The Certainty of Deception
Page 6
“It more than explains my reasoning. I want to know when the fuck you planned on telling me that you were leaving?”
I whipped around, stalking toward her, my blood boiling. I could feel the heat of my anger rising in my face. “Now. I’m telling you right now,” I sneered. “I’m going on a trip with my brother and my friend, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it.”
“Friend,” she scoffed. “That’s a joke.” She straightened to her full height, bringing her almost eye to eye with me. “Besides, has it slipped your mind, or are you just stupid? I’m pregnant. You’re the father, and I need you where I can reach you at any given time.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to control my life. I’m a single man and can come and go as I please. I don’t need your permission.”
“Throw that in my face, why don’t you.”
“Throw what in your face?”
Nose to nose, I felt nothing but animosity toward this woman. At one time, I considered her a friend, but she’d changed. And it wasn’t a subtle change. It was like one day she was a fun, interesting person and the next she was a conniving, vindictive bitch.
“That you’re single. You always have to remind me that we’re not together anymore.”
My teeth clenched to the point my jaw hurt, I balled my fists at my sides, fighting to keep control of my temper.
“That’s because you can’t get it through your thick skull.”
“You’ve made it perfectly clear how you feel, but that doesn’t mean you won’t change your mind.”
I threw my arms in the air. “I give up. It’s like talking to a brick wall. Now, if that’s all you wanted, I’ve got to pack. I leave tomorrow. You know where the door is. Make sure you let it hit you on the way out.”
Olivia gasped, her eyes widening. Her hand flew to her newly protruding belly, rubbing it tenderly. “How dare you speak like that to the mother of your child?”
“That’s still unconfirmed.” I grabbed the rod iron banister and bounded up the stairs. I had stuff to do and she was taking up too much of my time.
“Oh, God. You’re not talking about the damn paternity test again. We’ve been over this. It’s dangerous for the baby,” she yelled after me.
Yet another excuse with her. She religiously claimed that the baby was mine, and I was inclined to believe her. As far as I knew she’d been faithful to me, as her pursuit of me had been rather single-minded, but I made a promise to my father and with my background in family law, I agreed it was a pertinent move.
I entered my bedroom and groaned at the sight before me. My bed looked like my closet had exploded all over it. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t give a damn about what clothes I took with me, but the stakes were high and I had to look my best.
“Are you listening to me, Drew?” Olivia yelled from the stairwell.
She entered my bedroom, frazzled. Her face was red and her jaw set in a hard line. I rolled my eyes and started sifting through my clothes. “What do you want, Olivia? I thought I made it perfectly clear that I’m not changing my plans for you. If you have nothing further to add, I suggest you leave.”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
A part of me was relieved that my destination had not been revealed. At least I knew Morgan had kept that part of my secret. My future sister-in-law was the only person who could’ve leaked my forthcoming plans.
“None of your business.”
“What if I need you, huh?”
She picked up a t-shirt off the bed and held it out in front of her. Disapproval rolled off of her, which told me it was the perfect shirt to take. I ripped it from her hand and folded it neatly, placing it in my luggage. “Call my cell phone or my office. Ethan will be more than happy to pass the message along.”
“This is bullshit! I have the right to know where you’re going.”
“Why? What gives you that right?” I asked; tossing my Chuck Taylor’s into my bag.
Olivia marched over to the bag, grabbed my shoe and threw it at my head. “I’m the mother of your child. That gives me the fucking right!”
Thank God she was a bad aim because the shoe whizzed by my ear. I stepped toward her, my pulse racing as my temper flared again. It had been a mistake allowing her in my house. I knew that the moment I opened the gate, but what alternative did I have? She couldn’t be like any normal, sane person and call me with her grievances. No, she had to show up unannounced and start a war. And this wasn’t the first time she’d behaved like this.
