Page 60 of Primary Seduction

“Hi, sweetheart. How are you?” Trent closed his eyes at the sound of her voice. He didn’t know what her timetable was and could only assume when he’d called at previous times, she’d been in class.

“Good. I’m really enjoying the classes.”

“Brilliant. I knew you’d do well. You know I’m here if you need anything. Okay?”

“Yeah, I know.” She paused. “Sorry I’ve not been in contact much.”

“It’s okay. I understand uni comes first now. You’re really busy.” He let her off the hook. He didn’t know why she’d pulled back from him, but he wasn’t going to bring it up. He was just glad she answered the phone.

“No, Dad, family comes first. Or at least it should.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry.” He changed the subject before he started to cry. He missed both his kids; he’d not seen them for about three months now. “I wanted to ask you something. Do you still have the key to my apartment that I gave you?”

“Yeah, of course. Why?”

“Where do you keep it?” He ignored her question for the moment.

“It’s on my keyring here.”

“Can you double check you still have it please, sweetie?”

“okay.” He heard her rustling around, then a jangle of keys. “Yeah, it’s here. What’s going on, Dad?”

He blew out a breath. He hadn’t thought it would be Jocelyn’s keys, although that doesn’t rule out Trish having made a copy of it.

“Dad?”

“Sorry. Your mother let herself into my apartment yesterday, and I’m trying to figure out how she did it.”

“Why did she do that?” Jocelyn sounded angry. “That’s not her place!”

“I don’t know why. That’s what I’m going to figure out.”

“I have no idea why she’d do that. I know she complains about you whenever I go over there, so I’ve stopped going as often.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I don’t know what’s going on with her lately.”

“She has a lot of…men over so Harper tells me. And she keeps getting more beauty treatments. I don’t know why she can’t just leave it alone.”

“I know, Jocelyn. But you must remember she has a lot of expectations on her shoulders from your grandparents. She was never able to shake their teachings no matter what I tried to tell her.” He wasn’t going to take a leaf out of Trish’s books and start badmouthing her to his kids. All that would do is put them in the middle.

“Oh, I just remembered she left me a voicemail last night. She was ranting about you cheating on her with her old decorator or something. I wasn’t really paying attention to it to be honest.”

Trent decided he needed to be honest because he knew Trish wouldn’t keep quiet. “I do have something else to tell you.”

“What’s up?”

Trent was blown away by how much they were talking today. Usually, Jocelyn said the basics, and then had to run. “Do you have time to chat with your old man for a bit longer?”

“Yeah, I have a free period now, so I have about half an hour before I need to head off.”

“Okay.” He blew out a breath. “I realised over the past week or so that I…have feelings for a friend of mine.”

“All right. Who is she?”

“She is a he.” He held his breath.

“Okay. Oh, I see.” She didn’t say anything for a minute.