A Husband for Santa Claus by Missy Welsh

Author:Missy Welsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Missy Welsh

Chapter 6

A bee in his ear woke Toliver. He swatted at it. Hold on. He was in bed. In bed with North. Such a good man. Buzzing again. Toliver rolled away from North and saw his phone go dark on the bedside table. A burst of hope had him picking it up. Amanda changed her mind. They found his car.

How’d the interview go? Sara had texted.

Toliver sighed and set his phone on his chest so he could run both hands through his hair. He didn’t want to tell her. Didn’t want to acknowledge the whole mess of what Albert Dunn had accomplished with his lies to someone who knew everyone involved. But if anyone could help him figure things out—on that front at least—it was Sara. She had connections, too.

Dunn started a rumor I stole. No one will touch me. He sent that, and then stared at the ceiling. He was just thinking he should get out of bed so he wouldn’t wake North when she called him.

“Are you serious?” she screeched as soon as he’d gotten the phone to his ear. He smiled a bit as he sat up, heartened by her outrage on his behalf.

“Unfortunately, yes.” He kept his voice low and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Amanda met with me, but that’s what she told me.” He stood and went into the main room.

“But she has to know that’s a lie. Everyone has to know it’s a lie.”

“But no one’s going to risk it’s the truth.” He sighed and ran a hand down his face. “It’s perfect really. No evidence required, but a crime nonetheless.”

“That fucking petrified fuck-stick from fucking hell.”

Toliver bit his lip to keep from smiling or laughing. Sara never cussed. He hoped ol’ Albert felt that like a chill on the back of his neck. Or unrelenting acid reflux. Or five years of erectile disfunction.

“So what are you going to do?” Sara asked. “You could move. Will this follow you out of state? What about starting your own practice?”

“I don’t know. I mean, probably it would follow me. It’s a rumor, and people love to spread those. And going solo…”

He took a second to contemplate the possibility of opening his own firm. He shivered, chest constricting, and found himself walking back to stare at North still asleep in his bed. Why did just looking at the man ease the bands of worry inside him?

“It would take a lot of work,” he said, “probably deplete my savings entirely. I have my contacts, but who knows if the rumor’s gotten to them.”

“It’s something, though.” She sounded as sad and resigned as he felt.

“Yeah.”

“And you could tell them the truth. Some of them hate on Al and Jeff behind their backs. They’d love knowing what you did—and they’d probably spread that rumor just to make the old boys squirm.”

Toliver considered that. A lot of his clients did know he was gay—and some of them worked with him because they were, too. Some of

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