When she gets off the phone, her face is red, but she seems more together.
“We need to head to her office; she’s going to file a motion for discovery. She wants to know why, all of a sudden, after years of no contact, he has a desire to see his child.”
“Wait,” I grab hold of her shoulders, keeping her from marching to my truck. “Before we go, I have something I have to tell you.”
Her gaze meets mine head on and I admire the way she’s not backing down. I can almost see it in her eyes, she knows I’m going to say the hard shit here, and she’s facing it, going to let me get it out.
“If it would be easier for you to let me go, babe, you gotta tell me. I know my past does absolutely nothing to help you with this. I saw my name in that paperwork, and I know he’s going to use me against you,” I don’t know what else to say, how to lay it out there any clearer than this.
She grabs hold of my face between her two palms. “You’re going to be the only thing besides Riley that keeps me going. I have a feeling once we try to push back, once I prove to him I’m not going to sit here and take it like I used to, he’s going to give up. Phillip likes to be an asshole, but when he has to work for it, it loses its appeal. He’s successful in business because he’s a shark. He waits until a company is at their lowest, has no fight left, and then takes it out from under them,” she takes a deep breath. “If he wanted to do this to me, he should have done it a year ago. That’s when I was at my lowest. I couldn’t have fought him then, but now I’m stronger than I’ve ever been.”
“I just want you to know I understand if for Riley’s sake, we need to end this, at least temporarily.”
Tears come to her eyes and she sniffs hard to keep them from falling. “The fact you’re willing to put your own happiness aside, and put us first, says everything I need to know about you, Trick. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“I’d do it,” I admit, letting my arms wrap tightly around her waist. There’s a moment in everyone’s life where they have to make a decision. The decision to lay all their feelings out on the table, regardless of their fear, and this is my moment. I have to let her know how I feel before she begins the fight of her life. “I’d do anything for either one of you,” my voice is hoarse, barely above a whisper. “I love you both that much. I’d sacrifice whatever it took to give you everything you deserve.”
Her intake of breath tells me all I need to know. Her forehead lands against my chest and I feel her shoulders shake. Her fingers move down my neck and entangle in the soft material of my shirt. The words are muffled against the fabric, but I hear them loud and clear. “I love you too, Trick. I love you too.”
They’re the most precious words I’ve ever heard in my life. I take a minute to let them sink in, and then I become as ferocious in my anger as she was. “Then together, let’s fight this fucker. Let’s show him who he’s messing with.”
She pulls back, grabs my hand, running with me to my truck. “Let’s do it.”
33
Hadley
“I’m honestly not worried about Patrick’s past,” Sally mumbles as she looks over the paperwork I received. “It’s more about someone’s character in these cases than what they did to get them in the situations they were in, and from what I can tell you had pretty reliable character witnesses at your last hearing,” she gives Trick a glance. “I’m going to need them all to write a statement. The more character witnesses I can get, the better off for the case. I truly think he’s posturing, but we won’t know for sure until we get before the magistrate.”
“My probation officer, and I’m sure the director of the Companion Program would vouch if I needed her to,” he grips my hand tighter.
“You’re a business owner?” She asks as she makes some notes in her computer. “Do you own the building?”
“I am, and I do, outright. I made the last payment three months ago. I’m looking into buying the building next to it,” he admits, and I glance over, my mouth agape. “I have a meeting with the bank next week,” he glances at me. “I was going to tell you, but things got crazy.”
“So you’re looking to expand in the future. You have definite plans to remain in this area?” Sally’s typing frantically.
“Yes,” he nods. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“What is the living situation between the two of you?” She levels me with a stare.
“Riley and I stay at Patrick’s apartment most of the time, but I still have my own.”
She marks something in her calendar. “Make a decision about where you want to live and get it done in a week. That’s our first mediation meeting with Phillip and his team. We’ll have the discovery there; we’ll do some digging and request a deposition and access to personal records. That way we’ll find out why he all of a sudden has taken an interest in Riley and what he supposedly is using as justification for his claim. It’s going to be a much stronger case if you’re not shuttling her back and forth between apartments.”
“You’re telling us to move in together?” I ask, my eyes wide.
“I’m telling you, you need to give her a permanent home for this to look good. I can’t tell you what to do, Hadley, you’re a grown woman. But if you’re spending most of your time with him anyway, make the decision.”
“I like her,” Trick chuckles from where he sits beside me.
“Your apartment is so small though,” I run a hand through my hair. “But I know we can’t stay at mine because of your business.”
“That’s why I want to buy the building next door,” he admits. “There’s another apartment that shares the outer wall with mine. If I own that space too, we can knock the wall down, and it triples my space. It’d be perfect for all of us.”
“I’m putting that in the file,” Sally winks at Trick. “You’ve got yourself a good one, Hadley.”
I know, and I’ll be damned if I ever let him go. “I do,” I grab his hand, hanging on for dear life.
