by Taryn Quinn
“That’s completely—” I exhaled. “Accurate.”
“Now you’ll be stuck with a kid too when all you had to do was admit you wanted to fuck her. Like she would’ve said no. That woman has looked at you with heart eyes since day one.”
“So not true. I drive her crazy. If she had heart eyes—whatever the fuck that is—she wouldn’t run away from me every time I get near her. It’s like I have a fungus or something.”
Oliver held up his hands, palms out. “Officially entering territory labeled ‘do not need to know’.”
I laughed again. “Oh, and the stuck with a kid part? Wrong. I want that kid with Ally more than anything. I want a family with her. Goddammit, we already are a family, and I want it to be official.”
Oliver shook his head. “Oh no, you don’t. I already reached my wedding quota with you, pal. One was awful enough. Another would be beyond the pale.”
“I didn’t say we were getting married. Yet.” But now that the idea was rattling around in my head, I had to admit it wasn’t displeasing.
She was having my baby, assuming all went to plan. Why not be my wife too?
“Why not?” I repeated under my breath while my brother gazed at me as if I’d grown horns, a tail, and sprouted red skin.
“Before you hear wedding bells, Romeo, you need a bride. Yours is currently MIA. I offered to help you, but if you’re so certain you can continue to bungle this all on your own, then fine.”
“Seth!”
We both glanced toward the doorway as Sage scuttled into the room. Actually, that was a misnomer. A few days ago, Sage might’ve scuttled. Her self-confidence seemed to waver with the tide, and she often seemed content to hug the wall.
Today was a different story. She walked into my office with her head held high and her assets swaying. Visibly swaying in her tight denim miniskirt and a top that barely covered her breasts. Not that I paid overmuch attention. Sage was a cute girl—and I imagined she had gotten more than her share of catcalls on her way over here in that outfit—but my eyes were solely for Ally.
Now and forever.
“What are you wearing?” Oliver demanded, shocking me almost as much as Sage, who apparently had just noticed he also was in the room. She’d zeroed in on me at my desk like a laser pointer.
“Pretty sure they’re called clothes.” She sniffed at Oliver and returned her attention to me. “Ally hasn’t been to work for three days. She hasn’t been at your house so you can impregnate her, has she?”
My eyebrows lifted. So much for assuming Ally had employed discretion regarding our activities. Thanks to Ally sharing with the diner patrons her comical observations about my prowess the day after we’d first had sex, I’d understood it was known that we were lovers. But being lovers didn’t mean babymaking necessarily.
“What has she told you?”
“Are the private details besties confide in each other really important?”
“I’m her best friend, and yes, they are.”
“No, you’re the best friend with a dick, which automatically slots you lower on account of the dick.”
“She likes my dick, thank you very much.”
Oliver stepped away. “Awkward moment.”
“If she liked it so much, why did she run away? She never misses work. And she hasn’t slept in her bed. So whose bed is she sleeping in?” Sage stepped forward and impaled my chest with a flame-red nail. “Huh?”
“Thanks for the vivid picture, but I can guarantee she’s probably sleeping alone and is perfectly safe.” I tried to ignore the icy jabs of panic pricking between my ribs. “She’s extremely level-headed.”
Sage made a noise in her throat. “Until she hooked up with you.”
“Since when do you hate me?” I held out my arms. “I always thought we were good.”
“You could hurt her, so I have you under a very watchful eye, buddy. If she’s with child, she doesn’t need additional stress from your inconsistency.”
“With child?” Oliver snorted. “Welcome, Madonna. Oh, and I’ll have you know, Seth said they only kissed. Virgin birth, is it now?”
“I did not say that. I said when you saw us—never mind.”
As if I’d never spoken, Sage whirled on Oliver, swinging her hips in a way that made my brother’s eyes flare wide. “Did I ask you? No. Why are you even here? Don’t you have shameless hussies to lie with?”
“Shameless hussies? The fifties ended a lot time ago. Oh, and newsflash.” He dropped his gaze lewdly to her attire. “Depending on point of view, you might fit into one of those categories you’re casting aspersions on.”
I winced. Now he was going to get it. And he deserved it too.
Instead, Sage beamed. “Really? Do you honestly think so?” She fluffed her hair. “I’m going for a new look. Wholesome hasn’t really been working for me.”
“Why?”
“I’m hoping to encounter no-strings sex,” she said matter-of-factly.
Oliver smirked. “Encounter it? Like sex is a living, breathing entity of its own?”
“In my world, it might as well be.” She glanced back at me. “Anyway, that’s irrelevant right now. I’m worried about Ally.”
“I am too. But I’m sure she’s fine. You’ve tried calling her?” I dug out my phone. I hadn’t done anything but text her now and then, wanting to give her time and space.
No more.
“Yes. She worked on Sunday, and mentioned to me she was taking a few days personal time. But she didn’t book it with the boss, just keeps calling in sick. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“You think she went to check out a school?”
Sage shrugged. “Maybe. She didn’t say much about that either. Just that she had to start going after what she wanted and she was interested in Baruch in the city.” She tugged up her V-neck top. “Maybe we should drive down there, scope out the situation?”
