Inevitable (Key West #2)

by C. A. Harms

  I hoped I was wrong, but I had to be realistic; it was a very strong possibility.

  “I still can’t believe he’s being this reasonable. Sarah has really gotten herself into a mess,” Whitney said as she lifted her coffee to her lips.

  “What do you mean? Easton isn’t the kind of man to walk away from responsibility,” I said. “No, he isn’t happy about it, but he wants to do what’s right.”

  “Oh yeah, I know, believe me. It’s just that Leo and Ross have shown no interest. It just isn’t fair that Easton put his life on hold when the chances of him being the father are slim to none.”

  I choked on my coffee the moment the words left her. “Excuse me?” I croaked between coughs.

  She patted my back, and when I could breathe again, she sat back in her chair. “Sarah is sort of the club skank. I mean, she hooks up more than anyone else, so her surprise pregnancy isn’t much of a surprise.”

  “That’s not what I meant. Who are Leo and Ross?” I demanded.

  “Two guys she’s been going back and forth between for the last three to four months.” Whitney’s eyebrows were scrunched in confusion like she thought I already knew. “Easton knew that, right?”

  I shook my head as anger boiled in my gut. I picked up my phone and dialed his number. The clinic he was meeting Sarah at was right down the road, so I wanted to catch him before they went inside.

  “Hey, baby,” he answered after the second ring. “We’re getting ready to walk into the doctor’s office. Is everything okay?”

  “No, Easton, it’s not. She wasn’t honest with you.” The words rushed out of me. My heart was racing, and I couldn’t control my anger. She had been stringing him along, and that was enough to make me want to beat her ass. She’d better thank her lucky stars she was pregnant. That was the only thing that would keep her safe from me.

  “What do you mean, Harper?” he asked, lowering his voice.

  “She’s been sleeping with two different guys from the club. Leo and Ross. Whitney thought you knew already.”

  He made a noise that sounded like a growl. “I’ll see you in a little bit. Why don’t you girls go back to my place? I’ll meet you there.” I could tell from his voice that he was barely hanging on. I couldn’t blame him, and for a split second I felt bad for Sarah. It passed quickly when I remembered all the stress she’d caused Easton and the lies she’d told over the years. I was sure this specific one would be the last straw.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said in return.

  “Yes, you will.” And then the dial tone was the only sound I heard.

  “I am so sorry,” Whitney said, and my gaze shifted to meet hers. “I thought he knew already. I would have said something if I’d known otherwise. We just don’t normally talk about personal things, and to tell you the truth, other than that night I brought Easton home, we have barely ever talked. I mean, business issues, sure, but we always kept it simple.”

  “She told him he was the only one who had a chance of being the father.” I stood up, gathered my purse, and walked off to throw my trash in the garbage. Whitney followed closely behind. “She’s been holding it over his head for the last couple months, playing on his compassion. She knew if she told him the baby was his, he wouldn’t walk away without knowing for sure.”

  “What a bitch,” Whitney whispered.

  I nodded in agreement. “Yes, a self-centered, conniving bitch.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Easton

  “Why are you so fidgety? It’s just a normal checkup. You don’t even have to go in the room if it makes you that uncomfortable,” Sarah soothed me as she took a seat next to me in the waiting room.

  I was barely keeping myself together. All I wanted to do was tell her what a selfish piece of shit I truly thought she was. But I had to get inside that room. I had to be able to ask the doctor things I knew Sarah would only drag her feet about telling me.

  “I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with,” I said without even looking in her direction.

  “Wow, Easton, show a little excitement. We’ll hear our baby’s heartbeat today.” Her whiny voice got on my nerves and agitated me even more. I chose to ignore her as I watched the door, waiting for her name to be called.

  It was the longest fifteen minutes of my life, but the moment the nurse emerged holding Sarah’s file, I leaped from the chair. I was next to the nurse waiting to go in before Sarah had even gotten up from her chair. Both of them looked at me like I had lost my mind.

  Once we were in the room and Sarah had slipped off everything from the waist down, she stepped out from behind the curtain. She wore a shirt that barely covered her lower half, and I averted my eyes to the diagrams on the walls.

  “Don’t get all shy on me now, Easton. It’s not like you haven’t seen what I’ve got a hundred times before.” Oh yeah, she was eating this up. Obviously she enjoyed the fact that I was completely uncomfortable.

  Sarah climbed up onto the table and draped a blanket across her lap. I was boiling inside, finding that my control was harder to hang on to with each passing minute.

  Once the doctor entered, an uncontrollable rush of heat ran through me. “I need to discuss our options of finding the paternity of this child as soon as possible,” I said.

  Sarah gasped, but I no longer cared what she had to say.

  The doctor looked like I’d caught her off guard. “Well, Mr.—?”

  “Easton Black. I’m sorry to throw this at you, but some information has recently come to my attention, and I need to know my options,” I clarified.

  “What information?” Sarah asked, and for the first time since the doctor entered the room, I looked over at her.

