55
Walker
With a plush white towel wrapped around all the good stuff, I step out of the steamy bathroom. I’m sure Penny is having the time of her life at the baby shower right now.
I’m feeling pretty smug that her friends and I were able to pull this off. God knows I went through a ton of gymnastics to get everything organized behind Penny’s back.
The hardest part was getting Patricia Merlini here this afternoon. The woman didn’t even want to step away from her work for a few hours to attend her own daughter’s baby shower.
Anyway, all that matters is she’s here now. I saw her with my own two eyes. And the radiant smile on Penn’s face when she noticed her mother in the crowd made all my hard work worth it.
I’m already missing my girl. She might be hanging with her rowdy crew tonight but the rest of the weekend, she’s mine. I plan to spend tomorrow morning between these million-count thread sheets, ordering room service and teasing her body until she cries out my name. Then, we’ll explore the city and do touristy shit before driving back home at night. That’s the plan.
Just as I’m pulling on some fresh jeans, my phone rings in the middle of the bed. A videocall from Jude. I drop onto the edge of the mattress and answer the call.
My youngest brother’s haggard face comes into view. His hair is a mess, his eyes are red-rimmed, he needs a shave and even through the phone, I can tell that he smells pretty foul.
“Hey, man,” I say.
Cannon pops into the frame, bouncing Baby Di around. He doesn’t look much better than Jude as he tries to stick a bottle into the squirming baby’s mouth.
Dad passes by in the background, looking pretty rough, too, with Callie climbing all over his back.
I can’t help but laugh. “It looks like a damn zoo over there.” I squint at the phone.
Jude rubs a hand down his miserable, scruffy face. “I hope you’re proud of yourself, Walker. This is what my life turns into when Iris isn’t around. I miss my woman.”
“Yeah, when are the girls coming back? I’m going kind of crazy without Alexia.” Cannon looks borderline desperate.
Co-dependent, much?
“Would you needy jerks calm down?” I chortle. “The girls need some bonding time. Everyone will be home in a matter of hours.”
“So, how did Penny react when she realized it was her baby shower?” Cannon smirks at the screen.
“She was over the damn moon.” My blood fizzles like soda pop when I say it because that’s all I’ve ever wanted—seeing Penny happy.
Jude smiles a little. “I like seeing you like this, man. Domestic bliss looks good on you.”
“I don’t know why it took you so long to make it happen,” Dad huffs. “You could have had all this way sooner.”
I shrug. “Well, we’re together now.” And I have no intention of ever letting her go.
A frantic knock at the door interrupts our conversation. With the phone in hand, I get up and stride over to peer out the peephole. I tear the door open when I see my sisters-in-law on the other side with wide eyes.
Ma pushes past them and storms into my hotel room. “Is Penny here?” She glances around like a mad woman.
“What?! No.” I follow after my mother. My nerves already zapping to life. “What the hell is going on?”
Iris stares at me from beneath a crinkled brow. “We can’t find her anywhere. She’s gone. Penny’s missing.”
“Somebody needs to tell me what happened,” I demand.
The girls ramble over each other. Something about opening presents and half-naked strippers and Patricia spending the whole evening on her phone. My brain can’t make sense of anything they’re saying. All I know is Penny is missing. And she’s carrying my babies.
My phone falls from my hand and I’m already out the door. I don’t bother with the elevator. I push open the emergency exit. The stairs are cold beneath my bare feet as I take them three at a time.
Am I even wearing a shirt? Frankly, I don’t know.
Chicago was a bad idea.
56
Penny
In a secluded corner of the hotel’s lobby, I find my mother seated in a stylish armchair with her phone to her ear and her computer open in her lap.
On shaky knees, I take myself in that direction.
My shadow stretches over her and she looks up at me with impatience on her arched brow. “Eduardo, I’ll call you right back,” she says into the phone before ending the call. She squares her shoulders toward me. “What is it now?” she mutters, annoyance dripping from her voice.