“Scope out what situation? And I think we need a bit more to go on than to just pay a visit to some random school.” Oliver glanced at me. “I’m going to play a hunch, and if it pans out, I’ll get back to you.”
“Oh hell no,” Sage said. “Any hunches get routed through me. She’s my best friend.” She pointed at me. “Quiet, you. You’re the one who wouldn’t know how to give a girl the fairy tale if someone gave you a picture book with directions.”
I stayed quiet. I was still tangled up thinking about my supposed inconsistency. And handing out fairy tales—what the fuck was that about?
Perhaps I was the cause of Ally being so wary to take the next step. Mainly because I’d never told her I wanted to. But she was my closest friend. Surely she knew what I was thinking before I did. All of this had taken me by surprise. I was still feeling my way. It’s not like I was some expert.
I’d never fallen in love with my best friend before.
Never wanted to be with someone so much that everyone—and everything—else except my little girl paled in comparison.
So maybe I was screwing this up without even knowing it. By not coming clean. By not being clear and saying the words.
By not giving her the goddamn fairy tale.
“I’m handling this on my own,” Oliver told Sage. “I may be completely off-base. In any case, I have private business with Alison myself.”
I pushed my phone back in my pocket and crossed my arms. I was still working out the proper method of handling this, but obviously the phone was not it. No fairy tales granted there. “What private business?” I demanded.
“Private,” Oliver repeated, already moving toward the door. “If I find out anything, I’ll be in contact.”
Sage chased after him. “I’ll tail you in my car if you don’t tell me where you’re going.”
His laughter drifted down the hall. “Honey, you couldn’t keep up with me if you had a Ferrari. Stay here, pet.”
“Pet?” Sage spun around and propped her hands on her hips. “He’s a complete jerk. How can you even stand him?”
&nbs
p; I jerked a shoulder. “Probably comes from sharing a womb. It creates a bond.”
“Ugh.” Sage flopped in the chair opposite my desk. “He’s going to find her and make everything worse. She needs the womanly touch, not an interfering male.”
“Ally knows her own mind. She can handle Oliver.” I gazed at the folder on my desk. My fingers were itching with the need to trace the words she’d written.
Your Ally Cat.
I pulled out my phone again, ignoring Sage’s curious stare. While Oliver did his reconnaissance, I was going to make some preparations of my own. If she wasn’t mine yet, she would be.
Before I could dial, a knock sounded at my door. The door opened. “Seth, the Parsons are on their way in to sign the papers for the—” My father broke off, his gaze alighting on Sage. “Well, hello there, Sage. What a pleasure. I didn’t expect to see you here.” My father’s smile could have burned a hole through glass.
“Hi Mr. Hamilton. I’m sorry to interrupt business.” Sage was already jumping to her feet.
“No, no, you’re never an interruption. Stay, please.” He glanced between us, a disturbing glint coming into his eyes. “I can talk to Seth later.”
I frowned. What the hell was his deal? He was always sweet as could be to Sage. In fact, he was kind to most everyone in town except Ally, which royally pissed me off. Of course, Sage’s parents had just landed one hell of a nice deal when they recently sold their B&B to a developer who had plans to make sleepy Crescent Cove “more cutting edge” and “more in line with the times.” Whatever that meant.
As much as I hated thinking my father was that shallow, this certainly wasn’t the first time I’d been confronted with the evidence that money was all that mattered to him.
But it would be the first time I called him on it.
“No, we need to talk right now.”
18
Seth
I rose and walked to the door. “Sorry about the timing,” I said to Sage as she sailed out. “It can’t be helped.”
“Par for the course from a Hamilton,” she said under her breath before turning a sunny smile on my father. “Have a nice day, Sir. It was good seeing you again.”
“You too, Sage. Don’t be a stranger. You’re welcome here anytime.”
With a bounce of her blond curls and a flounce of her non-flouncy skirt, she was off.
I closed the door and turned back to my father. He raised an eyebrow and gestured with the Hamilton Realty folder in his hand. “Why do I know this has nothing to do with the Parsons deal?”
“Because unlike you, work isn’t the center of my world.”
“Forget center. Sometimes it’s barely even in your peripheral vision.” Huffing out a breath, he sat in the chair Sage had vacated and crossed his legs. “What is it now, Seth?”
I didn’t sit. I leaned against the desk beside him and crossed my arms. “I’m starting a family with Ally.”
Wow, those words didn’t burn my throat nearly as much as I feared. Not because they weren’t true, but because they were. Saying them to my father was acknowledging their truth. Their power.
And from the expression on my dad’s face, I might as well have thrown down a gauntlet.
“Is this about that contract business?”
I didn’t ask how he knew. In an office this small with paper-thin walls, he could’ve easily overheard us talking.
Which also meant Shelly had probably heard Ally and I having sex. That should probably embarrass me. And yet…
I wanted to tell the world she was mine, in every possible way. Even the graphic, inappropriate ones.
Or Oliver could have told him. I wouldn’t put it past my twin to have hopped on the phone to my dad the minute he walked out the front door of the building. But he’d said he wanted to fix things with me and Ally. Telling my dad wouldn’t fix anything.
