Page 104 of Now or Never

Vincent nodded. “Yes. And I’d love to meet Jae.”

Chelsea glanced at her house, anticipating Jae’s excitement. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Chelsea laughed. “Yes!”

Vincent smiled. “I can’t wait. God, it feels good to do somethingIwant for a change. Let’s go meet Jae.”

They walked toward her house, Chelsea still in a state of shock.

“Hey,” Vincent said after a few strides. “Can I tour the inside of your house, too? I wondered if you had an attic or a basement that might work for the murder scene.”

Chelsea nodded. “I have the perfect barn.”

thirty-two

Adam walked up and down the toy store aisles, filling his cart with anything and everything he thought Ben might like. It was half full, but he was going to keep adding toys until the cart was overflowing and gifts were literally falling onto the floor. He’d just left his therapist’s office, and his words still rang in Adam’s ears.

He knew exactly what he had to do.

He’d tried to call Chelsea two days before to see how they were doing, but his call had gone directly to voice mail, so he figured she’d probably blocked his number. Less than ideal, but he was determined to come back from it.

And as his uncle had told him, if she was smart enough to tell him to fuck off, she was worth the effort to win back. Even if it took a lifetime.

He rounded the corner, pulling a few boxes of building sets from a display and tossing them into the cart, and looked up to find the superhero aisle.

Perfect.

He walked down the aisle with his arm out, sweeping every Spider-Man toy into the cart. Ben was going to love this.

He paused for a moment, wondering whether Chelsea would accuse him of trying to buy his way into their lives, then shrugged and kept walking.

Ben had invited him to his birthday party, and Adam was just making up for the fact that he’d missed it. If he hadn’t been so stubborn back then and had accepted the fact that he was completely in love with them, he would have brought gifts for the kid. So this wasn’t an inappropriate gesture.

He looked down at the cart and could hear his father’s voice in his head about spoiling kids. Shit, maybe this was a bad idea.

Another shrug. He’d worry about raising kids the right way if—when—Chelsea forgave him and let him into their lives. For now, he was going to spoil.

“Hi, do you need some help?”

Adam blinked at the salesgirl, looking at his cart as if he’d lost his mind, and smiled. “Nope. I’m done.”

“If you’re shopping for a toy drive, we have complimentary wrapping and delivery.”

Toy drive? Shit. Hedefinitelytook it too far.

“Uh, no. No, this is just for me. But I do need wrapping paper. Where is that?”

She led him down the aisle, and he searched for Spider-Man wrapping paper, but there was none, so he bought the toys and went to a different store for the wrapping paper.

Three hours and four stores later, he was on the floor of his living room, surrounded by toys and empty rolls of wrapping paper and tape, with scraps of paper everywhere. But there was a towering stack of red and blue presents ready to go.

He loaded them all in his truck, then realized he’d lost almost all day and evening. It was 6:48.

What time did kids go to bed? He had no clue.

He sent a quick text to Mia asking what Ben’s bedtime might be. She texted back “prbly 8,” so he figured it was safe to go over. Ben might not have time to unwrap all the presents, but he could work on the rest in the morning.

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