  “It appears that me being the only possible father was just another lie you told. It seems Leo and Ross have a higher chance than I do, yet you chose to leave out that important detail. Now I’m checking my options.” I turned back to face the doctor. “What I need to know is how soon I can find out if this child is mine.”

  The doctor looked between Sarah and me, probably feeling as if she’d stepped onto the set of some crazy talk show. “Well, Mr. Black, nowadays we have noninvasive options of finding out the paternity of a child prior to birth. Sarah is at a stage in her pregnancy that would allow us to perform this test and get an accurate result.”

  “Well, whatever we need to do, I would like to take care of that today, please,” I said.

  Sarah looked on like she wanted to bolt from the room, which in my eyes was a sure sign that she doubted I was the father just as much as I had all along.

  ***

  When I arrived at my house, I found both Whitney and Harper lounging by the pool. Rather than wearing bathing suits they wore what they’d been wearing earlier today, but they were enjoying the sunlight all the same.

  I stopped by the fridge and grabbed myself a beer before joining them. They both stopped mid-conversation when they saw me exit the back doors. Harper looked concerned and Whitney just appeared nervous.

  “I am so sorry, Easton, I honestly thought you knew,” Whitney said. “I mean, it’s Sarah we’re talking about. She’s never been able to be with just one man, not in the whole time I’ve known her. I feel horrible that I didn’t say something sooner.” She squeezed the stem of the wineglass in her hand.

  I sat down on the lounger next to Harper and smiled back at her. “Stop worrying, you had no way of knowing. The only thing we’ve talked about lately is the club.”

  Harper lightly rubbed my back as she slid closer. “How did it go?”

  “I let it play out long enough to get myself inside the examination room so I could communicate directly with the doctor. Once she entered, the poor woman had no idea what hit her.” I chuckled to myself, remembering the surprised expression of the doctor’s face. “I bombarded her immediately, wanting to know my options.”

  Whitney smiled. “I’m sure Sarah loved that. Here she thought you were there to hear the heartbeat of your baby, and bam, total one
-eighty.”

  “So what were your options?” Harper asked. Her voice was calm and supportive, but I could see the worry in her eyes. She had told me she would stand by me, but I had never stopped fearing that once the baby was born, things between us would change.

  I lifted my hand toward her face and lightly traced the line of her jaw. Hooking my hand around the back of her neck, I then pulled her toward me for a kiss. After leaning back, I rested my forehead against hers and breathed her in. “In five to seven days we’ll know for sure. It’s up to Leo and Ross to deal with this if I’m not the father.”

  Harper continued to rub my back in a soothing manner. “Whichever way it goes, we’ll make it work.”

  Yes, we would, because there was no way in hell I was letting her go.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Harper

  “Why the hell are you so antsy?” Sloan asked as she placed the money in her drawer.

  I’d been bouncing around the shop all day with nervous energy and a whole lot of tension. It had been five days since the paternity test, and I was so ready to know the answer. I know Easton was anxious too, because he’d been quiet and edgy all week. In fact, last night we actually got into one of the dumbest arguments I’d ever had in my life. I mean, who argues over which way the towel should be placed on the rack in the bathroom?

  A stressed-out, barely-hanging-on-to-his-sanity, ready-to-punch-anything man, that’s who, and right now that was the perfect description of Easton Black.

  I left his condo in a huff only to have him chasing me down the driveway with said towel wrapped tightly around his waist.

  I tried to understand what he was going through, what he may have been feeling. The waiting game was weighing on him heavily, I could see it.

  “Earth to Harper.” Sloan clapped her hands in front of my face and looked at me strangely. “You are never this unfocused. What going on?”

  “Just haven’t been able to sleep much the last few days.” I threw out the first excuse I could come up with, and I could instantly see her gearing up to ask more questions.

  The chime of the door gave me the break I needed. Saved by the bell, so to speak.

  I quickly turned to greet the customer that had entered the salon, only to find my mouth growing instantly dry. My stomach churned with uneasiness, and my legs went weak.

  There in the doorway of Allure stood Molly Wilson, Ian’s wife. I forced a smile and acknowledged her. “Hi, what can I do for you?”

  She returned my smile, and I watched her eyes scan the salon. “I’ve heard about this place from a few friends. Seems you’ve really done well for yourself.”

  I waited as she continued to check everything out before bringing her gaze back to meet mine. “I was hoping I could get a pedicure.”

  “Um, yeah,” I stumbled. “Rochelle could fit you in. She’s due back from her break in about five minutes.” I nervously looked down at the schedule. Rochelle did all our pedicures, and I noted that we had an hour before her next appointment.

  “Perfect,” she said.

  “Here, I can go ahead and get you seated and get things started,” I told her as I directed her toward the back of the salon, where we had three pedicure stations. After leading Molly to the far end of the room, I turned on the water in the foot basin and threw in the solution from Rochelle’s cart.

  “If you would like to have a seat, I’ll let Rochelle know I’ve already gotten you prepped,” I assured her as I stepped aside.

  The way Molly was watching me only made my stomach flip even more. She was behaving differently from the last time I had met her, and that unnerved me. She nodded as I stepped away and pivoted toward the back. The last thing I wanted was to come off as being on edge, but I was afraid that was unavoidable. I was a wreck on the inside.

