“Whatever,” he muttered.

God, my cousin was an assclown.

“Not whatever, Bill. Your son thinks you’re a piece of shit and your daughter has shed tears worrying about you. So it’s not whatever. Those are your children and –”

Bill cut me off, “Not for long, if you and your cop get what you want so what do you care?”

He had a point.

Time to move onto the hard part.

“You could make this easier if you cooperated,” I told him and he grinned but it was not a nice grin.

“Right,” he whispered through his ugly grin, “that’s not gonna happen.”

Total assclown.

“You don’t get this, Bill. I’m not asking for me. I’m asking for Billy and Billie.”

“Not gonna happen,” he repeated.

I stared at him.

Then I pulled in a deep breath.

Then I said softly, “All those nights, I escaped Mom, her men, her parties I went to you. All those nights, we talked in the dark about what we were going to do, where we were going to go, who we were going to be. All those nights, all we talked about was that wherever we went, whatever we became, it had to be a place where we could be who we wanted to be, not what people thought we were. I never gave up that dream, Bill, and I don’t know when you did. I also don’t care. I’m not responsible for what’s happening to you. You are. But you want to pin that on me? Fine. Do it. I don’t care about that either. What I care about, the only thing I care about is making certain that Billy and Billie do not lead the life you and I led through no fault of our own. Now they have nice beds. They have nice clothes. They have new shoes. Billy’s getting really good at playing catch and Mitch is teaching him how to bat and he’s getting good at that too. Billie sleeps every night with a pink teddy bear that she loves. They’re clean. They go to school. They eat three meals a day. They laugh a lot. They’re around people who care about them and that they get their homework done and to bed on time. All of that is simple but you and me, Bill, we know that the simple stuff is everything. I’m giving them that. So is Mitch. You didn’t. I’m asking you to do me a favor and that favor is letting Mitch and I keep giving them that. You have to sign a piece of paper. That’s it. You do your time, sort yourself out, you get out, we can talk about you having a place in their lives. But only if you sort yourself out and only if you never, ever lay claim to them again. They have a family now. They’re content. They’re happy. Do me a favor and let me keep giving them that. And doing me that favor is you giving them that.”

Bill leaned into me, eyes narrowed and said slowly, “Not…gonna…happen.”

I nodded. I knew it.

Still, I had to give it a shot.

Then I said, “Fine. But it is going to happen, Bill. It’s just going to take longer. And after it’s done, you get to live the rest of your life knowing your son hates you and coming to the understanding that as time passes, you’ll become just a hazy memory to your daughter and you squandered the love she gave to you. And you can twist that in your head to try to pin that on me too but I know, deep down somewhere inside you, you’ll know that’s not true. You’ll know I gave them what you and I always wanted. And you’ll know when Billy finds someone he loves and wants to spend the rest of his life with, he’ll be dancing with me at his wedding. And you’ll also know when Billie finds someone to give her heart to, she’ll be dancing with Mitch. And you know that’ll be on you too.”

His face twisted and he hissed, “Fuck you, Mara.”

But I shook my head.

“You’re saying f**k me but what you’re doing, you’re f**king Billy and Billie. What you do to me affects your children. So, Bill Winchell, you just proved you are what everyone back home thought you were. You’re an assclown with shit for brains who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. And you have to live with that too.”

He opened his mouth to speak but I didn’t hear what he had to say.

I put the phone back in its cradle, pushed my chair back and didn’t look at him as I turned to Mitch. I caught his hand, his long, strong fingers curled tight and warm around mine and I didn’t look back as we walked out.

We were out of the room and walking down the hall when Mitch muttered, “I’ll call the attorney.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

His fingers squeezed mine. “You all right?”

“Yes,” I answered.

His fingers squeezed mine again but his hand also tugged as he brought us to a stop.

I looked up at him.

“Sure?” he asked softly.

“The only thing I have to worry about is paying the attorney. I spent a lot of years saving for a rainy day.” I gave him a small smile. “So, it’s raining. Whatever. The rain always stops.”

Mitch’s eyes moved over my face. Then he smiled back. Then he lifted his other hand, curled it around the side of my neck and pulled me in and up.

Then he kissed me, fast, hard but closed-mouthed.

Then he whispered against my lips, “Get to work, sweetheart.”

I grinned against his.

Then I moved away, Mitch walked me to my car and I got to work.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Operation Drunk Sex Later

Two weeks, two days later…

“I’m back, baby!” Mitch called from my living room-slash-kitchen-slash-dining room.

He’d taken the kids to spend the night at Penny’s not so we could have a night out, so I could go out with the girls and he could go to work. He had something happening with a case he was working on and he was doing overtime. I had a new little black dress and new sexy, strappy, high-heeled black sandals and I was meeting “the girls” (“the girls” being Roberta, LaTanya, Elvira, Tess and Elvira’s friends Gwen, Cam and Tracy) for drinks at Club.

The little black dress and sexy new shoes I was currently wearing were purchased because we were in throes of Pierson’s Mattress and Bed’s annual summer madness sale and apparently half of Denver needed a mattress and/or bed. I was run off my feet but my commissions were killer.

Of course, I wanted to bank them to pay attorneys fees but, with Mitch’s overtime on this big case and seeing as he clearly absorbed Elvira’s lesson about little black dresses, he encouraged me to go shopping with her (which I did) and spoil myself (which meant spoiling him).