by Natalie Ann
“I won’t tell a soul, Finn. I promise. What did she say when you told her that Trey was yours?”
“I didn’t. I was too pissed that I was right, that she was going to try to play that game with me. That she was going to use Trey—my son, not hers, but mine—to leverage me for something. Instead of answering I slammed the door in her face.”
“She’ll pay me a visit next.”
“No she won’t.”
He was more clueless than she would have given him credit for.
“Finn. I know her type. If she hasn’t found out who I am yet, she will by the end of the night. I guarantee I’ll see her soon. If she is after money, then she knows where to go for it. I’m going to get the whole sob story from her perspective. She was young, she was foolish, and she is having second thoughts and wants to be part of Trey’s life. Part of your life again. That she is willing to fight for it. Then she’ll sweetly inform me I can give her an incentive to go away and not ruin what we have. She might even throw out there that Trey possibly isn’t yours and what a scandal I’d be drawn into. Such a big messy affair when I’m trying to get my business off the ground.”
“Sounds like you’ve been there before.”
“If not me, then someone else in my social circle. It gets tiring. The jealousy and the fits of rage. Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t buy love.”
“What are you saying?”
Crap, did she just use the L word with him? “About what?”
He smiled, the first smile she’d seen since she came in, and he was starting to look more relaxed too. “That you love me enough to buy her off.”
“I don’t know how you came to that conclusion.”
His smile faded and she regretted the words. They didn’t come out the way she meant, and she couldn’t leave him hanging. He’d been knocked down enough the last few weeks. Today alone might have been enough to break him, but he wasn’t broken.
If she knew one thing about Finn, it was that he would fight with everything he had to protect Trey.
“Maybe I’m wrong.”
“No, you’re not. Not one hundred percent. I wouldn’t pay her off. I wouldn’t pay anyone off. That’s not who I am. Normally I’d walk away from that kind of drama. Too much stress for me. I could do without it. That’s what I always told myself. Why stay and fight for something? It’s not worth it, something else will come along.”
“And now?”
He was holding his breath, she saw that. “Now I’d fight her off with everything I had. I love you too much to walk away from you. To walk away from Trey.”
“I feel exactly the same way about you.”
He pulled her close and held her tight. Her eyes were starting to burn and water. She’d been told she was loved before by many men, but never by someone she had known would fight for her. Never anyone she truly believed would.
“Maybe you could say the words to me. Maybe I need to hear them.”
“I’ll say them, but they’re just words. I’d rather show you. I’d rather you knew in your heart that I loved you. I’m not the type of man who says them often, but I’ll always try to show you. Still, I’ll say them now. I love you, Olivia.”
She wiped her tears on his shirt, then leaned up and kissed him hard on the lips.
“Wow, who would have thought a visit from your ex would end up in our declaration of love.”
“Not me,” he said, laughing. “And not to change the subject back to her, but I have to say, I don’t think she is going to go away just because you tell her to leave. If she even shows up. It’s not her style. She’s here and whatever her reason is, she’s going to make trouble.”
“I don’t think she will go away either. But trust me on this, she’ll show up at my door. So tell me more. Tell me what is going on, what happened, what your plans are. We can do this together. You said you told her to get a lawyer.”
There was no good time to talk about this, but at this point, she needed to know everything. They needed to plan together. She was in this for the long haul.
He sighed. She watched as he weighed his words, then just shrugged and started. “Yeah. I’ve got everything in order on my end. When she left, I waited a few months to hear something, but there was nothing.”
“You don’t even know where she went?”
“I thought of hiring a private investigator but decided against it. Why bother? She made herself clear on what she wanted. I sure the hell didn’t want her back. It didn’t seem worth it to waste money on tracking down someone I could care less about. It was money better used for legal fees.”
“I have to ask.” She took a deep breath and finally blurted out, “Did you love her? I feel like there are all these mixed signals in terms of your relationship. Part of me doesn’t want to know, but the other part of me feels I need to understand. I mean she admitted she was sleeping around.”
He reached over and lightly clasped her hand. “No, I don’t think I ever loved her. I want to say she was a mistake, but then I’d be saying Trey was, and I’d never say that. Ever. It’s a classic story. I met her in a bar. She was bartending nights, going to college during the day.”
“College? How old was she?”
Pieces were starting to fall into place now. All the times she sensed that Finn was unsure of her, of their relationship. Was it because she was so much younger than him?
“Twenty-one. So, eleven years younger than me. I guess I felt like a real man. This hot young girl was all over me and I was loving it.”
She couldn’t stop the wince. “Could you have a little restraint here? I really don’t want that many details.”
Seriously, what the heck could he have been thinking telling her that? There was a part of her that was still insecure, not that she would admit it to him.
“Sorry.”
“I get it. She was young and you were older. I’ve dated my fair share of older men. Hell, I’m doing it now. So I get it. She wanted someone to take care of her.”
