensive, but of course, Taryn did. That ring on her finger had to be worth over ten grand. Probably a lot more than that. Shannon couldn’t even estimate how much a diamond like that cost. Kid would. He’d fenced jewelry a time or two. Burglary was one of his specialties back when he was motivated enough to earn a regular living. He’d also know how to turn the watch into good money.

  But she couldn’t ask Kid. She didn’t need to plant any more ideas in his head.

  No, she’d figure this out. Maybe sell it on Ebay or something where she could get real value for it. Most of the places she knew to offload a watch were pawn shops. Rip offs. Shannon chewed her bottom lip. She couldn’t sell it online. She needed something that didn’t leave a trail. She’d have to hold onto it. Letting the watch drop back into the depths of her bag, she felt around the bottom and hit pay dirt.

  “You want another pill?” she shouted. Kid rambled back down the hallway.

  “Quit yelling,” he grunted.

  Shannon felt a heavy thump on the back of her head. She fell forward onto the bed, bracing herself with her hands as her weight pressed down on her injured foot. Gasping, she grabbed a pillow and propped up her foot. Her bag open in front of her, she felt around fervently inside it to relocate the extra Xanax and hand it to Kid.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and downed the extra pill with a swig of beer.

  Thank you, Jesus.

  “How was your Waltons family dinner?”

  “What?” Shannon asked.

  “The Waltons. On TV. Never mind. Update.” Kid downed half his beer.

  “I don’t know what you want to know. It was dinner. The idea is the get to know them. Get them comfortable. That’s happening.” Shannon opened her mouth to tell him that Jeff was close to signing his deal but clamped it shut. It would only make Kid more impatient, and she didn’t have any details—especially about when he’d be getting the money. Knowing now that his payoff could be delayed didn’t bother her, but Kid might hit the roof.

  “We’ve gotta move this along. How long does it take to get this guy to pony up? Maybe you need to fall on some more hard times. Maybe talk like you might need to leave. Maybe see what he can do to help you stay.”

  “He’s already put me up in the apartment. Nicer place than we’ve ever had.”

  “Than you’ve ever had.”

  “Nicer than prison,” Shannon snapped. Kid launched himself at her and gave her a crack across the cheek with the back of his hand. Knocked over on her side, she stayed with her face buried in her soft sheets so she could catch her breath. Kid continued.

  “You can probably get a couple grand if you get creative.” He trailed a shaky hand up Shannon’s thigh. She felt her body go cold. A few more minutes, and the drugs would start to mellow him out. She could hang on.

  “If I try to get him into bed, he’ll run like hell. It’ll ruin everything. His fiancée has him on a pretty short leash.”

  “I’ll bet,” Kid snorted. His eyes slid shut, then popped back open.

  “We can’t do anything too major. We have to take the slow play.” Shannon opened her legs a little as Kid lazily stroked them, then her stomach. “We’d get much more if we go long haul with this. It’s too soon. I want him to trust me.”

  “Trust you?” Kid’s words began to slur.

  “If I’m going to get joint custody, he’s going to have to trust me.” Her words gave Kid a shot of adrenaline.

  “Custody? You think I want some other man’s shitty kid running around? The plan is you and me. Not you, me, and that kid. You play the angle, get the nerd genius to cut you a check. I’m not sticking around for you to fawn over some brat.”

  “But that’s the angle,” Shannon murmured.

  “You get your daughter back?” Kid asked. He emitted a low, phlegmy laugh. “You won’t have her or him. You showed me pictures of that piece of ass he’s got. Quality. Won’t have me either. I’ll be long gone.”

  The vowel sounds in Kid’s words started to wander and teeter like an old drunk. He managed to pull himself completely back on the bed and then collapsed on top of the covers. He wasn’t asleep, but he wasn’t awake. His breathing shuttered.

  At least he was on top of the bedspread. It would be one less night having him sweat up her nice sheets. She examined his dormant face and leaned back in relief, knowing she wouldn’t hear anything else from him tonight.

  Not that it mattered. That voice echoed in her head. What would she have if she tried to get joint custody? Even if she won, she’d get her kid every other weekend and nothing else. With all Jeff had, there’s no way she’d stack up in a custody battle. Kid would leave her, or worse, he’d stay and make their lives hell.

  She wouldn’t do to Olivia what her mother had done to her, leaving her at the mercy of whatever man was around. She looked at Kid with his head lolled to the side, mouth agape.

  She had no illusions about him, but he was here with her. He’d been there for her over the past year. Like he’d promised. She could work him too. She knew his moods. It wasn’t like it was when they first got together. Ridiculous. She wasn’t going to give up everything to chase something that would never happen. She had to keep Kid patient.

  Who knew how long it would take for them to get the money? She needed more time. If she didn’t overplay her hand, she knew she could get a large score. Then, she would deal with Kid.

  Shannon glanced over on the night table. There was some stuff left in the baggy Kid had. His rig stared back at her. So easy to get a little boost. A little lift. It cleared her head, or it had at first.

