Page 78 of Her Ex-Husband's Brother

Jake turns away from her and goes to Jared’s fridge. He pulls out another beer because his hands need something to do and because his mother’s eyes are on him and he hates that. He’s always hated when she looks at him so full of judgment.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

He pops the cap against the granite counter and drinks half the bottle in three long swallows just to watch her mouth tighten.

There. That feels better.

This is what he misses about Lennon.

For all her emotions and migraines, and all the ways she could get wound up over nothing, she knew how to make a man feel like a man.

She asked about his day when he got home and actually listened to the answer. She never judged him. She remembered names he’d mentioned once. Took his side against Carlos at work because Carlos was a backstabbing prick and Lennon understood that because Jake had told her so.

She used to look at him like his version of events was the truth.

That was love, wasn’t it?

What was the point of pouring ten years into a woman if she could wake up one morning and decide none of it counted?

“You never liked her,” he says.

Kathy’s mouth tightens. “I could see who she was from the start.”

“She might have come home if you hadn’t made me cut off the accounts.”

“I did not make you do anything.”

“You said she’d come right back when she realized how hard the world is without me.”

“And she would have if your brother hadn’t gotten his hooks in her.”

Jake points the bottle at her. “You told me to make the police report about the cash.”

“I told you to protect yourself.”

“You told me to get it on record.”

“And I was right.”

He hates the flash of satisfaction in her voice. He also hates that her plan worked, butstilldidn’t manage to bring Lennon home.

Sure, he’d done what Mama said.

He got it on record that Lennon had taken money, so he’d have it to use in the divorce if it came to that. A man had to protect himself from what an emotional woman might claim once she had been coached by lawyers and degenerates and whatever August called himself these days.

But damn it, he doesn’t want a divorce.

He wants his wife back in his house.

Where she belongs.

Kathy steps closer, lowering her voice. “Emily feels terrible for you. She asked me if you were eating and sleeping okay. She has a tender heart.”

“I don’t want Emily.”

“She’s a good girl.”

“She’s boring.”