I wasn’t going to explain my mess-up to my ex-husband.

So instead, I asked, “Did you know him back in high school?”

“You know I didn’t, not really,” Aaron returned. “But I still knew him, Carissa.”

“Is it necessary to go over this before you take off?” Joker joined in and I turned my gaze back to him to see him staring steadily at Aaron, but doing it looking impatient.

I swung my gaze to Aaron to see he was also studying Joker. Then he drew in breath and turned his attention back to me.

“I need to have a word,” he announced.

Fabulous.

“Shit,” Joker muttered, obviously feeling the same as me.

Aaron’s eyes sliced to him. “You don’t need to be here.”

“Actually,” I said quickly. “This is my house so I get to make that call. And my call is, Joker’s not going anywhere. Now, I have bonding to do with my son. If you need a word, have it, Aaron, so we can get on with our night.”

My heart sank as, when I said this, Aaron took a step in, closed the door behind him, and dropped the diaper bag to the floor.

At this move, I felt tension hit the room, and not just my own, as I cuddled my boy, who still had a fistful of my hair, which he was shoving in his mouth. I carefully extricated it from his grip, and he immediately grabbed on to my top and bent forward, shoving that in his mouth.

All this happened while Aaron looked around.

I knew what he saw. I liked that he saw it because I liked that I was living it and able to give it to Travis. It wasn’t a huge house like the four-bedroom one I’d left that Aaron now lived in with Tory. It was just two bedrooms, one bath, a living room that shared its space with the dining room.

But regardless, it was a very nice one, and that was plain to see.

And the “ex-our” furniture looked fantastic in it.

Aaron gave me his gaze. “This is a great house, Riss.”

Riss.

Ulk.

“Thanks, I know,” I replied.

“Is that the word you wanted to have?” Joker prompted.

Aaron shot him a killing look then turned his attention back to me and promptly rearranged his features.

Ulk again.

“I’m pleased you landed in a nice place,” he told me.

“I am too,” I stated the obvious.

“If you’re goin’ for a tour, not sure I’m big on Carrie obliging,” Joker put in.

Aaron cut his gaze to Joker. “It would help this go faster if you didn’t participate.”

“It would help this go faster if you got to the point,” Joker noted rationally.

I fought back my giggle as I saw Aaron’s jaw grow hard.

“Okay,” I cut in and when I got my ex-husband’s attention, I asked. “Aaron, what do you need?”

He stopped looking annoyed and started looking something I knew very well from him.

Contrite.

I cuddled Travis closer and braced.

“Listen,” he began. “My attorney is going to call your attorney tomorrow, but I thought, since I had you, I’d tell you now. I’m going to have to postpone our meeting.”

I felt more tension in the room, this was mostly mine but definitely some of Joker’s, and I stared at Aaron, knowing exactly what he was up to.

He could attempt to postpone until the cows came home and he would. There were a variety of reasons for this. He could be doing it just to mess with me. He could be doing it because he didn’t want to spend his precious time going to court to battle me. He could be doing it because he knew Angie was the bomb and he’d lose so he wanted to drag out the preliminaries for as long as he could. Or he could be doing it because he thought doing it would wear me down to the point I’d give up.

Whatever he was doing, he was doing for himself with little thought for me.

Or his son.

The same old story.

“Before you jump to conclusions, Riss,” he went on quickly, “I had a big case get pushed up. We’re not ready. We’re in court this week and I’m going from here right back to the office. I’ll be up to my neck in it, and I’ll need to be in court when we’re supposed to have our meeting. The case is going to go for a while, at least a few weeks. Now I’m telling you that I’d appreciate it if you’d have patience with that process.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Joker growled, and Aaron turned angry eyes his way.

“Man, you are not in this,” he clipped.

“Excuse me,” I said when Joker opened his mouth, and in doing so, I got both of their attention. But I was looking at Aaron. “Again, I’ll say this is my house. Joker and I aren’t dating. We’re seeing each other. He’s part of my life and therefore part of my home. He’s welcome here. This is my home, and I get to say what he’s in, and since he’s in my life, he’s in everything that has anything to do with me. The person who isn’t and who doesn’t get to say that is you.”

I felt some of the strain in the air leave (all this was Joker, I was still angry) but I kept my focus on Aaron because I wasn’t finished talking.

“If you postpone, I’m afraid that I’ll have to speak to Angie about deviating to this meeting and returning to our preliminary strategy of filing our motions.”

Aaron took a step toward me and when the air again grew heavy (this entirely from Joker) and my body visibly stiffened, he stopped.

He lowered his voice to conciliatory when he carried on, “Riss, I understand I haven’t given you a lot of reason to trust me, but I’m telling the truth. This case is huge for my firm and I’m first chair. It’s my first big case taking that chair and I need to have my head in the game.”

That was big for him. Huge. He’d take that seriously. He’d want to give it his all.

But it had nothing to do with me.

“This is not my problem,” I returned.

He nodded as if he understood, and while I was dealing with the surprise of that, he kept speaking.

“I know things are tough, they’re probably tougher with this move because the rent on this place can’t come cheap. I appreciate whatever sacrifice you’re making for our son to get him into a nice home. So in the meantime, until we can set up another meeting to discuss the changes we’re making, in Travis’s bag, there’s five hundred dollars in cash.”

I blinked.

Aaron kept going.

“If this case takes as long as I think it will, I’ll give you the same when I return Travis to you after his next time with me.”