“Uh…yeah.”

“Then I decline to answer.”

Fuck.

His eyes went from his knees to the closed door of his bedroom. Why would Clarisse take a call? And if she did, why wouldn’t she give him a message?

Fuck.

“Mike?”

“I use my cell for work. She knows she’s not supposed to touch it,” he explained.

“Maybe it was a mistake.”

“Right, then, if it was, why did she not give me your message?”

“Well,” she said slowly, “I don’t have an answer to that.”

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“So, you’re a super gorgeous hot guy. My guess, you didn’t practice celibacy since you divorced your ex. How was she with the other women in your life?”

“She wasn’t any way since I never connected with any of them in a way where I felt the kids would need to go through that shit,” Mike told her.

Her voice was vibrating with humor when she asked, “Any of them?”

Mike lost some of his anger and answered, “Yeah.”

“How many of them were there?”

He grinned and replied, “You don’t wanna know.”

“Oh yes, yes I do. I need a detailed list with addresses and phone numbers so I can personally thank each one of them for topping up your experience so I get the ultimate one every time.”

Mike burst out laughing.

Through his laughter he heard, “Though, not Debbie’s. I know her contact info and I’m not gonna go there. If she knew I left her off that list, I think she’d thank me.”

He kept laughing but this time Dusty stayed silent and let him sober.

Then he explained, “Hunter told me LeBrec came calling.”

“He did. Get this, he did this to inform me he was done with our separation. Separation!” she hooted the last word. “Told you he was clueless.”

Clueless. Definitely. Psycho was also a possibility.

“You have any more problems with him?” Mike asked.

“Not so far but seeing as I’m entertaining half of the local PD and the Sheriff’s police, handing out cups of my expensive, exclusive, only available on the internet and in some countries it’s so revered it’s used as currency coffee even Beau’s not stupid enough to go there.”

“Good,” Mike muttered thinking Rivera’s donut payback went from a dozen to about ten of them.

“Been crazy busy but since I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it, I’m giving up the ghost and going to the mall tomorrow and getting a new cell. I’ll text you with the number.”

“Right.”

“This sucks,” she went on. “I need this like a hole in the head. Totally behind already and the closest mall is half an hour away in the city. Not to mention, my life was in that phone. I lost everything.”

“You got it backed up on computer?”

“Yeah, seeing as I’m so organized, I think the last time I did that was 1997. So it’s all good.”

Mike chuckled through his, “Sorry Angel.”

“Me too,” she muttered.

Mike moved the conversation into territory he needed to take her pulse on just to get it over with. He got confirmations on what he guessed was that Dusty had not yet called Debbie to broker their deal, Rhonda was still in a state and her parents had decided that the initial one week would be three.

“Good news is,” she finished, “my schedule I did keep on my computer and after the show, I’m pretty clear. So I hope to head back up.”

That was good news.

“Look forward to that, darlin’,” he said softly.

“Want a preview of things to come?” she asked softly back.

“And those would be?”

She told him. She did it in detail. He listened to her come while she did it and then she kept doing it until she gave him the same.

Her imagination was a fuckuva lot better than his was.

And her voice was sweet and breathy when she whispered, “That sounded nice.”

His voice was low and growly when he whispered back, “It was.”

“God, I’m getting excited again just thinking about doing those things to you.”

Jesus. Dusty. She let it all hang out.

He liked that.

“Next chance we get of bein’ together and naked, I call first go,” he declared.

“I’m not gonna argue with that,” she murmured.

He grinned.

“Mike?” she called.

“Yeah, Angel?”

“I missed you. I know you’re busy too and I don’t want to ask you to call around the houses to find me but, you know, you’re welcome to call any phone. That’s why I gave you all my numbers. So when you were thinking of me, you could let me know.”

Fuck, he liked that too.

“Got it,” he replied quietly.

“I know you understand, having been married and all. You can catch hints. But when I’m telling you I’m busy and things are nuts, that doesn’t mean I’m too busy to hear from you. I’m never too busy to hear from you. Okay?”

And fuck, he liked that too.

“Okay, sweetheart.”

“Don’t worry about Beau,” she told him.

Impossible.

