Free The Mommy Mystery by Delores Fossen

for Lily Rose and you, too, if you need them.”
    “We brought our own things,” Gabrielle told him, and she frowned at the iciness in her voice. She really wanted to blame Houston for all of this, but it seemed less and less likely that he’d had any part in it.
    “I’m going to freshen up,” Lily Rose said. “If you need me, just give a yell.”
    The woman glanced at Gabrielle, probably to see if she had any objections to being left alone with Houston. She did. But Lily Rose didn’t need to babysit her.
    “It’s okay,” Gabrielle assured her, and Lily Rose went off to her room.
    “You’re exhausted,” Houston commented.
    And as if it was the most normal and routine thing in the world, he took Lucas from her arms and carried him to the crib. He didn’t lay the baby down right away, but instead kissed his cheek and smiled at him.
    Gabrielle could see it then—the strong resemblance.It was uncanny and unnerving just how much Lucas looked like his father. He was indeed a Sadler.
    That didn’t do much to steady her nerves.
    Houston glanced back at her and his smile faded. Heaven knows how horrible and terrified she must have looked, because it prompted him to lay the baby down on his side in the crib. Houston tucked the blanket around Lucas and came back across the room toward her.
    “You look like you’re ready to pass out. Or something. It’s almost dinnertime,” he said, checking his watch. “I can have trays brought up for Lily Rose and you.”
    “Thank you.” And she meant it. She was too numb to be hungry, but she had to eat for Lucas’s sake.
    Houston stared at her. “About Jay…” However, he ended that with a heavy, frustrated breath.
    “I’ll talk to him,” Gabrielle insisted, “but I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for why those men went to his apartment. It’s probably just some kind of mix-up. Jay hasn’t lived there very long, so maybe the guys were looking for the previous owner.”
    Though that did seem like a strange coincidence.
    “You’re defending him again.” Houston didn’t say that with anger, or even as an accusation. Merely as a statement of fact.
    It was true. She was indeed defending Jay, something she’d done most of her life. “He’s my kid brother,” Gabrielle settled for saying.
    “And you practically raised him after your mother was killed when you were nineteen,” Houston added.
    She blinked, surprised that he knew that about her.
    Houston just shrugged. “I had a background check run on you when Jay brought the lawsuit against me.”
    Of course he had; and he probably knew that Jay had been in and out of trouble since he was fourteen. Their mother’s death had sent him into a bad spiral that had led to a lot of bad choices—and a juvenile arrest record for drug possession. Since their father had left years earlier, when Jay was just a baby, Gabrielle had taken care of him out of necessity.
    “I didn’t do a good job of raising him,” Gabrielle mumbled.
    “You were nineteen,” Houston countered. He took her by the arm and led her to the love seat in the sitting area. “Sit down,” he insisted.
    She did, because she wasn’t sure she could stand much longer anyway. Houston sat next to her.
    “You’re having an adrenaline crash,” he explained. “If you want to take a nap, I can sit here and watch the baby while you sleep.”
    It was so tempting, but the reprieve wouldn’t be without consequences. She should be trying to push Houston away and not draw him closer into their lives.
    Like now, for instance.
    Unlike the rest of the room and the house, the love seat wasn’t that large, and Houston and she were practically hip to hip. Much too close.
    “Right,” he mumbled, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. And feeling.
    Houston slowly got to his feet and began to make his way to the door. He didn’t get even halfway when his phone rang. The noise shot through the room, and Lucas immediately began to cry.
    She hurried to