Page 45 of The Work Wife

She turned her back on him and quickly got changed.

“You good?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she answered when she was in her pajamas.

They took turns brushing their teeth and when she came back, he was already in bed. Having a warm body in the bed on a chilly evening was a nice feature. Even though the body took up more than half of the bed.

“Did you talk to your dad about the pills?”

“Yeah. I asked him straight out. He said he’s great. He said the checkup went well.”

“And you’re still not convinced?”

“I know he wouldn’t come out with it on his own, but if I asked him . . . I know he’d tell me the truth. He always hated lying.”

“Good. Then you can rest easy.”

And rest easy she did. At least for a little while.

Hearing the door to her bedroom open woke her from her peaceful sleep. Light spilled in from the crack at the door, and her father’s shadow stretched across the room to the edge of the bed.

When she’d lived at home she’d seen him check on her a million times. She never knew if he was worried that someone might have kidnapped her without a sound, or if he was trying to catch her doing something.

Whatever his worry now, he must have been satisfied by what he saw. It was only after he’d backed away and closed the door that Jamie noticed the weight of Weston’s arm across her body.

He’d moved closer to her in sleep and had pulled her against him. His face was nestled against her shoulder and she could feel his warm breath on her skin.

Without bothering him to move, she fell back to sleep. Easy dreams filled her mind and Weston was gone in the morning when she woke.

* * * *

Weston was getting ready to start breakfast when Mr. Witmer came into the kitchen the next morning.

“Let’s go out for coffee,” the man suggested and pointed toward the door.

Weston nodded, ready to face the inevitable.

As he followed the man down the sidewalk, he wondered which thing he would bring up first. How Wes wasn’t good enough for his daughter, or how he was still pissed they’d gotten married in secret.

He’d heard Chris Witmer refer to him as “The Husband.” Surely it was better than some of the names he’d come up with for Jamie’s past boyfriends.

“You probably think I don’t like you,” the man said before they were even on the sidewalk.

Wes looked up at the blue sky. It was a little crisp, but the sun would warm things up soon enough. He wouldn’t tell Jamie, but it was nice not to have his balls crawl up in his throat when he left the house.

“I didn’t give you much reason to like me,” he admitted. He couldn’t imagine having a daughter. It must feel like being a goalie with hundreds of dickheads trying to get their puck in the net. It would be exhausting trying to defend against that. Especially if the net didn’t cooperate.

“I didn’t approve when I first found out. I wanted to be able to walk my baby girl down the aisle someday. But she seems happy.”

Guilt clenched Weston’s stomach. He hadn’t realized how selfish he and Jamie had been to hastily get married without a care for how her father might feel about it.

He knew his mother would be furious when she found out, but for an entirely different reason. To see the pain on Mr. Witmer’s face, he knew he needed to fix it.

“If you’ll excuse me. I just thought of something I need to take care of.”

Chapter 9

Jamie’s hand fell back to her side after waving to Weston as he sped off in the rental car he’d had dropped off that morning. She’d offered to drive him wherever he needed to go, in her father’s car, but he said he wanted to have a car. Maybe he was planning to make a break for it.