Page 58 of Easy On Me

“Come on,” I murmured, easing her away from the door and nudging her toward the bedroom. “I’ll make you some of that lemon ginger tea you like. It’ll help.”

She looked at me, wide-eyed. “Tyler, what am I going to do?”

“Tonight, we’re going to calm down and try to get some sleep.” Right. Now I was lying. Neither one of us would sleep after this. “Tomorrow, we’ll figure out what to do next. Maybe I’ll move in with you.”

Wrapping her arms tight around her, she frowned at me. “You do not need to move in here.”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Go get in the bed, under the covers so you’re warm, and I’ll bring your tea.”

In the kitchen, I stuck a mug under the faucet and shoved it in the microwave. Rummaging around, I found her tea bags. Maybe I’d beat Noah’s ass myself. Not like I hadn’t had to throw hands with a male before. It had been years, but still . . . muscle memory. And he was weak. A good threat might do it.

Jase would have a fit if he knew what I was thinking.

I drew up short.

It didn’t matter what Jase thought. He didn’t matter anymore. I was done with the messiness surrounding him. My baby was getting a neat, structured, easy life.

Elizabeth Hall giving birth to his half-sibling before he was even born, having access to his father, to his life?

I clutched the edge of the counter, knuckles white.

No way I was letting that happen to him.

At one o’clock the next day, I parked next to Maggie in the parking lot at Scott Barlow’s law office, a converted Craftsman house on the street behind the bank. I’d ignored two texts, two phone calls, and one voicemail from Jase before work, although I’d stopped short of blocking him.

But I meant I would walk out of this office with what I needed to end our marriage and protect my baby.

Even if I couldn’t make myself take Jase’s rings off my finger. I’d played with them all morning, spinning the diamond round and round, the way my brain wanted to spiral ever since the afternoon before.

Maggie hugged me before we walked up the concrete path to the steps, and she opened the door, old hinges protesting as we stepped inside. The skinny hardwoods creaked under our footsteps, and the caramel-blonde at the desk in the big room beyond the foyer smiled at us. “Tyler?”

“Yes.” I narrowed my eyes, studying her. She was familiar . . . she dated Jase’s buddy Tate. And was Elizabeth Hall’s sister, the one she’d demonized with her social media channel. I stiffened. Had they made up? Would she know I’d been here?

“Hey, I’m Hannah. We spoke on the phone earlier.” Her voice was calm, soothing, but I didn’t relax. Maybe I should have already called Mama Nancy, let her help me find a lawyer, but I needed to handle this on my own. I was going to be somebody’s mama, and good mamas took care of things. Rising, she came around the desk to usher us toward the open door to the left. “Mr. Barlow is ready for you.”

Through the doorway, I glimpsed Scott at his desk, wearing another white dress shirt and another bowtie, this one burgundy with thin navy stripes. He rose as Hannah walked us to the door. “Hey.”

Maggie smiled at him and rubbed my back. “You remember my friend, Tyler? Sweetie, this is my friend Scott Barlow.”

I tried to smile, but my lips pinched into a pained grimace. “Thank you for seeing me.”

“Of course.” He waved us toward the pair of nail-studded leather chairs in front of his desk. I sat, tucking my feet under the chair and clenching my hands in my lap. He settled behind the desk and looked at me. “Tell me how I can help you today.”

My knuckles ached. The light danced over Jase’s great-grandmother’s engagement ring, picking out small scratches on the gold band. The same light glinted off my shiny new wedding ring. We hadn’t clocked enough time together yet for it to have scratches. Maggie angled toward me, tension bracketing her mouth. Concern darkened her eyes, but fear lingered there, too, from last night. I sucked in a breath and straightened my shoulders. I had to handle my own bullshit, so I could help her with hers.

“I’ve been married a few weeks. I’m pregnant.” Somehow, I clenched my fists even tighter. My rings bit into the side of my finger. “Can I get a divorce with supervised visitation?”

He didn’t even look surprised, although his right eye twitched a little.

“Okay, let’s back up a little bit. You can absolutely get a divorce now, but the custody part really doesn’t come into play until the baby is born.” His voice even and calm enough to make me want to scream, he jotted a couple of notes on a pad. “You said you’d only been married a few weeks.”

I nodded. “We were seeing each other. I got pregnant, so we decided . . .”

My voice broke. It sounded so stupid now, so naive. Get pregnant and marry the guy, thinking you’d live happily ever after while you built something beautiful. Life didn’t work like that. Maggie chafed my shoulder, her gaze on my face.

“Anyway.” I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze head on. “His ex is pregnant. I don’t want her anywhere around my baby.”

“I see.” He sounded like he did. Maybe he saw Elizabeth Hall for what she was. “Let me ask you this . . . if she wasn’t pregnant, would you want out of the marriage?”