The quiet settled there, and I chewed the inside of my lip. “He was just asking me to take a bike ride. It doesn’t have to mean more than that.”
“Nope,” Jake agreed. “It doesn’t. I mean, it does mean more than that, but it doesn’t have to.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not helping.”
“Sorry, I gotta call bullshit when I hear it. You want it to mean something, but you’re gun-shy about believing it does until you can see it in clear black and white letters. That’s okay, he earned that bit of mistrust on your part.”
And that was what it came down to. I wanted to trust him.
But I wasn’t sure how.
“You know what, adulting sucks.”
Jake laughed, but the shock of masculine warmth cut off abruptly as we neared the parking spots near my apartment. Following Jake’s gaze, I found out why.
My mother stood on the sidewalk, arms folded, posture rigid, and definitely radiating hostility, even if sunglasses hid her eyes. Despite the jeans, she wore an expensive blouse and jacket, both in brighter colors. Her hair had been pulled up into a knot, and a pair of teardrop earrings glistened in the mid-afternoon sun.
The papers she had fisted in her hand drew my attention, and I sighed. This wouldn’t be pretty.
“Fuck,” Jake muttered. “We can just go.”
“Nope, I live here.” And I reached over with my left hand to open the door. He was out and walking around to meet me before I’d even touched my feet to the pavement. Ian pulled in scant moments behind us.
One heeled foot tapping, Maddy waited for me only as long as it took me to step up on the curb. “What the hell is this?” She waved the papers at me in demand.
“You should have your attorney talk to my attorney.”
My voice didn’t quaver. Go me.
Jake put his hand against my lower back. “Ms. Curtis,” he said.
“Shut up, Jake,” Maddy snapped, and I raised my brows.
“You don’t talk to him that way,” I informed her. “You have a problem, take it up with me. Oh wait, you don’t do that unless you want something.”
“What I want right now is an explanation for this ridiculous and, may I mention,frivoloussuit.”
“If you have a question about that, I already told you. Talk to my attorney.”
I pivoted to walk past her, and she slammed a hand out and gripped my right bicep. It was just above the splint, and it fucking hurt. Jake gripped her wrist a split second later.
“Let her go,” he ordered.
“She’s my daughter, I’ll do as I damn well please. Would you like to face another assault charge?”
Oh hell no, she wasn’t going to use that against Jake. “Would you?” I demanded in the same breath as Jake said, “Knock yourself out.”
“Let her go, Ms. Curtis,” Ian said in an almost kind tone. “No one has done any harm—yet.”
Maddy glared past me, and in her sunglasses, I caught Ian’s reflection and his upraised phone.
“But to be clear, we will document every moment of this interaction. You have been asked to go and to take your questions to an attorney. Jake has asked you to let Frankie go. You’re hurting her, and she’s already injured.”
Lips compressed, Maddy transferred her attention back to me and let go of my arm. The abrupt cessation of pressure was a relief, but I refused to let it show. Jake dropped her wrist like the contact disgusted him.
“I would like a moment with my daughter.”
“You’re already having one,” I reminded her. “Right here. The child you so often forget you have.”