A Teeny Bit of Trouble Read Online Free Page A

earlier this summer. You never said she was Barb’s child. You said your old roommate was pulling a prank.”
    “He’s done things like that before. I tried to contact him, but he wouldn’t return my calls. That’s how Burke is. He sets up a practical joke and makes me squirm.”
    “But didn’t you wonder about that child?”
    “No, because she didn’t come back. I really believed it was a joke. I pushed the incident out of my mind. Then this afternoon, Barb phoned. She said I was the little girl’s dad. I was in shock. But I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to know why she’d waited a decade to tell me about Emerson. I’d planned to tell you everything.”
    I narrowed my eyes. “When?”
    “Tonight. I’ve been calling your house since ten o’clock.”
    I wanted to believe him, I really did. But I couldn’t. “Let me get this straight. A ten-year-old girl showed up at your house. A girl with gray eyes, just like yours. And you never once connected her to Barb? Because eleven years ago, you and her were sleeping together.”
    “It crossed my mind. But only for a second. Barb and I broke up after I started college. We had a blow up right around Halloween. If she’d been carrying my child, she would have forced me to marry her. She wouldn’t have kept quiet for ten years.”
    Arithmetic wasn’t my specialty—I even had trouble reducing recipes. But I counted on my fingers, trying to do the math of Barb and Coop. “You and her broke up in late October. She gave birth to Emerson over a year later, the end of December. No one has a fourteen-month pregnancy. You had to know the child wasn’t yours. Yet you still went to her house?”
    Coop’s brow puckered. “December? No, that’s not right. Barb said Emerson was born in September.”
    “Well, somebody’s mistaken. Because Emerson claims her birthday is December twenty-third.”
    “This doesn’t make sense. Barb was specific about the date, September fourth.”
    “Even so, if Barb had been pregnant when you broke up with her, the baby would have been born in July or early August of the year.”
    “Barb claimed that she went six weeks overdue. I should have known she was lying.”
    From the kitchen, I could hear Emerson lecture T-Bone about the evils of preservatives. Coop set the Pepto bottle on a table. He took my hand and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles.
    “I should have told you about Barb. But I was in panic-mode. I am so sorry. I wouldn’t ever hurt you. You’re the only thing that’s right in my life. When I look into the future, I see us together. All wrinkled and gray-haired. Just you and me.”
    “But I need you to share your worries with me. Don’t hide them behind a lie. Even if you’re trying to protect me.” Tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t know much. I was too short and my grammar was all wrong. But deep down I knew that it would take more than a lie to make me stop loving him. I could identify his pine-and-cotton scent if I fell into a vat of ammonia. He had this way of tipping back his head when he laughed. And I got shaky when he gave me a lopsided smile. I am a shy person, but I felt brave whenever he took my hand and led me into a crowded restaurant.
    Be a hard-ass, Teeny. The man has a separate set of rules for himself. And when he’s threatened, he shuts down emotionally .
    He kept stroking my hand. It felt just right. But my reaction was all wrong. A woman was missing, maybe even dead. A child had been abandoned. This touched my personal raw spot, one that had never healed.
    “Coop, we should call the police.”
    “And tell them what?”
    “That a man strangled Barb Philpot.”
    “But you said he used a key to get into her house.”
    “Maybe he stole it.”
    “The police will be more interested in you.” He glanced at my wet suit. “They’ll want to know why you were peeking through Barb’s window.”
    “It was a door.”
    “As your lawyer, I’m advising you to skip the police. At least for