Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
“Effie,” Grady said firmly. “Effie, look at me. It’s all right.”
“It’s not all right! I forgot!”
“Little one, you shouldn’t beat yourself up after everything you’ve gone through. Besides, you might have forgotten but I didn’t.” Grady grabbed her chin in his hand. “I didn’t forget.”
Of course he didn’t.
Grady didn’t let things slide. Grady was on top of everything.
“Say after me: Grady is sorting this.”
“Grady is sorting this,” she repeated.
“Grady will make this all disappear.”
“Grady will make this all disappear.” She finally started to breathe easier. “You will?”
“Fuck, yes,” Steele growled in her ear. “Nothing touches our baby or her boy.”
“How?” she asked.
“This lawyer is slick, but he’s no match for me,” Grady told her. “Roddy, your neighbor, fed information about you. But taking care of that idiot was easy. He won’t be bothering you again or talking to that lawyer.”
“Lucy was another informant,” Steele told her.
“What?” she asked. Lucy?
“This lawyer put an investigator on you,” Grady said. “The investigator spoke to Lucy soon after we got rid of her and she told him a bunch of lies. And some truths.”
Oh my God.
“Like that I work at a strip club? Oh my God, are they going to take Brooks?”
She couldn’t do this!
“Sweetheart, we have this.” Grady wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. “We’ve taken care of Roddy and Lucy. Both are retracting their statements and won’t even answer the lawyer’s calls. Also, all of the investigator’s information has mysteriously disappeared.”
Whoa, he was a miracle worker. She didn’t know how he’d done all of that and she didn’t care.
“And?”
“And we’ve totally taken the legs out of their custody claim,” Steele told her. “There’s nothing left. No judge would side with the uncle over what Brooks wants.”
“I spoke to the lawyer today. He wasn’t happy, but he knows he’s beaten,” Grady told her.
“Oh my God! Why didn’t you lead with that!” She put her hand on her chest, trying to calm her racing heart.
“While the lawyer is effectively silenced, that doesn’t mean that the person who employed him is,” Grady explained.
“Brooks’ uncle.” Shit. “He could try again.”
“Which is why I’m suggesting we tell Brooks,” Grady said gently.
“What? Really?”
“He’s a good kid,” Steele said. “He deserves to know what’s going on. This uncle might run away. Or he might try again.”
“Or he might be someone Brooks would like to get to know and I haven’t even given him that option.”
“Baby, I doubt that.” Steele shook his head.
The front door opened.
“Aunt Effie, I’m home.”
Steele lifted her off his lap. Standing, he moved over to lean against the wall near the fireplace.
“Brooks, honey, could you come here for a minute?” she asked.
“Sure.” He lifted his chin at Grady and Steele as he walked into the living room. He swung his bag down before striding to the sofa to sit facing her. Grady backed off as well. They were letting her do this but staying to support her.
God, she loved them both.
“Brooks, I need to tell you something.” She went through all of it. The phone call from the lawyer. The letter. As well as the second phone call. Then, everything that Grady and Steele had done.
“My uncle wants custody of me?” Brooks asked.
“Yes, and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I just . . . I wanted to protect you from your mom. Then the accident happened straight after the letter, and I honestly forgot. But this man is your uncle, and you have the right to make your own decision about whether or not you see him.”
Brooks stood and started pacing. “No!”
“What?”
“Fuck that!” He scowled.
“Brooks.” Lord, her heart was breaking for him.
“They think after all these years, I’d want anything to do with them? Mom or him? Fuck no, Aunt Effie. And this was a bullshit way to play things if they did. They come to me. They don’t go getting a lawyer, investigating you, stressing you out. Just, fuck no.” He grabbed his bag and she realized he was going to leave.
“Brooks, wait!”
He didn’t stop, all she knew was that her boy was hurting and she needed to make it stop.
So, moving on pure instinct, she got to her feet and she ran after him. “Brooks!”
As he turned, her legs gave way on her. “Auntie!” He leaped toward her, catching her. “You . . . you were walking. Running.”
She let out a surprised bark of laughter. “I was.”
She wrapped her arms around him and he let her. “You’re going to be okay, Aunt Effie. I know it.”
“So are you, honey. Don’t let them upset you. We don’t need them. Not when we have each other. And now we have Steele and Grady as well.”
He leaned back and nodded down at her, his eyes suspiciously bright. Then he straightened his shoulders. “You shouldn’t be running like that, Aunt Effie. You could hurt yourself.”