I gritted my teeth on the urge to yell at the damn woman.
God, I hated her.
Hated everything about her.
Katy blinked at Tasia’s hostility.
“I’m sorry, but what did I do to you?” Katy asked. “Pick up the trash you thought you’d left behind to rot? Well, let’s just say I love restoring people’s discarded junk and making it beautiful again.”
I froze at hearing those words come out of Katy’s mouth.
Nobody, and I do mean nobody, had ever stuck up for me before when it came to Tasia.
Hell, even the four times that my ex-girlfriend and Tasia had come into contact, Tasia had smashed her.
It’d been ultimately embarrassing because there’d been a lot of backing down, and it hadn’t been Tasia who’d been doing it.
“What did you just say?” Tasia blinked, shifting her kid from one hip to the other.
“I said,” Katy began, but Tasia stopped her before she could repeat herself.
“I heard what you said,” Tasia hissed.
“Then why did you ask ‘what did you say’ if you’d heard me?” Katy shot back. “Seriously.”
Her seriously was so chock-full of sarcasm that it had me grinning. Inwardly, of course. If Tasia saw the smile, she’d lose her shit.
And Tasia losing her shit was not my favorite pastime.
It was funny, because Tasia losing her temper when we were married was cute. Tasia losing her temper now that we were divorced? Well, let’s just say I didn’t see the same cute tendencies that I once did.
“Who is this, again?” Tasia asked, sneering at me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, and secretly loved how Sister went and put herself beside Katy instead of going over to Tasia.
“Our meeting was scheduled hours ago. You only get two hours on Wednesdays. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to catch back up with me next Wednesday,” I falsely apologized.
“You’re sorry?” Tasia asked, her voice sounding like a whip. “That just won’t do.”
That just won’t do.
Normally I would’ve just given her the time with Sister to shut her up, but I really, really didn’t like the way she was sneering at Katy as if she was lower than dirt.
“That’s rich.” Tasia turned from me to staring at Katy. “You’ll date a man that won’t take responsibilities for his actions?”
Tasia hitched the toddler up onto her hip and gestured at her with a tilt of her head.
Honestly, if she hadn’t been the reason for my marriage breaking up like it did, I might’ve found her absolutely adorable. But, unfortunately, I couldn’t see past the life-altering mistake that she was.
It was callous of me, but every time I saw her, saw my friend, Paydon’s eyes peeking out of her face, I got angry all over again.
Tasia’s and my life wasn’t perfect. But, childless, I’d enjoyed it. It wasn’t until I saw the lengths that she was willing to go to in order to get a child that I realized that Tasia wasn’t as content with life as I was.
And maybe the ‘good’ marriage that we had wasn’t all that ‘good’ either.
Katy looked at the baby, then looked at me, then looked at the baby again.
“We’re not dating,” she said. “But we are fucking. There’s no commitment involved. I’m too young and involved with work right now to deal with a boyfriend. Especially one that comes with impressive baggage such as yourself. But, had I wanted a boyfriend, Logan would be a great candidate. He’s nice, a pillar in his community, and is otherwise very low-key. Unlike my other boyfriends from the past.”
I was torn.
I loved that she’d uttered those words. Loved even more that she’d supported me when talking to my ex-wife. But I hated that she said she didn’t have time for a boyfriend right now.
Were those just words that she was spouting to piss off Tasia? Or was she actually feeling them?
I hoped that she wasn’t.
I hoped even more, that later, when we talked about this, she didn’t go running after what I had to tell her about Tasia.
I started walking again, gesturing for Katy to continue in front of me.
“If you’ll excuse us, we’re going to eat dinner,” I said, sounding bored.
Tasia’s screech of annoyance shut off abruptly as a uniformed officer came over the top of the hill.
He was dressed much the same as I’d been about an hour ago, but he was older and looked way more pissed off.
“Yo,” Jonah grumbled, taking in the scene. “Is there a reason that y’all are down here yelling? I want to go home, and I’m getting reports of domestic disputes that I’m forced to respond to because I’m the closest unit.”
Tasia started to spout off an explanation behind us, being sure to use ‘baby,’ ‘court order,’ ‘dog visit,’ and ‘refusal to comply’ when she did, hoping that Jonah would be sympathetic.
I knew he wouldn’t be.
I also knew that Jonah didn’t give a rat’s ass about court orders seeing as he had very little faith in the system.