  The craving hit her harder than Kid ever could. Taking a cigarette out of a pack on her nightstand, she rolled off the bed and limped down the hall to get a trash bag. She needed this shit out of her house. All of it.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  With Jeff running late, Taryn made sure she left work on time to get to his house and relieve his mother from babysitting Olivia. Her job: get the tacos started for Taco Tuesday.

  An hour after her arrival, she and Olivia had chicken diced and spiced, tortillas warming, and Taryn was mixing up her signature guacamole with chopped serrano peppers. She separated out a portion for Olivia, who didn’t like the heat. Jeff, on the other hand, loved it.

  By the time he arrived, everything was ready. Olivia had plates on the table and water in the glasses. Taryn had brought out the cocktail shaker to mix up some margaritas for them.

  “I hope you use the good tequila. I want a top-shelf margarita after the bottom-shelf day I’ve had,” he complained, treading into the kitchen after changing into a T-shirt and sweats.

  “Of course. Bad tequila is asking for trouble. What happened today?”

  “Our development team is behind on some new features, and I had to give them a cattle prod today. We can’t afford to fall behind with the acquisition coming up. There are certain delivery milestones we need to hit for our valuation. It’s—I don’t even want to get into it. How was your day?”

  “A little bit like yours. Falling behind. I can already tell I’ll be working over the weekend. I hoped to get some wedding stuff done. I don’t know how to plan all these events and get our big event done. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have hired a wedding coordinator.”

  “It’s not too late.”

  “It kind of is. I mean the big things are already done. We’d be wasting money at this point. It’ll be fine.” Taryn shook tequila, lime juice, Cointreau, and simple syrup in the cocktail mixer.

  “Let me know if there’s anything I’m supposed to be doing.” Jeff crossed the kitchen and came up behind
Taryn as she poured the concoction into two tumblers of ice. He slid his hands up her arms and massaged her shoulders.

  “Don’t worry. I will. For now, it’s taco time.”

  “Good. I’m starving.”

  Midway through their enjoyable dinner, Jeff brought up the one subject she wanted to avoid. When Jeff mentioned Shannon’s name, Taryn looked down at her plate and loaded her fork with tiny pieces of chicken that had fallen out of her soft taco.

  “I thought the other night went well. Wasn’t it good to see Shannon the other day, Liv?”

  “I guess,” the little girl replied. Taryn gave Olivia a sideways glance. Olivia picked at her food. No one wanted this conversation except Jeff.

  “It’s good that you have a chance to get to know your mom. It’s like Dr. Baker said. You can take your time and ask her questions.”

  “I don’t have any questions.”

  “None?”

  Olivia shrugged and picked a shred of cheese off her plate and rolled it into a little ball.

  “She did say that she could come to the zoo with us as soon as we know when. That should be fun.”

  “I guess,” Olivia mumbled again.

  Taryn widened her eyes at Jeff, willing him to change the subject.

  “Is she going to be coming over every weekend?”

  “Most weekends. She wants to spend time with you,” Jeff replied.

  “Why?” Olivia questioned with a pout.

  “She’s missed a lot, and she wants to catch up,” Jeff answered.

  “It’s weird.”

  “What’s weird?”

  “I don’t know,” Olivia sighed. “She’s just around all of a sudden.”

  “She would have liked to be here before, but she was sick, and she had to go away.”

  “Do you understand that, Olivia?” Taryn asked. “Do you understand that she stayed away because of her own problems? It didn’t have anything to do with you or anything that you did?”

  “I guess,” Olivia said, rolling another tiny cheese ball. “I would never stay away from my kid if I had one.”

  Jeff reached over and tussled Olivia’s curls. “I’m sure you wouldn’t, Liv. But some people are stronger than others. Some people have more help and are more able to deal with life than others. Your mom didn’t have a family growing up like you have. Things have always been harder for her.”

  Taryn pressed her lips together to keep from contradicting Jeff in front of his daughter. That all sounded like excuses to her and probably to Olivia as well.

  How could she not think that if her mother loved her more then she would have been there for her? In her little kid brain, she’s not going to question whether her mother was capable of love. She was going to question whether she was worthy of being loved.

  Jeff might not want to slam Shannon, but there was no excuse for abandoning her family. Olivia knew that. Having her mother around now only reminded her of what she’d never had.

  “Your mother has a lot of problems, Olivia. Those problems aren’t your fault, though. You deserve all the love any of us can give you. You’re one of the reasons I love your dad so much. I see how much he loves you, and it makes me know what a great person he is.”

  “And your mom is working to be there for you now. We can invite her for a Taco Tuesday if you want,” Jeff suggested.

  “No!” Olivia cried.

  “Okay,” Jeff relented. “We can do this however you want.”

  “Do we have to keep talking about Shannon?”

  “No, we don’t,” Taryn clipped.

  Enough already. She hoped Shannon didn’t disappoint Olivia. Her mother had never shown that she could commit to anything except drugs and partying.

  Taryn redirected the conversation to the events of Olivia’s day. Her teacher had been sick, and she had a male substitute teacher. Olivia thought men were just principals. Taryn explained with great fervor that men can be teachers and women can be principals. Olivia still declared it “weird.”