Then again, there was my lawyer. My lawyer who golfed every Sunday with my father and had a shark emblem on his golf shirt rather than an alligator.
“Talked to Artie, hmm?”
My father glanced away, all the proof I needed. “Don’t be ridiculous. That would violate client confidentiality.”
Yep. I’d called that one right. At least it hadn’t been Oliver who’d blabbed. I really didn’t want to have to kick his ass after he was purportedly doing me a favor with Ally.
Though, God, I’d sunk low if I was accepting his help. Oliver’s love life was even worse than mine. He went through women like ties. Actually, he probably used ties with women, since his tastes veered toward the dominant side. Yet another thing I had no desire to ponder.
“That contract was a mistake.”
My father didn’t reply for a long moment. “But she signed on the dotted line, didn’t she? She agreed to take money for your child. Just like Marjorie did.” He lifted his head and narrowed his flinty eyes on mine. “Women are all the same, Seth. You may think me wrong for offering a payout to your mother. The truth is, it was a test, and she failed.”
“Ally didn’t fail, and what the fuck kind of test is that to do on someone you love?”
“You don’t love her,” my father scoffed.
“How the hell do you know? Because you didn’t love Mom? Because I didn’t love Marjorie the way I should?”
“I loved your mother. You will never understand.”
“Then tell me. Explain it to me. I’m begging you.” I spread my arms wide. “I’m standing right here, waiting. Listening.”
“She wasn’t faithful to me,” he said in a nearly inaudible voice.
Laughter ripped from my chest. “So? You weren’t faithful to her either. That’s why we have that damn camp that you refuse to go near any longer. Which mistress lived there, Dad?”
He didn’t look at me, just cracked his knuckles. “It doesn’t matter. Your mother was unfaithful first. She bore another man’s child.” He forged ahead before I could finish processing what he’d said.
Did he mean the daughter she’d had with her new husband? Or…worse?
“Do you even know if Laurie is yours? Did you ever ask for proof?” he demanded.
Though I knew the question was just his version of lashing out, it hit me square in the gut just the same. I started to respond, but he cut me off, his low voice as brutal as a whip.
“Or did she use her as a bargaining chip as your mother used you and your brother?”
I gripped the back of my neck. “Laurie looks like me. She’s mine. But you know what? Even if she wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter.”
Deep down, it was true. I couldn’t deny it would hurt like a bitch to find out she wasn’t my child biologically. But I’d get over it. Because she was mine in every way that counted, and I didn’t need a useless slip of paper to prove it.
Every time she called me Daddy, I knew the truth all over again. She was mine and I was hers. Against all odds, we’d made a family.
And now with Ally, hopefully our family would expand.
“Sure, it wouldn’t.” My father laughed mirthlessly. “How much of your savings did you use to buy her safety from her mother?”
“She wasn’t in danger from Marj. Not physically. But neglect is just as hurtful. I would’ve emptied my bank account to ensure my baby didn’t have to deal with a parent who didn’t want her.”
He lifted his head. “So would I.”
I exhaled and moved around my desk, dropping into my chair. “She didn’t sign it. Ally. She wouldn’t. Even when she said she had, it wasn’t legal. She didn’t want a contract between us. If I’d been thinking straight—hell, if I’d been less of a coward—I never would have either.”
When my father didn’t speak, I leaned forward and braced my forearms on the desk. “I don’t know why you don’t like her, but I hope to God it’s not for the reason I think. Because all these years, I’ve told myself there’s some good in you, some decency. If you’ve let your feelings about her bank account color your attitude toward her all these years…” I trailed off befo
re I said something I probably wouldn’t regret.
Defending Ally came before everything else except protecting my daughter.
“You would see it that way,” he said tiredly, and I jerked up my head, shocked to hear the fatigue in his tone.
My father was a bull of a man. Strong, healthy, larger than life in every way. Years had passed since I’d really looked at him and seen him as anything but a force of nature.
Until now. Now the lines on his face seemed like a roadmap, where most of the best days of his life were behind him.
I swallowed hard. “Then explain it to me. Please.”
“She has the power to break you.”
“You just insinuated I don’t love her, and now you’re saying she could break me?”
“I wanted to see if you truly knew your own mind yet, or if you were just playing games with a future you weren’t ready for.” His shoulders relaxed. “Maybe it’s finally time.”
Words left me. Just completely vanished from my head.
“I was you once.” He leaned back in his chair. “I loved your mother more than was wise, and what did it get me?”
“Christ, did everyone see what I couldn’t when it came to me and Ally?” I exhaled. “What I didn’t have the balls to acknowledge?”
“You were smart enough to tread gently. Because you knew. You understood that once you committed to her, there was no going back.”
I wasn’t sure he was saying that as a positive thing, but I nodded. “You’re right. There isn’t. I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Coming clean didn’t scare me anymore. The truth just filled me with a sense of rightness. Like I’d been traveling down a road with my headlights off, and now I’d finally turned them on.
My future was right in front of me, and all I had to do was reach out and take it. And nurture it, and care for it, and protect it with everything I was.
My father nodded and steepled his hands over the folder in his lap. “Does she feel the same?”