“Right,” was all he said.

“And Clarisse is your girl. You’re a good guy and I’m sure a good Dad. She’ll sort her shit out.”

That he wasn’t certain of.

“Right. You done making me feel better?” Mike asked.

“Unless you faked it, I think so,” Dusty answered.

Mike chuckled again.

Then he said softly, “Right, Angel. I need to clean the proof I didn’t fake it off me and hit the sack.”

“Okay, honey.”

She was back to breathy.

She liked the idea of him jacking off while she whispered dirty shit in his ear and she liked it a lot.

Jesus, he liked that too.

“Later, darlin’,” he whispered.

“Later, gorgeous,” she whispered back.

Mike hit the button to disconnect. Then he got up, went to the bathroom and cleaned up. Then he went to his bedroom, pulled on a tee over his pajama bottoms, left his room and moved down the hall.

Clarisse’s door was closed. He opened it, shoved his head in and looked through the dark at the lumps her body caused under the covers.

He loved his girl. Definitely. He had it perfect, one of both, a boy and a girl. He’d had suspicions early he had far from perfect from their mother but she gave him perfect with their two kids.

But she’d also taught them to lie early on. This she did by taking them shopping with her and making it a game, keeping what she bought from their Dad.

Since the divorce, he’d had a variety of conversations with his kids about the fact that family didn’t lie to family. They’d need to decide in their lives how they dealt with other people and situations but a lie was a last resort and with family, it was not an option.

He knew No took this to heart. He knew this because No was a boy in high school and he’d already made a variety of fucked up decisions that got his ass in hot water. Mostly with girls and partying. But he always called his Dad, manned up and took his punishments. And Mike made certain those punishments weren’t over the top because No had come clean.

Clarisse had always been his little informant. She’d never lied even when her mother told her to do it. She didn’t tell him about her mother’s activities because she was a tattletale or because Mike interrogated her, she just was close to her Dad. They talked and she shared not thinking she was doing anything wrong which she was right, she wasn’t. That was another frustration he had living with Audrey. He never let on that he’d learned shit from their daughter and sometimes had to go to lengths to protect Clarisse from whatever Audrey’s reaction might have been. In other words, he, too, had to lie.

But recently, shit was going down with Reesee. She seemed lost. Uncertain. Her habits had changed. She was lazier. Her grades were dipping. She was making questionable decisions. And he’d caught her in a variety of lies.

These latest, taking a call on his cell and not giving him a message were just the two recent.

His eyes went from her bed to her dark walls.

He’d noticed the night they came down that she’d lost the vampires.

She’d be fifteen next month. Fifteen was when Dusty went off the rails. They’d skirted that when they were together because the look on her face made it pretty clear she didn’t want to go there.

Even so, she was open and sharing about everything else. So she might not want to go there but he figured she would if she felt whatever she went through would help him deal with whatever his daughter was going through.

He pushed through the door, walked across the room and, using the shadows as his guide, slid the thick mass of dark blonde hair away from her face and neck and kissed his daughter’s temple.

She stirred and muttered, “Dad?”

“Yeah, honey.”

“You okay?”

“Just want my girl to know I love her.”

“Love you too,” she whispered.

“Go back to sleep.”

“’Kay.”

“’Night.”

“’Night, Daddy.”

Daddy.

She’d be okay.

Eventually.

He slid his fingers along her cheek.

Then he moved through her room, closed the door behind him, moved across the hall, opened the door to his son’s room and Layla jerked up and shot out.

Then Mike and his dog walked down the hall back to his room.

* * *

Saturday late afternoon…


The kids were gone, No out in his beat up car with some girl at a movie. Clarisse out with some girlfriends at the mall which would mean she’d come back flat broke with a bunch of shit she didn’t need and ask for an advance on her allowance.

This was a weekly occurrence. At first, he gave it to her. Now that she was eight weeks advanced on her allowance, he’d stopped. So she was borrowing from her brother who, to feed his music habit, had taken a paper route and did shit around the house beyond his chores to earn extra money so he usually always had it. She also hit up her mother who rarely gave it to her because she also rarely had any but even if she did, Audrey preferred to spend it on herself and not her kids.