Page 57 of Ugly Duckling
“They have a really good Mexican food place around the corner,” I said as I started her car up and listened to it purr. “Great chips and queso. Decent hot sauce. They also have a taco salad that they rave about, not that I’ve ever had it before. It is a little bit more popular around lunchtime, but I have an in with the bakery next door to it.”
“Is it the same bakery that we went to a few weeks ago?” she asked innocently.
I put her car into drive and let off the gas, pulling back onto the little back road that would take me to the main drag in front of the school.
“One and the same,” I teased, quickly checking both left and right before pulling out. “We can stop in for a cookie when we’re done.”
She looked torn. “If I get the salad and eat a minimal amount of chips, I can eat that cookie and not totally ruin my eating day.”
“Eat the food, honey,” I said as I headed toward the restaurant. “There’s always tomorrow to eat good.”
Thirteen
Stay the fuck out of my bubble.
—Sutton to Jackson
SUTTON
He kept glancing into his side mirror, and I started to get a little worried.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked into my own side mirror.
There was a black SUV following us, but they weren’t doing anything scary.
“SUV behind us has been following us for the last ten minutes,” he said as he put on his blinker.
I watched the SUV do the same in my side mirror.
“What do you think they want?”
He sighed, long and loud. “Unfortunately, I forgot to mention a few things.”
I whipped my head toward him. “What?”
“I have two elderly stalkers,” he admitted resignedly. “They follow me everywhere I go, take pictures of me. Have their private investigator follow me. Stake out Lottie’s daycare.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Why?”
“Lottie’s mom, Laney, was estranged from her parents when she passed away. She was estranged because her parents were overbearing assholes who wanted to control her every move. They hated her friends—Audric and Creole. They hated Creole’s mom and dad. They hated Audric’s dad. They hated even more that Laney was using the money that was given to her out of her inheritance from her grandmother to pay off debts for both Creole and Audric. Then, they hated even more that the money that they wanted to be theirs went to their firstborn granddaughter. Now, they want to have custody of Lottie so they can control her inheritance and likely brainwash her to think like them. But they’ve tried and failed to get custody of her multiple times now. But they’re still trying to find something that’ll prove I’m a bad father. Getting sued is a little overdue, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried that again today.”
“You’re joking, right?” she asked.
“Unfortunately not,” he grumbled as he pulled into the Mexican restaurant. “We’ll linger outside for a few moments to see if they’ll approach. That way they don’t make a scene while we’re trying to enjoy our queso.”
I shook my head and got out, my eyes on the black SUV that parked a few rows down from ours.
Gunner didn’t seem surprised in the least to find a man looking all official like getting out of the SUV and heading our way.
He also didn’t seem surprised to find an older couple following the man, their faces smug as fuck.
God, what assholes!
“Lottie coming into my life was amazing. Lottie’s maternal grandparents coming with her, not so much,” he murmured as they got closer.
The older woman behind must’ve heard his words, because her face soured.
“Mr. Penn,” the older man beside the smug-faced woman said. “We have an emergency hearing in the morning to discuss your inability to parent Lottie sufficiently. The judge, as well as us, feel like you are gone too much to provide the kind of care that your daughter needs. He agrees with our worry that you leave Lottie at daycare too long—sometimes twelve hours a day is completely ridiculous—and he thinks that she will have a better life with two very fit grandparents who are able and willing to give her a stable home where she can be taken care of at home instead of being raised by daycare workers.
