“Uh, maybe a small part of me wants to show her how much happier I am without her. Rub my beautiful wife in her face and brag about our kids. But that’s a small part. Most of me wants to get her to give Liam some closure.”
“She’s been gone, what, thirty-three years? Where do you even start?” she asks.
I reach behind me and pull out a card that I’d written down an address on. “I talked to someone we went to high school with. They reached out to someone else, etc. Anyway, I got a call earlier today with an address. Melinda is living a few hours away. She used to be married to this older man who, not surprisingly, had a lot of money. I guess it was transactional on his side, too, because he’s since moved on to a younger wife. I was told that she has one kid and played the typical PTA mom. I’m a bit surprised, because I’d heard before she had no kids, but my information was old. It’s not like I kept tabs on her.”
“I guess if Liam does speak to her, he might at least understand how I feel. Not sure that it will help him to shove his absent mother in his face and show him that she was willing to be a mother, just not to him. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, unless the plan is to get some kind of minor revenge,” she says.
“So you don’t think he’d want to talk to her?” I ask.
She bites her bottom lip. “I don’t know. He’s not usually very introspective, but I know if I had a chance to talk to either of my parents, I’d take it.”
“Will you come with me?” I ask her.
“Anywhere you go, I’ll follow,” she promises.
“I’ll see if the others can watch the kids, and we’ll make a vacation of it,” I say.
“So we’re just going to show up and surprise her?” she asks.
I shrug. “I figure I’d give her the same courtesy in our arrival that she gave me in her departure.”
“Should be an interesting trip,” Wren quips.
I pull her quickly out of her chair and onto my lap. “There should be time to work on that plan to have a lot more dirty sex.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and rocks against my growing erection. “Why didn’t you say so, Daddy? I’m always up to play.”
I scoop her up as I get up out of the chair. “The kids won’t be out of school for another thirty minutes, and Elisa is napping. Plenty of time for me to take care of my Baby Bird.”
By the time I’m done worshiping her, she’ll never question my devotion to her again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Griffin - Present
“Parker has softball practice.The schedule is on the fridge. Hattie already has all the instructions about the baby. Not that she needed any. She pretty much told me that if she can’t take care of a baby as a nurse and mom, then I definitely can’t. You don’t have to worry about the twins, because they are having a sleepover with Jack at Bess and Donovan’s house, but you know how they can be,” I start to instruct Charlie.
He puts his hand on my arm and squeezes. “Breathe. You don’t have to do this. Really, this is a pretty bat shit crazy idea.”
“Don’t start,” I warn him.
I know I score high on the stubbornness scale, but that’s because I’m a man of conviction. Once I get an idea that what I’m doing is right, it is nearly impossible to dissuade me.
Charlie shrugs. “You Hale men sure do some dumbass shit. But I have to go on record to say that tracking down your ex-wifeof almost thirty-five years is likely the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.”
I narrow my eyes. “I recall you once told me that pursuing Wren was the dumbest thing I could do.”
“Just because one really stupid thing ended up working out doesn’t mean I’m wrong about this. Not to mention that Wren is going to flip her shit when she finds out about this,” he says.
Wren chooses this moment to step into the kitchen. “Don’t worry, Charlie, Griffin is learning from his mistakes.”
Charlie scratches his head. “What mistake is this one, because to my knowledge, this is the first time he’s ever tried to track down Melinda. Except for when they got divorced, of course.”
I make a face that probably says everything my mouth will inevitably spill. “She’s talking about my ill-advised efforts to keep her from finding out Liam was cheating.”
“I’m the one who knew he was stepping out. You shouldn’t be mad at Griff for being idiot enough to believe his son instead of nearly every adult in Harriston,” Charlie supplies.
“Right, I forgot about that.” She turns to me, and I can see there’s a wicked glint in her eyes. “You know, Griff, I think Charlie should take care of the twins.”