“You walked out of my baby shower, Mom. You didn’t even say goodbye.” I clench my fists defensively.
“I needed a reliable internet connection, Penelope. The reception on that rooftop was dreadful.”
Heat races up my neck to my cheeks. “No, you did not need an internet connection. You’re my mother and you were at my baby shower so you did not need an internet connection.” I speak through gritted teeth. “I am just so tired of this. I’m tired of being polite about being ignored. You’ve done it my entire life, Mom.”
“It’s work, Penelope.” She says it like I don’t understand the meaning of the word. “I apologize if my making a valuable contribution to society hurts your feelings,” she says dryly, “but the world doesn’t slow down just because you’ve decided to go and get yourself pregnant.”
“Excuse me?” I blink at her harsh words.
“It’s time for you to grow up. Understand how the adult world works. Your life revolves around getting attention from me and frankly, I’d expected that you’d be self-sufficient by now.” Her focus drops back to her computer and she huffs.
I grip my belly protectively and growl. “Nothing in my life has ever been important to you. Nothing, Mom.” The hotel’s guests are staring. I can’t bring myself to care.
“Well maybe that’s because you’ve never done anything attention-worthy.” The words hit me hard and suddenly, I’ve never felt more loneliness, sadness. Rising to her feet, she glares at me, so much disappointment in her eyes. “I afforded you every opportunity. Every possibility a young girl could ever dream of. And what did you do? Bartending all throughout your twenties. And don’t get me started on this whole interior design mess. I did not send you to the most prestigious school north of Chicago so you could end up choosing lampshades and pillow cases for a living. And now, this baby nonsense—”
I hear a roar rip through the air behind me. “Enough!”
I spin around and find Walker standing there. Chest bare and heaving. Jaw angled sharply. Lips pressed firmly together.
With one massive step, he approaches my mother. “You think you’re all important with your big lawsuits and your big ego. But lady, you suck.”
My mother visibly recoils and gasps out loud. “You will not speak to me like that.”
Walker stands in front of me like a shield. “I will speak to you in whatever way necessary to get the message across.” I can feel his rage beaming off of him in waves. “I drove my pregnant girlfriend all the way into the city for this event to make sure you would be here. All of her friends left Crescent Harbor and came down here to make sure you would be here. The whole reason this baby shower is happening in this very hotel was to make sure you would be here. To make it easier for you to attend your own daughter’s baby shower. Because regardless of all the times you’ve disappointed her, she loves you. She hasn’t given up on you. And this is how you treat her?”
I peer at my mother as she scowls wordlessly at Walker. I’ve never seen her look so small.
“What’s the point of your life if you refuse to connect with anybody? What’s the point if your own daughter can’t depend on you? All the success in the world means nothing if you’re a shitty human being. You’re not impressing anybody.”
My mother glares in silence for a long beat. Then, with an iron jaw, she simply grabs her things. “There’s nothing left to say here.” She stomps out of the
building, not looking back.
In that moment, I know—I’m done with this. Done with her.
Fuck it. I don’t need her anymore.
With a hand on my shoulder, Walker guides me toward the elevator, leaving a crowd of gape-jawed spectators in the lobby.
Once the lift’s doors close, I collapse against his strong chest. He swallows me up with his arms and whispers into my hair. “Fuck. I’m so sorry, Princess.”
Tucked against his body, I mumble. "I'm tired of not being good enough for her.” I wrap my arms around him, hoping that will somehow ease the pain. “I gave my mother a piece of my liver and even that couldn’t get her to love me.”
He tilts my face up so his stare meets mine. “Fuck that lady,” he says. “I’m giving you a piece of my heart. Hell, I’m giving you all of it. And I’m wanting you to give me a piece of yours. I love you. I want you. I’ll claim you. I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you. Forever.”
All I can do is hold him. “I love you.”