“So is this all we need to know?” I ask her, marking the date of the deposition down in my phone. “Does he need to come with me on that day?”
“Yes, I need you both there. Don’t bring Riley, I don’t want to subject her to any of this,” she pushes some paperwork towards me. “I need you to sign this, so I’m able to do a little digging into Phillip’s life. I’ll be acting as your Power of Attorney while I see if any of my hunches are correct,” she winks at me.
I sigh, signing the paperwork. This is all moving so quickly it’s giving me a headache. I never thought I’d be in this position again. I thought I was done with this man, thought I’d dodged the bullet when I walked out with full custody of our daughter. “Payment,” I say, my bottom lip between my teeth. “We need to work out a payment plan, if that’s okay. If I’m not paying rent on my apartment, I can pay you a decent size monthly for whatever it is you’re going to have to do to get us through this.”
“Hadley,” she reprimands. “Your money is no good here. I took your first case pro-bono because Phillip Westin III is a douchebag who gets off on pushing people around, and I’m doing same thing this time. If you want to do something, and you’re in the financial position to do it, make a donation to the women’s shelter in my name. It’ll be my pleasure to wipe the floor with this asshole.”
“That can most definitely be arranged.”
“Okay kids,” she claps her hands on the desk as she stands up and walks around to us. “Go home, move her into your apartment, and enjoy the next few days as much as you can. I’ll see you again at the mediation, and we’ll hope he doesn’t want to go any further than that.”
“Thanks Sally,” I stand, reaching up to give her a hug. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d make it, you’re strong, but there’s no reason us ladies can’t stick together. I’d tell you immediately if I thought you had something to worry about Hadley, but I truly think he’s posturing for some reason. I don’t believe for five seconds he wants any type of contact wit
h Riley.”
I shake my head. “I don’t either. He’s never made an attempt before, and I find it odd he wouldn’t have tried to contact me before serving me with papers. I mean, I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but I’m not a complete bitch, I would have given her the option of seeing her father if she wanted to.”
“That’s why I think there’s more to this story.”
My gut feeling says she’s right, but we won’t know anything until the mediation. Shaking her hand, Trick and I leave. Once outside, I breathe deeply, already feeling a little better about the situation.
“I think we’re gonna be fine,” he tells me, putting his arm around my neck as we walk to the truck.
“He has a lot of money, that’s what scares me. It’s the only thing he has more of than I do. With money comes power, and with power, you can do almost anything.”
Trick opens my door and lifts me up into his truck. He stands in front of me, his presence giving me a sense of calm. “Power is addicting, but sooner or later, true colors shine through. We just have to make sure they shine through when someone’s listening and people are watching. Let’s go get you packed up.”
“Where are we going to put all my stuff?” I groan. It’s not like I have a lot, probably not even enough to fill the back of this truck bed. The couch I have isn’t good enough to take anywhere else and the kitchen table I have was a salvage from Goodwill. The only thing I would really want to keep would be my shelving units, and Riley’s bed.
“We can store it in the building in the back. It’s not huge, but it’ll take your shelving units and her bed. We can call the women’s shelter and see if they want the rest of it. They’ll usually haul for free. If my loan comes through, we’ll get that wall torn down as soon as possible so Riley isn’t sleeping in the living room for much longer.”
I wrap my legs around him, put my arms around his neck. “I can’t believe you’re trying to buy the building next door and didn’t say anything to me about it.”
“I wanted to wait, you know, tell you I love you and ask you to move in the right way. All of that kinda got moved up a little bit,” his face is red as he admits he had a plan.
“There’s never a right way, but I did love the way it came out, and I love you for being the man you are.”
He’s quiet as he rests his head against me. We have a fight on our hands, and I think we both need a few minutes to compose ourselves. Neither one of us thought we would be here right now. In the grand scheme of things, our relationship is in its infancy and he’s making changes some men never make after being with women for years.
“I have a couple of friends who owe me favors,” he tells me. “You let me know what exactly you want out of your apartment and I’ll make sure it’s moved tonight. The rest we’ll leave to be hauled off within the next week. You and Riley just go back to my place and make yourselves at home.”
“Haven’t we already done that?” I joke, as I drop my legs from around his waist. “We’ve stayed there more often than we’ve stayed at the place I’ve been paying rent. All of this makes sense, but I hate the feeling you were forced into something you don’t want to do.”
“Nobody forces me to do anything, not anymore. Remember me telling you I’m a free man? That means I get to make my own decisions. I don’t feel as if I have to do anything for you because I’m obligated. I do it for you and Sprite because I want to.”
I hold back tears as he shuts my door and jogs around the side of the truck. We don’t deserve him. Nothing in my life have ever prepared me for a man like him. It’s disconcerting, the way he says all the right things. But at the same time, I know he’s not saying things just to say them. He means every word that comes out of his mouth.
