Dalton held back the words he really wanted to say. Saying them would be too easy, and he wouldn’t waste his time, mainly because what Caden said had struck a nerve. His love life really sucked lately. The women were there aplenty, easy as Sunday morning and ready and willing, but his interest wasn’t. It was as if that one kiss with Jules had affected his entire body. Definitely one part in particular. All it took was for him to remember his tongue tangling with hers, and he would get hard and be consumed with a sexual need the likes of which he’d never felt before.
“We’re here.”
He glanced ahead as Jace pulled through the gates of Delvers Correctional Center. It would be the first time he’d seen his father since admitting to his brothers that he’d known about their mother’s affair. It was a secret he’d held for almost twenty years, and it was time to set it free.
*
“Good morning, Manning.”
“What’s so good about it?”
Jules rolled her eyes. Evidently, it would be one of those mornings. Emanuel Carmichael, all six feet three inches and two hundred and five pounds of him, was her administrative assistant and a darned good one. Usually he was in a good mood, but not this morning. He and his partner must have had a tiff. Hell, if anyone should be in a bad mood, it was Jules. She had pulled out her little red book last night only to find that Ray Ford had remarried his wife as she’d suspected, and the next three prospects were now in serious relationships.
“Nothing, I guess. Sorry I asked,” she said, quickly moving to her office.
Once inside, she closed the door behind her and immediately headed for the coffeepot. At least Manning’s anger hadn’t stopped him from making sure she had coffee as usual. What would she do without him? She hoped she never had to find out. He helped to keep her day normal and ran her office like a charm during those times she was away.
They had gone through the police academy in Boston together, but he’d resigned after his first month on the streets, deciding he preferred an inside job shuffling papers to being outside shuffling criminals. Manning was too handsome for his own good and extremely well built, but his sexual preference relegated their relationship to a very close friendship. When she had followed her dad to Charlottesville and opened a private investigator’s office, Manning, who had just split from his lover, decided that a change of scenery would do him good. They had opened this office together, and both did what they did best. He shuffled papers, and she still shuffled criminals, so to speak.
After her last grueling investigation, she had decided not to take on any new cases until the first of the year, so her days were spent closing out old files, doing follow-ups and filing reports. She’d also been summoned to court to testify on a kidnapping case she had solved a few months ago. That meant a trip to Miami next week. Hmm...a few days in South Beach sounded nice, considering the weather there and what she was dealing with here.
An hour later, after going over several reports and vouchers, Jules heard Manning’s voice come across the intercom on her desk. “You have a visitor, Ms. Sweet.” And before he hung up, he said in a low voice, “Sweet Pea.”
Sweet Pea was a nickname she’d been given by other local PIs. Her agency was the J.B. Sweet Agency. It wasn’t uncommon for private investigators to use fictitious names for privacy as well as protection. The last thing you want is for someone—like a deadbeat dad you’ve arrested—to show up on your doorstep or in a dark alley. Nothing wrong with playing it safe. And since she was a woman and most people preferred having a man handle their investigative work, she used her first and last initials as well as her mother’s maiden name, hence the moniker J. B. Sweet.
Jules frowned. She didn’t have any appointments today, so it must be a walk-in. Why was Manning bothering her when all he had to do was tell the person she wasn’t taking on any new cases until after the holidays? “You better have a good reason for interrupting me, Manning.” She heard his chuckle. Chuckle? Hadn’t he been in a sour mood just moments ago?
“I do have a good reason,” Manning replied. “It’s Mr. B.”
“Dad?” she asked, surprised. Not that he’d never come to her office, but lately his time had been filled with Mona, Mona and more Mona.
“Yes, the one and only. Can I send him in?”