Page 82 of Ridin' True

“My gosh, you’re ridiculous,” I said, reaching for my sandwich. “He came to the firm to get help with a custody battle. And, honestly, he barely needed me. His track record spoke for itself.”

“Custody? He has a kid,” Bella asked, finally sobering a little.

“He has two. They’re ten and nine.”

“Oh. Have you met them?”

“Yeah,” I admitted with a nod. “They don’t know we’re dating yet, but I met them last week.”

“Hermana!You’ve seriously been holding out on me,” she chided, nudging my leg with her foot. “New or not, you date a man with kids—and youmeetthose kids—that’s serious.”

Speaking around a bite of my sandwich, I fought a smile and teased, “I never said it wasn’t serious.”

“Yeah,okay,” she said mockingly.

“Enough about me. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Things are fine,” she said with a wave. “Ellie’s at vacation bible school today. I had to take advantage of the free time. I was out running errands, and I wanted to say hi. It’s been a couple weeks.”

“I know. I’m sorry I’ve been preoccupied.”

I thought about all the things that were on my mind; all I hadn’t told her; all I probably never would. I didn’t see the point. It would just create stress and worry over things that had already come and gone.

As for my present troubles, I had the Stallions at my back.

“Have you heard from Alejo?” I asked, settling for our constant shared topic of concern.

“He called mami yesterday. Apparently, he might come around sometime this weekend. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Bella stayed and kept me company while I finished my lunch. With errands still left to run on her end, and work to be done on mine, we said our goodbyes shortly after. I promised to drop by on Sunday for a visit, and I made a mental note to tell Jed about the addition to my weekend plans.

For all of about thirty seconds, I thought about inviting Jed to join us. Then I pictured my beautiful mammoth in mami’s small house, and the look on her face upon meeting the tattooed biker with long hair I’d never mentioned, and I decided better of it. She needed a bit of a warmup. I’d wait a little while longer.

OnSunday,Kadewasmy tail, following me to church so I could attend mass with my family. Turned out, his grandmother attended St. Matthews. While he didn’t often find himself in a pew, he didn’t mind his morning assignment, and it was far more inconspicuous than if anyone else was seen following me around.

When mass was over, he trailed me at a distance until I turned into mami's driveway. He then took off down the street, as if he hadn’t been following us at all. The plan was for me to stay for as long as I wanted. When I was ready to go, I’d text Kade, and he’d swing by to escort me back to Jed’s.

It was all verycovertand a little more irritating with every passing day. I wasn’t entirely sure it was necessary anymore. I understood the initial logic. The two times I was kidnapped, it happened when I was alone. But it had been nearly a week, and Fred hadn’t made a move. Granted, I was never alone, but his situation had changed. I wasn’t his bottleneck anymore. He had no connection to the Wild Stallions at all, which meant he had bigger problems than me.

I hadn’t been able to convince Jed that maybe we should ease up a little. He insisted, until I was no longer working at the firm, we were to remain cautious. Seeing as that meant I was going to get to spend the week with him and his kids, I didn’t put up too much of an argument. I was actually looking forward to that part.

“You don’t have any laundry to do?” asked mami as I followed her inside.

“No. I did it yesterday at a friend’s house.”

She paused in the middle of the living room and looked back at me with suspicious eyes. “A friend’s house. Is this friend a man?”

I gasped, quickly shifting my gaze toward my sister. “Youtoldher?”

Bella merely shrugged with a smile. “It slipped.”

“I don’t understand whyyoudidn’t tell me,” said mami, turning to face us.

“Auntie has a boyfriend, auntie has a boyfriend,” sang Ellie, skipping around the room.

“Giselle!” I called, wide-eyed.

She giggled in response.