Then Aaron said, “You’ve changed.”

“That happens when a girl dreams of nothing but being a part of a happy family and her husband cheats on her and then kicks her in the teeth. Repeatedly. If she can pick herself up, she learns, and that girl turns into a woman who’ll fight, scratch, and die before she’s brought low again.”

“I still wish you’d speak with me alone,” Aaron coaxed.

“Think we went over that,” Joker stated.

Aaron looked to him. He did it angrily at first but then he did it strangely. Not with anger, more like focus, like he wasn’t looking at him but he wanted to put his finger on something and couldn’t find it.

But really, I was done.

“Aaron, my son,” I prompted.

My ex-husband turned his attention back to me.

Then he got close and that was when I felt Joker get tense.

But Aaron stopped and I watched as he bent his neck to kiss Travis’s baby head.

“’Night, little guy,” he whispered.

Ugh.

Carefully, he transferred our son to me, and once I had him, I cuddled him close.

Aaron looked at me.

“You look good, Carissa,” he murmured.

Another lie. I didn’t. Unfortunately, on my first date with the handsome biker Joker, I was in my LeLane’s uniform, my hair in a ponytail, and my makeup was ten hours old. There hadn’t been time to change into my tube top.

But I was totally wearing my tube top when I met Aaron with our attorneys. He might be shocked but I didn’t give a hoo-ha. He could kiss my behind.

“Goodnight, Aaron.”

He stared into my eyes.

I sighed and allowed myself to look bored.

“’Night, Riss,” he whispered.

Ugh again.

He hadn’t called me Riss since high school.

Jerkface!

I said nothing.

Aaron turned from me, gave Joker an unhappy look, and moved to the door.

Joker sauntered there as well and didn’t hesitate to shut and lock it the minute Aaron stepped outside.

“I need to see to Travis,” I announced when he turned my way. “I don’t have any beer or anything but grab whatever. Turn on the TV. Take a load off. I’ll be out in a bit.”

“You need to write that shit that just happened down, baby. We’ll go over it together to make sure you didn’t miss anything. And then you call it in to Angie tomorrow.”

“Right. We’ll do that after Travis is down.”

Joker was studying me closely. “You okay?”

“I’m fabulous,” I told him. “He’s scared and he thinks he can play me. But I’m done with his games. I just want him to sort himself out so I can take care of my son the way he deserves and get on with my life.”

On that, I turned away and headed to the bedroom.