Lock, Stock, and Feral by Addison Moore (free e novels .txt) 📕

to give it. I would have done the same.” She softens. “He’s the perfect catch.” She darts into the crowd, and soon Juni and Georgie scuttle up as the three of us look to Jasper for an explanation.

He closes his eyes a moment before looking to Juni and Georgie. “Would you mind taking our menagerie and giving us a minute?”

Sherlock barks. No fair!

Fish growls, I don’t want to miss the good part, Bizzy.

I nod up at Jasper. “Whatever you have to say to me you might as well say in front of everyone. You’ll just save me the trouble from having to relay it.”

Georgie leans in. “And me the trouble of listening in by way of your bedroom window. That whole glass to the ear thing doesn’t really work.”

Juni smacks her. “You’re stuck in the Dark Ages. I’ve been using a stethoscope for years.”

“Good thinking.” Georgie smacks her back.

Jasper takes a breath and his chest expands the size of a wall. “Years ago, Hadley took off in the night, and after a few weeks of trying to get in touch with her, she let me know she moved on and that so should I. So, when I saw her the other night and asked her what that was about, she gave me some shocking news. I’m sorry, Bizzy. She caught me off guard—and then that man dropped dead. My head was spinning. And then last night, I was exhausted. And the words—they just wouldn’t come.”

Georgie juts her head forward. “What did she say that got you so shook up?”

Juni leans her ear his way. “She shook ya down for money, didn’t she?”

Jasper looks at me with those clear gray eyes of his. “She told me that I was a father—and that she lost my baby.”

Chapter 9

Georgie and Juni offer to take my car and the furry among us back to the inn while Jasper takes me by the hand and we find a bench under a willow tree not far from the festive melee breaking out around us.

“I’m sorry, Jasper,” I say as I pull his face toward mine and run my fingers through the scruff on his cheeks. “I can’t imagine how painful that was to hear.”

“And for you,” he says as he pulls me onto his lap. “I’ll be okay. She just managed to knock me down.” His eyes close a moment too long. “It got me thinking. I lost a child. I mean, I know I didn’t know them or even know about them, but they existed for a moment in time, still do,” he says as he looks to the sky. “And I brought that to being.”

“Along with Hadley.” I blow out a breath. “I feel terrible about how I behaved.”

“Don’t. I’m the one who feels terrible. I should never have left you in the dark.”

“But Patterson died and you went straight to work. You’re right, you didn’t have enough time to process any of it. And on top of it all, you had a jealous wife ready to blow a hole in your chest.”

He grunts as he dishes up a lopsided grin. “It’s times like this I’m glad you didn’t take me up on that offer to buy you a gun.”

“I can feel yours on my hip. I’m a quick draw, you know.”

A laugh gurgles through him. “Is that a threat?”

“I’ve met my limit on making good on all my threats today. The only weapon left in my arsenal is my lips. Are you still accepting kisses from them?”

“An unlimited amount.” He tucks his finger under my chin and pulls me close until we share a searing kiss.

Tears come to my eyes and I blink them back. “Do you want to talk about it?”

His chest depresses as he blows out a breath. “I was thinking last night. He or she would have been about ten. Baseball, dance classes, I don’t know. It all seemed impossible to imagine. Hadley says she left as soon as she found out she was expecting. She wanted to get her bearings before she told me. But a few days afterward she ended up losing it, and that’s when she decided we should both move on. It was a rather abrupt exit. I guess that’s why I said what I did all those years ago—to Leo. I never said those words to Camila, but she overhead them. Anyway, it’s all in the past. I’ve made peace with it. None of that was meant to be. Even though I would have gladly welcomed my child, I’m glad I didn’t end up with Hadley or I wouldn’t be lucky enough to have a hot brunette sitting on my lap right now.”

A smile swims on my lips. “Glad to be at your service.” My mood grows somber once again. “But, that doesn’t change the fact you suffered a loss. I’m here for you, Jasper. You can grieve the child you never had the chance to know. It’s okay. I’m grieving it, too.”

His eyes fill with tears as he cinches his lips. “Thank you.” He pulls me close and we hold one another as we watch the crowd drift by, and each child we see acts like a painful reminder of what could have been—and what will one day be for us.

Jasper wraps a lock of my hair around his finger and gives it a light tug.

He dots my nose with a kiss. “Aren’t you going to ask how Patterson Higgins was killed?”

“How was he killed?”

“Death caps—poisonous mushrooms.”

I gasp as I pull him in by the tie. “I know who the killer is.”

“Why do I always miss all the good stuff?” Macy asks as she takes a forkful of Emmie’s lobster pie and shovels it into her mouth.

It’s just a few hours after that street festival fiasco and Georgie quickly relayed the conversation to Macy, my mother, my brother Hux, and Mack by proxy. I dropped by the cottage to feed Fish, Sherlock, and Clyde, and not one of them wanted