Biography channel.
Three seconds later he was asleep.
The phone woke Paige up. She jerked forward, and realized she was semi-sitting up.
Yuck. She had slept on the couch. And had the crick in her neck to prove it.
Jeff and Justin were both asleep, curled up on the far end of the couch. Justin was spread out across Jeff’s chest and his little body rose and fell with Jeff’s breathing. Jeff’s hand was still clasped on Justin’s behind and Paige smiled to herself at how adorable they looked. Jeff was a macho, tough kind of guy, yet he had taken to parenting with natural talent.
She’d always known he had soft edges. Seeing proof of that just made her want him all the more.
The cell phone sat on the coffee table and she grabbed it, not wanting her sleeping beauties to wake up.
“Hello?” she whispered.
“Paigey, it’s Gina. Is Justin still asleep or do you want me to come get him now?”
Paige blinked. “Gina?” Either she needed coffee bad or Gina’s words made no sense. Actually, either way she still needed coffee badly.
“Yeah. Who else would it be?”
Good question. Paige’s sleep deprived mind struggled to wrap itself around this one-sided conversation. “Are you home?”
“Yeah. So let me know when you want me to swing by and pick Justin up.”
Paige stood up as she sighed in relief. Well, that was one problem solved. Gina sounded absolutely fine. “Are you okay? When did you get back? Did Frank talk to Johnny?”
Gina’s voice was puzzled. “Didn’t Jeff tell you? I called him last night and told him everything.”
Paige remembered Jeff taking a phone call from Gina last night, but she distinctly remembered him saying there was no change in the situation. A bad feeling swept over her as she stumbled towards the kitchen to start the coffee.
“He didn’t tell me.”
“Johnny let me go last night, which there’s something I have to tell you, by the way, but it will keep until I see you in person. Anyhoot, Sam and Sal picked me up and I offered to swing by and grab Justin on my way home, but Jeff said you were fine keeping him for the night.”
Oh, did he? Paige’s eyes narrowed as she dug through the cabinets. Instant, decaf, she didn’t care what it was. She needed coffee now.
“What time was that?” Paige was trying to remember when Jeff had been on the phone, but her brain wasn’t working correctly after only five hours of sleep. She was an eight consecutive hour sleep kind of girl.
“I don’t know. Eight o’clock or so. Why?”
The can of Folgers in front of her went blurry and she remembered exactly what had been going on when Jeff had been on the phone with Gina. She had been in the bedroom looking for condoms.
She had been walking back into the living room carrying them right as Jeff had been hanging up the phone.
The cabinet slammed shut without her even realizing she was doing it. She no longer wanted the coffee. All the coffee in the world wasn’t going to fix this.
Her mother’s voice rang in her head.
Benedetto boys are only after one thing.
Damn it, she really hated it when her mother was right.
Jeff had neglected to tell her Gina was coming home because they had been on the verge of making love. He had lied to get her into bed.
Fury was there, swift and sure, but hurt came like a bee sting, out of nowhere, a painful and pinching surprise.
Jeff wasn’t supposed to be like his brothers. He was supposed to be honest and thoughtful. She had been so sure he was.
But three years ago he had walked out on her. And last night he had lied to her.
“What’s with all the noise?” Jeff said from the kitchen doorway, lounging against the wall. “You’ll wake up Justin.”
He looked good enough to eat, standing there with tousled hair. He was wearing his wrinkled, black T-shirt that he had dragged on sometime during their walking sessions with Justin the night before. His jeans were getting that soft worn look, where they start to hang loose in strategic
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