Several months back, she showed up unannounced. While here, McKenzie called me. She was very upset. Before I could find out what had McKenzie so distraught, she heard Olivia in the background. Mistaking the reason for Olivia’s presence and needing to blow off steam, McKenzie took a midnight swim in the Gulf, which led to her catching a terrible cold. I still blamed myself for that. Had I sent Olivia away, I could’ve taken care of the girl that really mattered to me.
I picked the shoe up off the floor and tossed it back into my bag. “Don’t ever throw anything of mine again.” I growled.
Olivia’s brown eyes gleamed with spite. Her lip curled toward her nose. She marched to the foot of my bed and grabbed my suitcase.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned her.
“What are you going to do? Hit me? Go ahead. Hit me.”
I stepped back aghast. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You!” she screamed, throwing the suitcase off the bed. “God dammit, Drew, I’m pregnant and you don’t give two fucks about me or this baby.”
“Where the hell do you get off?” I demanded. “Have I not been to every doctor appointment? Have I not taken care of your every financial need, even though you refuse to have a paternity test?” My temper ignited into a rage of fury. I could feel my pulse pounding in my temples. I’d seen my father at this point of anger too many times not to know that my brow furrowed into deep lines and the vein in my neck pulsated. “Have I not dropped everything in my life to be there for you and the baby? I’ve done it all and I’ll continue to do it all. But Olivia, that doesn’t give you permission to act like a lunatic bitch in my house.”
The silence from Olivia was deafening, and the evil asshole inside me pumped his fist at her reaction.
“Financial help,” she swallowed. “Yeah. That’s all you give me. Yet you won’t let me live here in this huge house with you. You won’t even set up a room for the baby.”
I threw my arms up in the air. “You want me to set up a nursery here? Fine! I’ll call a renovator when I get back if that’ll shut you up.”
“Shut me up? Fuck you, Drew. I don’t need your charity.”
“I don’t get you!” I screamed. “Nothing I do ever satisfies you.”
“Where’s your compassion?”
“I show you compassion every damn day. I don’t know what else I can do to make you happy.”
“You treat me like an investment! I know what it looks like when you really care about someone, and the way you treat me doesn’t even begin to measure to that. You loved me once! I know you did. And after the baby arrives, I know you’ll love me again.”
Shaking my hands in her face, exasperated, I emphasized once again, “I don’t love you! I never loved you! I will never love you!”
Olivia reached out, grabbing me by the shoulders and pulled me to her. Before I could stop her, her lips crashed into mine. My stomach lurched as she tried to slip her tongue into my mouth. I jerked away, putting as much distance between us as I could. My hand swiped across my lips in a vain attempted to expunge the putrid feeling of her mouth on mine. There were no words to describe the amount of disgust I felt for her.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t feel anything just then?” she sobbed. Huge crocodile tears trickled down her cheeks, commingling with her black mascara. “You felt it. I know you did.”
“I felt nothing,” I spat. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Drew, please.”
“Please, what? I’m done. I won’t keep going around and around with you like this. Let me say this for you as slow as possible to see if sinks into your head. We’re. Not. A. Couple. We’re never going to be a couple. Do you get it?”
“Fine, but at least start treating me like the mother of your child and not a financial responsibility?”
“Have the paternity test done!”
“Treat me like I’m human.”
Frustrated, I linked my fingers over the top of my head, growling out my anger. “I can’t win for losing here.” I walked over to the French doors that lead to my balcony and threw them open. A warm breeze from the Gulf poured into my room, heating my already hot skin. The rain had dissipated days earlier, leaving the air hot and muggy. I sighed, staring out over the shoreline. Soft waves brushed across the beach. A cloudless sky reminded me that the rain was gone, yet there was no moon to brighten the night. “What do you want from me?” I asked, defeated.
“I want you treat me like you care. You won’t touch me. You only speak to me if I force you. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you hated me and the baby.”
