Caught in Us (Caught Series Book 4) by Kacey Shea (free e books to read TXT) 📕

back if I’m gonna make my next client visit. Walk me out?” she asks Chase, then turns to the rest of us. “It was nice meeting you, Alicia. Hopefully, we can talk more at the wedding. Jill, give me a call if you need anything. I’ll be off all day tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Julia.”

“Bye!” Cam waves.

I murmur my own good-bye, watching Chase closely.

He still won’t look at me. Why? Is he embarrassed to introduce me to his new girlfriend? Does she know about our past? His muscles flex as he holds the door open for her to pass. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he says more to himself, then follows her out the door while I’m stuck holding his cat and a host of emotions I didn’t expect when I left the house today.

16

Chase

After lunch, we load up my truck with more wedding crap and head back to Alicia’s parents’. The drive is less than twenty minutes, and I spend most of it mustering the courage to ask her about Matthew. It’s not that I’m scared exactly. It’s more that I don’t know how to broach the subject. Hey, so, by any chance did we make a baby? just doesn’t seem like the way to go.

“Julia seems nice,” Alicia says, breaking the silence as we turn onto her parents’ private drive. I think she means it as a compliment, but it’s hard to tell with the cold tone of her words.

“Yeah.” I sneak a glance to find her shoulders tense. “Julia’s great.” Alicia won’t meet my gaze and she picks at the polish on her nails, almost as though she’s uncomfortable. Frustrating, because I swear we were starting to find that familiar ease in conversation again. No, we definitely were. At least until Julia stopped in at Cam and Jill’s.

Wait.

Could Alicia be jealous?

The possibility pleases me more than it should. Guilt quickly douses any temporary joy gained, because this is unfair to Julia. The thoughts and feelings Alicia’s stirred up inside me go beyond friendship. I can’t tell if it’s nostalgia or something more. Either way, the only woman who should be taking up real estate in my head right now is my girlfriend. My beautiful, smart, compassionate, loving, doesn’t-know-her-boyfriend-has-a-child-with-someone-else girlfriend. Fuck.

I’m running out of time. I need answers. I need her to confirm the truth. “What about you?” I ask.

“Me?”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “You and this Simon guy seem pretty serious.” They must be for him to come on this trip with her. God, does he know he’s raising someone else’s child? What if he thinks Matthew’s his? The possibility strikes a match of fury inside my chest.

She unbuckles her seat belt as I pull to a stop. Turning in her seat to face me, she narrows her stare. “Why do you say his name like that?”

“Like what?” I cut the engine.

“Like it tastes bitter.” She laughs.

Because it does. Her amusement and accurate observation irritate me. I should take a deep breath, count down from ten, and ask her about Matthew. Instead, I blurt out the first thing that came to my mind when I met Simon yesterday. “He’s not right for you.”

“Oh?” Her eyebrows shoot high. “Is that so?” She scoffs. “You’d know that how, exactly?”

“I can just tell.”

Her brows rise. “By the hour you spent yesterday glaring at him from across the room?”

I didn’t glare. Fuck. I tried not to anyway. “You deserve better.”

Her spine straightens, a flash of emotion I can’t read playing across her beautiful face. “Simon’s a very good friend. We aren’t together.” She shakes her head. “And he’s the one who deserves better, but he loves Matthew.” She pauses, waiting for my gaze to meet hers. “I pay him to take care of Matthew when I’m working.”

That annoys me even more. How the fuck does this guy—a fucking stranger to me—get time with my son? “So, he’s what? Your manny?”

Alicia rolls her eyes. “He and I both prefer the term childcare provider.”

“And he’s qualified how, exactly? Where did you even find him?”

“He’s a former student of mine.” Her jaw ticks, the angry draw of her brow back. “Has his undergrad in early childhood development and is saving while he applies to graduate programs. Not that it’s any of your business.”

None of my business! “How old is Matthew, exactly?”

She glances down at her hands. “He’s two.”

I wait. The silence stretches as I mentally beg for her to come clean. Does she take me for a fool? Or the kind of man who won’t acknowledge his own son?

She must know what I’m getting at.

Only, she doesn’t say a damn word.

“Alicia.” I practically bite out the words, “When’s his birthday?”

Her gaze snaps up to mine, fire in her gaze. “Just say it.”

Oh, so she doesn’t want to play games. I’ll get straight to the fucking point, then. “Did you really leave the country pregnant, with my child, and keep him from me?”

Her sharp inhale fills the cab. It cuts like a slice through my heart. Her jaw works back and forth, her head shaking as if I’m the asshole. “How dare you!” Her tone is sharp and low. “You know nothing about the last three years or what I’ve been through.”

“Because you cut me out!” I throw my hands in the air. “Jesus, Alicia! You never answered my calls or texts. You moved across a fucking ocean, for God’s sake! You just left. No good-bye. No conversation. Nothing.”

She has the decency to appear rattled. “I left you a letter.”

“A letter.” A wry, humorless chuckle leaves my lips. “Oh, yes! How could I forget?”

“You’re a real piece of work. I see some things never change.” She jerks the truck door open, jumps out, and turns to leave me with one last insult. “And you’re still an ass.” She slams the door and stomps toward the garage keypad, jamming her fingers against the numbers as if they’ve personally offended her.

“And you’re still stubborn as hell,” I grumble, yanking my door open. I should calm down. Take