“Do you? Do you want someone to take care of you?”
“Not anymore. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t in the past. Call it the daddy complex if you want. I never had one growing up and wanted to have someone give me that full feeling of being there for me, no matter the situation. But I’m not that person anymore. I can take care of myself. Or at least I can try to.”
“I love who you are now. I don’t think I would have cared for the Olivia you keep talking about in the past.”
“You wouldn’t have, no more than I cared for her. But that isn’t what we need to talk about. Frankly, I don’t ever want to talk about it. Go on. Becca?” she prompted.
“Nothing special. Met at the bar where she worked. Went home together that night. Went home together a lot of nights. She was silly and superficial, and decided after a few weeks of sex she wanted to play hard to get. I don’t do games well, but I gave it a try and kept stopping in to see her. Letting her know I was still interested. After two weeks, I walked away. Guess she didn’t like that so much, so she contacted me and we got back together. Then she ended up pregnant. There was no great love, even though we’d said it to each other. I wanted to make it work for our child. She wanted someone to care for her. Six weeks after Trey was born, she left a note saying she couldn’t do it. Bottom line. Not much more to say on that front. I don’t need to go into the fighting that was going on before and after Trey was born. It’s meaningless at this point.”
There wasn’t much to ask after hearing that. So she moved on to the other issue. “What about legally? You said things were taken care of.”
“I filed for full custody of Trey the minute I got the DNA test back. I’ve got a will and legal guardians appointed. She isn’t listed anywhere. She abandoned him; her letter was filed along with the papers. I made sure that if she came back into his life, she’d have to go to court to even get a ten-minute visitation.”
“So what’s the problem then?”
“What do you mean?”
“You looked troubled when I came in. More troubled than what her visit might have caused. I mean I get the feeling you feared you could lose partial custody of Trey.”
“No. I don’t think so. I pulled all the documents I had, and I called the lawyer’s office…but he retired. I guess you could say I need to call someone else. I need to be prepared. I just hate to have to go through this whole thing all over again, bringing it all up to someone new, but I don’t have a choice. I just need to find the right lawyer.”
“Call Ryan.”
“He’s a defense lawyer. Even I know that.”
“His firm handles everything. Call him, Finn. I’m not trying to tell you what to do.” He lifted his eyebrow at her. “Well, I am. But call him. We’re friends. You need the best, and his office is the best. If it’s money…”
“No,” he said cutting her off. “It’s not money, and don’t go there. I know what lawyers cost, and I know what Ryan’s firm will cost me. You’re right, I know you are. I need the best right now, and it doesn’t matter the cost. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For reminding me that money isn’t everything.”
No Responsibilities
Finn walked into Olivia’s store a little before noon. It was busier than he expected and he was pleased to see it so.
He waved at Kristen and waited until she was done talking to her customer. He knew Olivia was around. He’d parked out back and saw her car, so when he didn’t see her in the store, he decided to make his way to the back.
Knocking on her office door didn’t get a response. He tried the handle, but it was locked. Then he walked to the back room and through another door to her new workroom, suspecting she was working on some new designs.
She answered on his first knock, opening the door wide, and flashing him the hundred-watt smile of hers he loved so much.
“Hey, you, what brings you by?”
“I just went to check out your house. I wanted to see where everyone was and get a handle on things before I go in next week. I thought maybe I could take you to lunch now.”
“I’d love the break. And by the way, I was right. I got a visit from your ex,” she said, looking smug and not the least bit upset.
He should have figured she’d be right about this, but it had been two days since Becca’s visit and he hadn’t heard a word, just figured—or hoped—Becca was going to cut her losses. He guessed wrong.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“It’s not a conversation to have over the phone, least of all in my office. I planned on going to see you during lunch.”
“Maybe we should pick up lunch and eat it at my house for privacy.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let me just finish up this piece and put it away.”
He looked over her work, his eye landing on a ring. The design was unique; the gold almost had an etching in the curves with smaller stones in each curve. One big stone was going to go in the now empty setting.
“What’s going to go in here?”
She took the setting out of his hand. “A ruby. It’s a custom ring. A push gift.”
“What the hell is a push gift?” Sometimes he felt like he was so out of touch with reality.
“You really are clueless sometimes.” She patted his cheek, leaned in and nuzzled her nose against his, then kissed him quick. “But I’ll give you a pass on this one. It’s a gift a man gives a woman when she births their child.”
He snorted. “You mean having the child isn’t gift enough. What does the guy get?”
She poked her finger into his side. “He gets to keep his balls from getting kicked into his chest while the woman is screaming her lungs out pushing the baby into this world.”
“Oh.” He couldn’t stop the involuntary crossing of his legs. “Still, I think the man should get something.”
“I think you’re right. Want to help me come up with a line of jewelry for men? We’ll have to call it something catchy, though.”
