Made For Loving You (Rescue My Heart Book 3) by Kait Nolan (i can read book club txt) 📕

Sheriff’s Department. I have a few questions for you.”

Chesney’s tone hardened. “What’s this about?”

“Your ex-wife, Paisley Parish.”

“Hang on a second.” Brian excused himself from whatever was going on and went somewhere quieter. “What’s happened to Paisley? Is she all right?” Ty didn’t miss the edge of protectiveness in the demand.

“She’s okay. Having some trouble. Can you tell me your whereabouts on the weekend of January sixteenth?”

“Of course. My father-in-law just had a heart attack three weeks ago. Double bypass surgery. On that Saturday we were all in the waiting room at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. I’ve got half a dozen people who can verify. What is it you’re checking me out for?”

“She’s being stalked.”

“Shit. I knew this would happen someday.”

That piqued Ty’s curiosity. “What makes you say that?”

“She’s too nice. I don’t know if you’ve spent much time with her with the investigation, but under normal circumstances, she’s got this warm, magnetic personality. Spend five minutes with her on a good day and you feel like... I don’t know. Like that song ‘Walking on Sunshine’.”

Ty huffed a laugh. “Yeah, she’s always been like that.”

There was a pause. “What did you say your name was?”

“Ty Brooks.”

“That Ty Brooks?”

He went brows up. “I hesitate to say yes to that tone, but probably.”

“Hm.” There was a wealth of judgement in that single syllable. Ty wondered what she’d said about him. “She brought this problem to you?”

“More like it came to us. I’m investigating.”

Chesney seemed to consider that. “Look, we’ve been divorced a long time. We’re still friends. She sends my kids birthday presents every year. I want nothing but the best for her. If that’s you, great. But for God’s sake, don’t fuck it up this time.”

A blessing and a warning in the same breath. Not entirely sure what to do with that, Ty lost a little of his professionalism. “I’m tryin’ not to. Thanks for your cooperation.”

“If there’s anything else I can do to help, please let me know.”

Ty hung up and stared at his phone for a long minute. He hadn’t anticipated the guy would recognize his name, know who he was. That was…weird. But maybe not. It was normal enough to talk about high school in college. She’d been a lot closer to the heartbreak when she’d met Brian. Still, it had Ty feeling a little bit paranoid as he checked the notes for Wasband Number 2.

Clint Mercer lived in Franklin, Tennessee. Unlike Number 1, he was close enough to have dropped the letters and packages around the city. They married when she was not quite thirty and lasted only a year. It seemed unlikely the guy would’ve popped back up after five years, but stranger things had happened.

No one answered Ty’s call, so he left a voicemail and continued working his way down the list. He’d cleared three more names by the time Mercer called him back.

“I think you’ve got the wrong number, man. I haven’t been anywhere near Stone County…actually I’m not sure I’ve ever been to Stone County.”

“Did you used to be married to Paisley Parish?”

The affable attitude disappeared. “Yeah. Is she all right?”

Interesting that the first question from both of them was whether she was okay. “She’s fine. I need to check your whereabouts in conjunction with an investigation.” He gave the dates.

“I wasn’t even in the country. I was on assignment in Belarus. My boss can confirm, and I’ve got flight records.”

“What is it you do?

“I’m a photojournalist. You happened to catch me on break between stories. I’m flying back out tomorrow. What’s going on with Paisley? Is she in some kind of trouble?”

“You could say that. How would you characterize your relationship with your ex-wife?”

“Brief and intense. We met when she was doing research on a book. I told her there was no better way to learn than on the job. I took her with me to Greece. We eloped before we came back to the States.”

Of course, they had. Elopement seemed entirely in character for Paisley. She’d love the impulsivity and romance of it.

“She traveled with me on job for a while, but it wasn’t conducive to her work, and she didn’t handle the separation well when I was on long assignments.”

“When you say didn’t handle the separation well…”

Mercer blew out a breath. “She accused me of putting the job before her. Which was accurate. She wasn’t okay with that, so we parted amicably after about a year.”

That confirmed what Ty had long suspected and made him feel a little better about breaking things off with her before going into the Army. Deployment would’ve broken them.

“Do you keep in touch?” This wasn’t their guy, but Ty found he wanted to know.

“Sure. I see her when I make it home when we’re both free, and we keep up on social media.”

Ty found himself wondering if those catch ups had been the naked kind. Had this guy inspired the casual stance she’d taken toward dating the last few years? Shaking his head, he told himself it didn’t matter. She was with him now.

“Thanks for your, help. If I need anything else, I’ll let you know.”

“Before you go—are you the Ty she knew in high school?”

Really? Again? “Yeah.”

“Yours is the name she calls for in her sleep. If you’re finally crossing paths again, it seems like a thing you ought to know.”

Ty sat and thought about that for a long time after hanging up. What was she dreaming about years after they’d split that she was calling out for him? Did she have nightmares? He didn’t know why it bothered him, except that, on some level, she’d needed him, and he hadn’t been there for her. He’d put his duty to his country, to his men, to Garrett first. He couldn’t regret that. He’d saved lives, averted disaster more times than he could count. The work he’d done had mattered.

But that work was finished now. It was someone else’s duty. And for the first time in forever, there was absolutely nothing he had to put