Tools of Engagement (Hot & Hammered #3) by Tessa Bailey

Author:Tessa Bailey [Bailey, Tessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2020-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Bethany’s life was a landscape that never stopped changing.

Last week, she’d thought the flip would shake things up. That it would riddle her with anxiety and force her to confront the woman she’d become at age thirty. Apparently she’d only been half right.

She was now a member of an It’s Complicated arrangement.

Those words had come out of her very own mouth, despite her better judgment, and they’d never been truer than right now, with a five-year-old eating an ice cream cone in the backseat of her immaculate Mercedes, singing along to Katy Perry in between licks. What in the sweet hell was going on?

And why didn’t she mind it?

Driving Laura home was exactly where she needed to be, but more than that, she’d probably be enjoying herself, if it weren’t for the harbinger of Wes’s imminent departure hanging over the sunroof like a thunderhead. Weren’t they supposed to lock horns for at least another year? Was he going to leave now that his sister had come back on the scene? Why did that possibility make her short of breath?

What she should be was relieved that the man who seemed aware of her every flaw—and didn’t hesitate to point them out—was leaving. No more cracks about her cloven hooves. No more inappropriate comments about how her ass looked in yoga pants.

No more breathless kisses, either. Or those unexpected moments when she couldn’t help but unburden herself to Wes and, oddly, he didn’t make her feel judged. No more of his amused smile. No more of him riling her up at the exact times she needed to be riled.

Bethany realized they’d been sitting in the driveway of his house for a good minute and cut off the engine. Her gaze strayed to Laura in the rearview mirror, then dipped to where the red spot had been on her neck. His salve had done the trick, hadn’t it? But it hadn’t just been the medicine. After they’d bickered in front of his truck, she’d simply lost the desire to attack the area with her nails. Her stress had dipped to nonexistent, because Wes had a way of talking her through her tension without her even realizing it.

Expecting perfect can only lead to disappointment. Besides, it’s the flaws that give a person character. That’s where the beauty hides.

Oh God.

I don’t think I want him to go.

“Elsa, can we go inside?”

“Yes.” Bethany shook herself and exited the car, rounding the bumper to let Laura out of her booster seat. When she’d arrived at the school and realized she needed a certain kind of child seat to legally transport Laura, she’d panicked, but Judy was kind enough to let her borrow an extra. Bethany wasn’t even going to deduct points for the fossilized Cheerios inside the cup holder. “How’s the strawberry? I would have pegged you for a chocolate girl.”

“Uncle Wes likes strawberry,” said the little girl, hopping out onto the ground, as if that explained everything. Uncle Wes liked something so she liked it, too.

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