Keeping my back turned to Olivia; I dropped my head and sighed. Not that I would admit it, but I didn’t care about her beyond the child. She was the bane of my existence. I didn’t trust her and I certainly didn’t love her. The only connections we had were the baby and McKenzie, and in my opinion, it would remain that way. But the fact that I felt no connection to the child ripped me to shreds. What kind of a bastard doesn’t feel a bond to their baby? I loved the child. I didn’t want anything to happen to it, but I didn’t have that drive or yearning to be near Olivia’s stomach every chance I could get. And I knew that yearning all too well. It was a feeling that haunted my dreams. Time and distance hadn’t killed that memory. Alcohol only numbed it. No matter how I dissected the situation, the only logical conclusion I could contrive was the disconnection had to be in conjunction with my feelings toward Olivia.
“I don’t hate the baby.”
“But you hate me.”
I sighed. There was nothing I could say. I would never feel for Olivia the way she wanted. The salty breeze caressed my face. I closed my eyes, gripping the door frame.
“You hate me,” her breath hitched. My eyes popped open and spun around. Olivia’s shoulders hunched forward. She wiped away the black mascara that ran down her angular face. A piece of my frozen heart broke at the sight of her crying. I might be a bastard, but I couldn’t stand seeing a woman cry. Even one that had made my life miserable. “That’s why you keep harping about the paternity test.”
Stepping over my suitcase and mangled clothes, I maneuvered to the foot of my bed and sat down. “It’s not because I hate you.” Pushing away a pile of clothes, I patted the space beside me. A little reluctant at first, Olivia eventually sat down. She placed her hands over her tiny stomach and sighed. “You have to understand where I’m coming from. I see this stuff every day at work. I’m trying to protect us both.”
“But the test can be dangerous for the baby.”
“Morgan told us both that the test is non-invasive and you’re far enough along now that it won’t harm the baby.”
“Why can’t you simply trust that this is your child? Am I so horrible that you want to be rid of me? It’s bad enough that my best friend left me when I needed her the most,” Olivia sniffled, dabbing her eyes.
Leaning forward, I placed my elbows on my knees, holding my head between my hands. She wasn’t the only one McKenzie had abandoned. It was true that I wanted to get Mickie back; that was all I could think about, but I was also hurt. Just as hurt as Olivia. Maybe even more.
“It’s not that.”
The sounds of the Gulf filled the silence between us. I tilted my head, catching a glance at Olivia who was staring off in the distance.
“Then what?”
I swallow thickly. “You’ve dealt with my parents regarding the wedding arrangements, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that my father would also demand this test?”
“Your father?”
“We have an image to uphold. You know that Wise men don’t get divorces. We’ve made a million jokes about that in the past.”
“What does a divorce have to do with us?”
“It’s about reputation, Olivia. How do you think it looks to my father that I got a woman pregnant to whom I’m not married?”
“You’re a grown man,” she argued.
“Yes, with a family reputation and fortune. My father is a traditionalist. Age doesn’t matter. Decorum does.”
“You sound like one of those stupid books Kenz was always reading.”
I chuckled, nodding. “Yeah, well, my father is still stuck in the stone ages, but like I said, it’s not only him. I want it done too. I need it done.” If only to prove to myself that I could really be so stupid as to sleep with someone when I was in love with someone else.
Olivia opened her mouth then snapped it shut. Moments passed as she postulated the request. “If I agree to do the test, will you please start treating me like I matter?” she finally asked.
I sat up straight, shifting my position to face her. It was like a heavy weight was being lifted off of my chest. “I promise.”
“Okay. We’ll do the test when we return from Boston.”
“Thank you,” I breathed a sigh of relief.
A small smile appeared on Olivia’s face as she nodded. “Now, let me help you pack. I can’t stand the idea of you high rolling in Vegas wearing half the crap you have out here.”
“What makes you think we’re going to Vegas?”
She shrugged. “Where else would you go for a bachelor getaway? It’s the only logical location.” Olivia stood up, grabbing my suitcase off of the floor.
“I guess,” I said, moving to help her. Who was I to argue with her logic? Sometimes ignorance is bliss and I was going to allow Olivia to remain ignorant for as long as was necessary.