He escorts me back to my baby shower, his laser glare keeping the male strippers at bay. He leaves me with my friends and the girls shower me with gifts and attention and love.
And right there, I decide—I have all the validation I need in my life. Patricia Merlini may have birthed me but she is not my mother, she never has been, and now I’m okay with that.
I don’t need her anymore.
When the party is over, I go back to my hotel room and I make beautiful love to my man. Then, he holds me tight against his body.
Tangled up in the sheets, in the dark room, he kisses my scalp. “Are you okay?”
I nod against the pillow. “Yes, I’m okay. Better than okay. I feel…free.”
Walker locks me in a protective embrace and I feel safe. But I also feel strong. And that’s a beautiful gift. With our babies growing inside me, I fall asleep, snuggled up next to my soulmate.
So, when his phone rings in the middle of the night and he bolts upright in the bed, I know it’s my turn to be strong for him.
I sit up, too, and rest a hand on his tense back. Faintly, I hear a panicked male voice bleeding through the speaker but I can’t make out the words.
With the phone clutched to his ear, Walker swings his legs over the side of the mattress.
“You’re what?” he growls into the phone. “You’re in jail?”
57
Walker
Bert Peters trails a uniformed officer down the fluorescent-lit hallway of the Crescent Harbor police station.
His dark hair is sticking up in all directions and his pants are wrinkled, but as usual, his trademark chest hair patch pokes out at the collar of his button-down. He looks tired, downtrodden, washed-up. The epitome of a deadbeat. My stomach turns at the mere sight of the man.
Frank is at the clerk’s desk, dealing with the bail formalities. I’m perched on a hard bench in the station’s reception area.
When I stand, Penny stands alongside me. We had to cut our Chicago trip short to come deal with this mess so I’m good and pissed about it.
Yes, apparently it’s International Confront a Deadbeat Weekend. I missed the memo.
I tried convincing my girl to let me drop her off at home but she insisted she wants to be here with me. I’m done shutting her out. I’m letting her into my life now—even into the dark parts. Allowing her to support me in this moment is part of that. And, y’know what? Her standing here beside me makes me feel stronger. I can’t lie.
The officer hands Bert his phone and wallet, then releases him into my custody.
The shell of a man scrubs a hand down his face as he approaches. “Walker. Thanks for coming to bail me—”
“I didn’t do this for you, asshole.” I growl.
I’m here because there’s something I need to say to him and I need to say it in person.
He gives me a perplexed look. Then his eyes bounce over to Penny. I take a protective stance in front of her. If he thinks I’ll let him get in her head and use her to gain some sympathy, he has another thing coming to him.
With a hand on my woman’s hip, I guide her out of the station. I hear Bert’s sluggish footsteps trudging behind us.
On the sidewalk outside the building, he speaks up. “I really tried not to call you, Walker. I really tried figuring out my mess this time, paying off this gambling debt on my own,” he explains. “Because you have a kid on the way and a beautiful woman in your life. But I was running out of options and I had to steal the money. At least, I tried to. Last night, I got caught and arrested and you were my one phone call.” I spin around to face him. When I glare without saying anything, he goes on jabbering. “I’m trying to be different, better. I see that you have your own family now and it’s just magnifying all the ways I failed you.” He hangs his head. “I’m ashamed, Walker, but I’m trying.”
He looks so fucking pitiful. For a split second, I almost feel sorry for him. After all, I nearly lost out on the chance to be an active participant in my own children’s lives so maybe he and I have that one thing in common.
But then I remember—Bert Peters is not a good man. He’s not some innocent dude who was deprived of the chance to be involved in his son’s life. He has used my paternity as a tool, as a weapon, as a means to collect a pay check every time his funds ran low. Because he knew that my parents—my real parents—would do anything, spend anything, to protect me. And when I became an adult, I couldn’t shrug off the shame associated with the truth of my paternity so I continued the tradition of giving Bert hand-outs so he’d keep his mouth shut. But as of right now, I’m done being this low-life’s preferred source of passive income.