“I don’t know about most men, but I wouldn’t want jewelry.”
“What would you want?”
“One night of pizza and baseball with no thoughts of dirty diapers or feeding time.”
“That’s not an awful lot to ask.”
“It is when it all falls on your shoulders to do it. One night, no work, no responsibilities, just what you want. Trust me, it’s enough.”
And something he hadn’t had in years. If he wasn’t with Trey it was because he was working, or on the rare night he went on a date, he was still stressing over Trey. One night with no stress or thoughts on what Trey was up to would have been worth it.
“I guess you’re pretty easy to please then. Come on. I’m hungry and you can buy me lunch.”
He wondered what type of gift you gave a woman who made jewelry. Nothing bought in a store would be special, he knew that.
“What would you want?”
“For lunch?”
“No, jewelry. It just occurred to me you must have high standards. Bet you never buy anything in a store.”
“Not necessarily. I find things I like all the time. Personally though, I’m more about the stone than the setting. The stone means more. Then the setting can be created around it. Kind of like the chicken or the egg. I want the stone first. Other people want the setting.”
It didn’t make sense to him, but he didn’t bother to comment. She’d probably only laugh at him.
They stopped at a deli, grabbed a few sandwiches, and drove to his house. The minute they were sitting in the living room with their food on the coffee table, he turned to her and said, “So, are you going to tell me what happened when Becca showed up?”
“Your control is impressive. I can’t believe you waited so long to ask.”
It couldn’t have been too bad—the meeting—because she was in too good of a mood right now—almost playful.
“Your description of a push gift is still in my mind. I’m trying to stay on your good side.”
She wrinkled her nose and winked at him. “You’re learning. Anyway. She came waltzing into the store, browsing the pieces and stopping at my custom designs. I’d pegged her when she walked in.”
“How’s that?”
She waved her hand. “Never mind. Not important. Anyway, I walked over to where she was standing and it gave us some privacy. It went exactly as I thought. She started out with a sob story about how she was young and in college, and hated to give up her education.”
Education! He started to sputter, then coughed. “Seriously. She’d dropped out. I should say failed, but I’m trying to be nice. God only knows why.” Tigers never changed their stripes. Once a liar always a liar.
“Because you’re a good person under it all,” she said, guessing.
He could let her believe that. It was the truth, but there were plenty he was sure wouldn’t agree. Starting with Becca and all her friends. They thought he was too controlling, too demanding. He didn’t give her space, was always coming around when her shifts ended to make sure she got home okay. Her friends all thought he was jealous, but he wasn’t.
He wasn’t happy there were always men hanging all over her in the bars and hitting on her. Even when she was visibly pregnant. He was just concerned she wasn’t taking care of herself and was putting their baby at risk with her reckless behavior.
But mainly because Becca hated him since he wouldn’t give in and give her every little thing she wanted during her pregnancy, before, or after. He never spoiled her completely rotten or bought everything she had her eyes on.
Buying Becca a house to live in at no cost to her and footing all the medical costs obviously wasn’t enough.
Maybe she was pissed off over not getting a push gift. Not that he’d have done it, even if he knew what it was.
“It’s good you think that.”
“I know it. So back to Becca. When she realized I wasn’t falling for the sob story, she changed tactics.”
“Let me guess. Then I w
as an asshole.”
“Pretty much. I didn’t let her go on too long about that either. Don’t worry.”
He could only imagine all the things that were said about him. Probably nothing more than the things she’d said to his face during those long nine months.
The times he tried to make it work and put up with her crap. The times she acted like a child not getting her way, never growing up. Never lifting a finger to do anything in the house, not even to put a dish away, let alone wash one.
Not to mention all the times she blamed the pregnancy on him, like he was the one who’d forgotten to take a pill when she insisted they didn’t need condoms, that she didn’t like them and she was protected.
“Then what happened?”
“Well, then she moved on to what I think was her plan all along.”
“She asked you for money? Did she say anything about Trey?”
He was sick, ill, repulsed. He couldn’t believe he knew anyone in his life that devious, let alone having a connection to her for the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure he could get any more mortified.
“She didn’t say anything about Trey. My guess is she thinks she’s got that ace in the hole and wasn’t ready to show it yet. As for money, not in so many words. I did tell you she was looking at the jewelry, didn’t I?”
“She wanted jewelry in exchange for never seeing her son again? The son she walked away from without a word to begin with,” he said, disgust mixing in with fury. There wasn’t anyone lower on this earth in his mind right now.
“Pretty much. Don’t worry. I put her in her place. She walked out empty-handed.”
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry right now.”
“Why?”
“Any other woman would be throwing a fit over having to deal with what you did today, and yet you are sitting here calmly telling me this with a smile on your face.”
“Well, to quote you, I’m not any worse for wear. And I thought we established I wasn’t like other women. Why are you so surprised? I told you the other day I expected all of this.”