Chapter Five
“Seriously?” Jared rested his hand on my shoulder, buckled over in laughter. “A rubber duck?”
“I’m serious. She wore this bright yellow sundress and waddled when she walked. It’s not like she’s really all that big, but the woman acts as though she’s nine months pregnant,” I exaggerated.
“Tell me you quacked at her,” Gavin snickered. He leaned against the counter, thrumming his fingers. Patience was not one of Gavin’s virtues and at the pace the rental attendant was going, it’d be Christmas before we got a car.
“I wanted to, but I refrained. She was already pissed. I didn’t need to add fuel to the fire.”
“Here are your keys, Mr. Wise,” the young clerk said. He dropped the keys into my open palm with a smile. “Have a nice stay in Amarillo.”
“Thanks,” I replied. I motioned my head toward the door, grabbing the handle of my luggage. “You guys ready?”
“Been ready,” Gavin stated, blowing a breath of exasperation.
Jared still cackled on about my retelling of my night with Olivia. It was a fact that Jared and Olivia never liked each other. Some people might say that they had a love/hate relationship. They loved to hate each other.
I turned on my heel, rolling my luggage behind me, as Jared and Gavin followed. From behind, I could hear Jared mumble something to Gavin. Whatever he said returned Gavin’s spirited laughter. “What’s so funny,” I asked, as I pushed open the glass door, stepping outside of the rental facility only to stop dead in my tracks.
Gavin and Jared walked out behind me. “Jared just gave me a mental image of Olivia as a du - Oh my God! What the hell is that smell?” Gavin gagged.
My hand flew up over my mouth and nose, desperate to eliminate the odor. “I don’t know, but I think someone took a massive shit on Amarillo.”
“Welcome to America’s toilet,” Jared jested, trudging forward, seemingly unfazed by the putrid odor.
“No shit!” Gavin bellowed.
“Shit,” came Jared’s st
raight-faced retort.
“Is it always like this?” I pinched my nose, and marched behind Jared and Gavin to the world’s most disastrous rental. At first I thought the clerk was joking when he informed me that the largest vehicle they had on the lot was a Buick La Crosse. This was Texas after all. Where were the gas guzzling monster trucks? When I realized he was actually serious, I reluctantly accepted the car.
“I don’t think so. If I recall correctly, McKenzie once told me it was Hereford rolling in.”
Gavin tilted his face to Jared, his brows furrowed in confusion and his nose scrunched in a horrific snarl. “What the hell is a Hereford?”
Jared shook his head. “Not a Hereford. Hereford; as in a city just south of Amarillo. I told you we were heading into cattle country.” Sarcasm dripped from Jared’s tongue. “What’d you think it’d smell like? Flowers?”
“No, but I didn’t expect it to smell like horse shit either!” Gavin protested.
“That’s cow shit,” Jared corrected, “and according to these people, that’s the smell of money.”
“I know what money smells like, and it doesn’t smell like bull shit!” I argued.
Jared looked over his shoulder at me. A simple smile played over his face. “Now you’re getting it.”
Even after everything that happened on Monday, I still sort of disliked Jared, but he was quite amusing. It would be hard for me to really trust him as long as I knew he was still in love with McKenzie. He might be noble, but even noble men stumble and fall.
A heavy gust of wind swirled up around us, creating a vortex of dry heat and sickening cattle stench. The hot June sun beat down from the cloudless sky, bigger than any sun I’d ever seen before. It seemed to be the only celestial being in the pale, blue sky. Beads of sweat formed over my skin. I rubbed the back of my hand over my brow to remove the fresh wave of sweat before it reached my eyes. The three of us rushed to the car, fighting the wind that seemed determined to knock us to the ground.
“Just when I thought the smell couldn’t get worse,” I grumbled, fumbling with the key fob.
The trunk popped open. Gavin sprinted to the back of the sedan, chunking his luggage in the back without paying attention to where it landed. He raced around to the passenger side, yelling like a teenager, “I call shotgun!”