I let go of Penny’s waist and get up in his face to make sure he hears me loud and clear. “If you want to make good on your threats and tell the whole world that I’m your bastard spawn, be my guest. I won’t let you hold anything over my head anymore.”
He fumbles with his words. “I-it’s not like that, Walker. You know it. You act like, like it was blackmail or something. It wasn’t that. It’s just…sometimes, money runs low and I need a little…help. And—”
“This is the last time you’ll ever contact me,” I announce in a growl. “Or else, you see that scary-faced guy in the expensive-looking business suit over there?” I motion to the unpleasant man exiting the police station, growling ferally into his cellphone. “That’s my lawyer, Frank, and he’d be happy to do some very nasty but perfectly legal things to you if you come near me or my family again.”
Penny cups a hand around her mouth. “I wouldn’t mess with Frank,” she advises in a loud whisper. “Frank is Aunt Lucille’s boyfriend. He’s kind of vindictive and he’s got an unreasonably fierce protective streak. He would not be happy to find out how hard you tried to get into his woman’s pants.”
I cinch Penny’s hand in mine and nod in confirmation. “True facts.”
Bert grunts like a defeated man.
I give the sorry-looking bastard a final once-over. “And for heaven’s sake, button up your damn shirt. Nobody wants to see all that chest hair.”
Hands joined, Penny and I walk away. Inside my truck, I call up my brothers and Dad. I hit the gas and tell them to meet up with me at Cannon’s office at the end of the day. It’s time that the Kingston men have a little heart-to-heart.
I’m done being ashamed of who I am. I’m done trying to hide it.
I toss my phone into the cupholder and glance over at Penny. “I’m dropping you off at Lucille’s so you can pack up your shit.” It’s an order. Not a request. We’re done playing games. She’s mine and I can’t live without her so she’s coming to stay with me. In the home she designed for us.
She glares at me for a long moment and then she says, “For the record, I was ready to come back to the cabin anyway.” She folds her arms over her chest. Then she grumbles. “You’d better get ready ‘cause you’ll be on nightly foot rub duty for the rest of my pregnancy.”
I try not to smirk because nightly foot rub duty so
unds like a treat. I’d embrace any opportunity to get my hands on this woman.
When I pull up to Miss Lucille’s curb, I give Penny a long smoldering kiss. “Call me to pick you up in the morning.” We exchange ‘I love you’s and, with my heart singing a Lady Gaga song, I drive away.
That evening, I meet up with Jude, Cannon and my dad. We sit down with whiskey in the conference room of Kingston Realty Holdings and I admit to my brothers that we don’t share the same biological father. Dad explains the situation to them, starting at the beginning.
I can see the initial shock in their eyes but they each make it clear that my paternity changes nothing between us. My younger brothers have every intention to continue giving me shit. As always.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Bert Peters has nothing on me anymore.
58
Penny
I’ve got boxes and garbage bags piled up on the back bench. There’s a suitcase crammed into the passenger’s seat beside me.
Kudos to my shitty hatchback for making it this far because I half-expected it to collapse under the weight of all my junk within 30 seconds of leaving Aunt Lucille’s house.
Early morning sun rays peek out from behind the clouds. Smiling, I guide the car along the private drive past the Kingston guesthouse and head toward Walker’s cabin. Our cabin now, I guess.
I know my overprotective man said he’d come pick me up but I’m holding onto my damn independence. Driving myself over here is not a big deal.
I’m just so excited to see Walker because there’s something very important I need to do with him today. I glance at the 17-page document poking out at the top of my handbag and my heart accelerates. Once Walker and I deal with the contract, there will be nothing else standing in the way of our little family.
As I approach the cabin, I lean forward to peer at the building through my windshield. “What the hell is going on here?” I mutter.
Mister Baby Daddy (Bad Boys in Love Book 3) Page 28