  They talked homework and the travails of first-grade math. Why did the teacher give Olivia word problems? Words are for reading, not math. That, too, was “weird.” This time, Jeff took delight in explaining the value of word problems. He would help her with that before she went to bed, which he did while Taryn cleaned up the kitchen. Around 9:00 p.m., Taryn looked up from her computer to see Jeff coming back downstairs.

  “Do you think I’m pushing Olivia too hard to spend time with Shannon?” he asked, sitting next to Taryn at the kitchen table. Taryn bit be the tip of her thumbnail and thought of what to tell him.

  “I don’t know about ‘pushing.’ I think you want them to have a relationship. But Shannon is incredibly unreliable. I think you need to be careful about telling her that her mom is ready to be here for her on a permanent basis. The truth is that Olivia could start getting attached, and Shannon could take off again.”

  “I know she’s done that before. I don’t know. Something tells me it’s different this time.”

  “Like what?”

  “She moved here. She got a job.”

  “You moved her here,” Taryn countered.

  “True. But she came. She went to the therapy session. She came over to face my parents. You have no idea how hard that must have been for her. You know my mom.”

  Jeff’s mom could be tough, but she was fair. Taryn could hardly blame Nora McConnell for not being in love with Shannon. “I’m just saying be careful. I mean, you know nothing about what’s going on in Shannon’s life,” Taryn cautioned, venturing into the territory where she could mention the investigator’s latest report.

  “Well, we’ll figure it out, right? That takes time.”

  “Some things you may only find out by digging yourself.”

  Jeff shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I’m not going behind Shannon’s back. If I want her to trust me, I have to show some trust in her. I’ve already got her criminal history and all that. We need to give it time.”

  “I’m not sure. I think—” Taryn began in a low, uncertain voice.

  “We need to give it time,” Jeff repeated. “By the way, did I tell you how glad I am that you’re making an effort. I know this isn’t easy, but I think giving Shannon the benefit of the doubt is paying off.”

  And there went her moment. She couldn’t speak.

  How could she tell him that she really hadn’t been laying off of Shannon, but instead was checking up on her behind his back? She wouldn’t tell him now. Maybe she was a coward. Or maybe it was just smart. Jeff’s unwillingness to examine Shannon’s sudden reappearance in his life remained a problem.

  If she told him now, would he understand? Or would he shut down the investigation again before they found out what they needed to know? Of course, she could lay off as he asked, but Taryn’s gut told her to keep going. That wouldn’t happen if she said anything to Jeff.

  “I still have my doubts,” Taryn said and avoided looking Jeff in the eye.

  “I know you do, but trust me. This is the best way to handle it,” he said. “Come here.”

  Jeff reached over Taryn’s computer and took hold of both of her hands. He stood up, and Taryn followed. Pulling her toward him, Jeff smiled. He dipped his head to capture her mouth. Once his tongue parted her lips and began exploring in a deep, soft kiss, Taryn not only let the subject drop, she nearly forgot the topic entirely.

  “Spend the night,” he said.

  Taryn didn’t answer. Instead, she circled her hands around him and grabbed his ass. Jeff moaned and stepped backward, taking her with him toward the bedroom. She would tell Jeff the truth. At some point. Not tonight.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The next Saturday at Jeff’s, Taryn tapped away on her laptop, preparing the agenda for her upcoming customer event. She still had to line up all the speakers, and the number of “TBDs” in the document reminded her of how much work she had to do.

  Taryn’s fingers hit the keyboard harder. She dug her headphones out of her
laptop bag and plugged them into her phone. A little music. That’s what she needed. She started singing Kelly Clarkson, quite badly, and heard the faint sound of a doorbell over the bass line. Taryn yanked out an earbud.

  Shannon was early. While the pair of them hadn’t killed each other, they also hadn’t been alone for more than a couple of minutes. What the hell was she doing here an hour and a half early? She’d hoped to be gone by then. Shit. Taryn opened the door.

  “Hi. We weren’t expecting you.”

  “I got off early, and I thought maybe I could spend a little extra time with Olivia.”

  “Oh. If you’d called, I could have told you that Jeff and Olivia are out. He took her to a friend’s birthday party. They won’t be back for another half hour at least.” Taryn didn’t mean to be short with Shannon, but she was tired and who shows up more than an hour early without calling?

  “I tried calling Jeff, and I don’t have your number. I decided to swing by. I can wait.” Shannon moved forward, putting her foot inside the door.

  “I’m sure there’s some errand you can find to run and then circle back here,” Taryn replied, flashing her white teeth at Shannon.

  “Is it going to be a problem? Because I can call Jeff,” Shannon threatened.

  “You should do that.”

  If Jeff were driving, as he likely was, he wouldn’t answer his phone. He wouldn’t even use hands-free calling when he had Olivia in the car.

  Shannon maintained eye contact with Taryn as she fished her phone out of her purse and dialed Jeff. Taryn waited as the call rolled to voicemail.

  “You and Jeff have an agreement, and I don’t want to be the one to modify that. Olivia’s not here. But as soon as Jeff gets home, I can have him call you.”

  Shannon kept glaring at her. Taryn stared back, noticing a slight shadow under Shannon’s eyes. Shannon looked as tired as she felt.