Read Online Unwrapping the Playboy by Marie Ferrarella - Free Book Online

all I can handle at a time. There’s no telling what you might do. I saw you get angry once,” she recalled. “Not a pretty sight.”
    â€œOffer’s on the table anytime you want to take me up on it, honey.”
    Finished copying, Lilli filed the copies of the documents in a light blue folder. Leaving the folder on her desk, she rounded it and put her arms around her mother.
    â€œThanks, Mom, I’ll keep that in mind.” Lilli gave the older woman a quick, heartfelt hug. “You’re the best, Mom.”
    â€œGlad you finally noticed that,” Anne said with just the right amount of dryness. “And don’t worry about hurrying back,” she said as Lilli turned toward the desk again and slipped the documents she’d just compiledinto the recesses of her large black rectangular purse. The latter could have doubled as a briefcase and not a small one, either. “I was thinking about spending the night here anyway.” Her mother’s light blue eyes seemed to dance as she told her, “I brought some of your old storybooks over to read to Jonathan.”
    Lilli smiled warmly and predicted, “He’ll get a big kick out of that.”
    â€œSo will I,” Anne confessed. “When I’m not tearing up,” she added. She watched her daughter zip up the purse. “Got everything?” she pressed.
    â€œEverything,” Lilli echoed, taking no offense at her mother double-checking her. She was only acting out of concern. Lilli hefted the purse and slid it onto her right shoulder.
    â€œThen, good luck,” Anne said, following her to the front door.
    Passing the family room, Lilli stopped for a moment, peering in. She wondered if it was normal to have her heart swell every time she looked at her son. “I’ve got to go out again, Jonathan. But I’ll be back soon.” She knew he liked her to touch base with him. “Don’t forget your homework.”
    Jonathan pretended to hang his head, like a prisoner sentenced to twenty years hard labor. “I won’t forget, Mom.”
    Lilli turned toward her mother. “And don’t you do it for him, either,” she warned.
    Anne’s nearly unlined face was the picture of innocence. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
    A small laugh escaped Lilli’s lips. “I don’t believe you.” Her mother was a pushover and they both knewit. Moreover, Jonathan knew it. But it was time to go. “I love you,” she called out to her son.
    â€œLove you back,” Jonathan answered, his attention already back to the robot on the screen.
    Who could ask for more than this? Lilli smiled as she went out the front door. Whatever it took, she would keep that boy in her life.
    Â 
    Rather than terminate early, court had taken longer than Kullen had counted on.
    And then, leaving, he’d gotten tangled up in the traffic jam from hell. His temper, usually level, was definitely the worse for wear tonight.
    He needed to unwind.
    He didn’t have the luxury.
    Kullen had been in his house exactly three minutes when the doorbell rang. The kid from the pizzeria had to have made every single light, he thought.
    He’d ordered takeout on his way home. The restaurant’s number was one of the first on speed dial on both his cell phone and his landline at home. Convenience was a high priority for him, given his drive-by lifestyle.
    Digging money out of his wallet, Kullen crossed back to the foyer. He threw open the front door, holding up two twenties.
    â€œI thought I was supposed to pay you,” Lilli said drily. And then she made the only logical assumption from the look of surprise on his face. “You forgot I was coming by with the papers, didn’t you?”
    He hadn’t forgotten. How could he? Lilli had been on his mind all afternoon, creeping, entirely unbidden,into his thoughts. During the court case, images of Lilli, past and present, kept materializing