  I still felt horrible for being the other woman. It made me feel dirty and disgusted with myself. Yeah, yeah, I didn’t know he was married, but damn it, that didn’t stop the uncontrollable revulsion I felt every time I thought about it.

  The moment I entered the break room in the back, Rochelle looked at me in curiosity. I must have looked as awful as I felt.

  “Why do you look like you’re about to puke?” she asked, putting down the book she had been reading.

  “She’s here,” I gasped as I leaned my back against the now-closed door.

  “Okay.” She shook her head, laughing lightly. “Who’s here?”

  “Molly,” I said as my head fell back and thumped against the door. Very few people at the salon knew about what had happened between Ian and I, and Rochelle was one of them.

  “The Molly?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “And she’s waiting in one of your chairs.”

  “Oh goody.” I raised my head just in time to catch her rubbing her hands together in excitement.

  “What could possibly be good about this?” I nearly growled as Rochelle bounced around the room.

  After she placed her book back in her bag and cleared her empty food containers from the table, she turned to face me. “Don’t freak out, but I think she’s here to feel the place out. Maybe she knows, and this is my chance to get the scoop so I can warn you.”

  I felt like the bottom of my stomach fell out. How could she know?

  I knew I’d threatened Ian with telling her, but now the mere thought of Molly knowing I had slept with her husband terrified me. “I can’t do this.” I sunk to the floor and pinched the bridge of my nose. When that didn’t relieve the tension in my head, I began to massage my temples.

  I was going to puke, there was no doubt about it.

  “You can, and you will,” Rochelle said. “You did nothing wrong. He was the piece of shit that played you, that played both of you.” I looked up to find Rochelle grinning like an idea had just popped in her mind. “Maybe the two of you could go all psycho bitch on him and make him regret the moment he dropped his pants. I would so pay to watch that play out.”

  Her eyes were literally gleaming with the possibilities. Sometimes she made me question her sanity. I had a feeling that somewhere, somehow, Rochelle had been scorned, and that sorry sucker had paid dearly for it.

  ***

  Two hours later, Molly had gotten a pedicure and manicure, and she now sat in Sloan’s chair as she clipped away her nonexistent dead ends. “Just a trim,” she’d insisted.

  The woman had gorgeous hair and it was very well maintained. Something told me a trim was the last thing she truly needed. Maybe because her eyes continued to watch my every move. I felt like I was on display, and I hated every single second of it. Unwanted attention always left a sour feeling in my stomach.

  Deciding it was time to distance myself from the uncomfortable atmosphere that had surrounded me since Molly entered the salon, I escaped to my office in the back. I had my head buried in a week worth of shipment receipts when the clicking of heels against the tile floor caught my attention.

  A glimpse of something red had my heart rapidly beating in my chest just as Molly stepped through the open doorway of my office. I swallowed past the ache in my throat as I tilted my head to the side. “All finished up?” I asked.

  She only offered me a nod as she stepped in farther and began to close the door behind her.

  Have you ever had the feeling like your stomach hits your feet in a huge knot and your mind goes empty? That was exactly what I was experiencing in that moment. Not because I was scared of what she may do, but because I knew I wouldn’t stop her.

  When she turned to face me, I stood from my chair. “Is there something you needed?”

  “I know, Harper,” she said, her expression not giving any indication of her emotional state. I had no idea if in that moment she was in search of something she could use to gouge my eyes out or something to throw at me.

  “Excuse me?” I heard the vibration in my voice.

  “I know about you and Ian,” she clarified.

  My legs grew weak, and I slouched back into the chair behind me. “I didn�
��t know he was married.” It rushed out of me as I felt the heat rise in my neck. “He never said anything about having a family. It never would have happened if I had known. I swear to you I’m not that kind of person.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’ve been asking around about you.”

  Her words floored me. I scrunched my face up, looking at her in confusion.

  “I caught him, last week, in the act.” She shrugged and sat down in the chair across from me. “That’s an image I will never get out of my head.” She closed her eyes tightly for a few seconds. “I had always known that Laney was a sleaze. But walking in to find her straddling my husband only confirmed that theory.”

  I sat there in silence, because let’s be honest, I had no idea what to say.

  “There’s a difference between you and Laney,” Molly said. “She knew Ian was married, yet she continued to screw him. But you…you were a victim in his messed-up world just as much as I was.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked. “I mean, you barely know me. How could you know that I was a victim?” God, I hated that word.

  “I already had a feeling when I came in here today that you weren’t the whore I initially thought you were. I mean, let’s be real here. When a woman finds out her husband is unfaithful, the women he’s cheating with are always whores.” She smiled and shrugged.

  I knew exactly what she was saying. I was sure I would have felt the same way, had the roles been reversed.

  “Rochelle and Sloan think very highly of you. When they both offered the same story as you just told me that was all the reassurance I needed.” She stood up and I followed suit. “Oh yeah, and the fact that the security cameras caught the whole scene on tape, when you scratched Ian’s car, that helped too.”