“Mom?” Riley questions as we lie on the couch an hour and a half later.
We did what we said we were going to do. We went and got her, Trick dropped us off, now he’s back at the apartment with some friends overseeing everything. It was hard to hand over the reins of my life to him, but at the same time, I’m thankful I don’t have to do everything on my own. “Yeah,” I push her curls back, enjoying my time with her. She is snuggled up to me, Tux beside her, while we quietly watch a movie. My rambunctious kid doesn’t do this much. It’s almost as if she realizes I need to spend some quiet time with her.
“Why did Trick say we were moving here?”
I was hoping she hadn’t heard him, hoping we’d have a little bit of extra time to break the news to her, just because I don’t want her to feel like I’m making snap decisions. Even though I am. Damn it’s hard being a parent sometimes. “Don’t you want to move in with him? Don’t you like playing with Tux and staying here?”
“Yeah, but don’t people who live together get married?”
She’s watched enough TV and has friends whose parents have gotten married and divorced to at least know the process. “Usually they do,” I nod. “But right now, Trick and I are making sure we like living together. We’re going to do an extended sleep over. You know how sometimes you stay with Mrs. Oliver. We’re going to do that here for a few months. Is that okay with you?”
Dear God please let her be okay with it. I don’t want to uproot her life any more than I already have. Failure is not something I like to give into, but there’s a chance of it happening here.
“I really like living with Trick and Tux. You smile here,” she tells me as she rubs the cat up and down. “You laugh here, too. You never did that at our apartment.”
I hug her tight because she’s way too observant for her own good. I can’t believe what she saw that I never knew, which strengthens my resolve that much more not to let Phillip get his hands on her.
“You’re right,” I agree. “I’m much happier here with both you and Trick.”
She tucks her head in beside my arm. “Let’s stay here forever, Mom.”
I kiss her on the forehead. “If I have anything to say about it, we will kiddo. We will.”
I’m lying in bed when Trick gets home, trying not to cry, because the weight of everything is pressing down on me. The pressure against my chest is almost enough to cause my breathing to become labored. I’m feeling the magnitude of everything that’s happened today, and I’m scared. Scared to death.
“You awake?” he asks as he comes into the room, a towel wrapped around his waist. As soon as he quietly came through the front door, I heard him hit the shower.
“Yeah,” I answer, turning over so I can see him and he can see me.
“Are you okay?” He has a seat on the edge of the bed. “No matter how well you’ve held it together today, you’ve got to be freaking out on the inside.”
How can this man know everything about me when we haven’t known each other our whole lives? I hide my feelings well, I always have, but it seems as if he can see right through me. “No, I’m not okay, and I’m not holding it together well, not right now. I’ve been in here trying not to cry for the last hour. Can you hold me?” I sound pitiful to my own ears, and I hate being that weak woman. The woman who has to ask a man for help, but right now I need him to hold me up. I can’t do it myself.
“I told you earlier, babe, whatever you need I’m here,” he shifts in the bed, the towel falling down around his hips.
“Then make me forget about all of this. Make me forget, Trick, please.”
34
Trick
I know exactly what Hadley wants and I feel like a son of a bitch because I’m going to give it to her. In a way, it feels like I’m using her, because I’ll be getting pleasure out of what we’re about to do too, but I can’t deny her. She’s hurting, I’m hurting, and if we can make each other feel better, why shouldn’t we?
Taking the towel completely off, I push the covers back, revealing her body to me. She’s wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. “Take the shorts off,” I whisper, lifting the tank top over her head.
Tonight, I’m not feeling that crazy rush I usually feel with her. I’m almost lazy in my pe
rusal of her body, not anxious to move this along. I watch as she kicks the shorts down her legs, pushing them off the edge of the bed. She lays naked before me and I realize how lucky I am that she chose me. Hadley had her pick of any man if she’d just allowed herself to put her guard down, and I’m the one who got lucky enough to be let in.
“Let me take your mind off everything,” I lean in, mouthing her neck, mumbling in her ear. She spreads her legs, allowing me to rest in between them. I’m already hard, but I want to make this good for her.
Tilting her head back, she gives me free rein of her neck and chest. “Touch yourself,” I whisper, when I see her hands on her stomach. “Run your hands up and down your body. Make yourself feel good. This is all about you.”
With my thigh pressed against her pussy I can feel how wet she is, how much she’s enjoying this. I press up harder causing her to moan as she gives herself over to the sensations. Leaning forward I grab one nipple in between my teeth, biting slightly before I use my tongue to soothe the burn. Hadley softly whines, opening her thighs wider to give me more room. Moving down her body, I rest my head on her chest, lazily stroking the hard nub with the flat of my tongue, while I trail my fingers up to her mouth. Using my middle and pointer finger, I stick them between her lips, groaning when I feel her tongue circle them, getting them wet. I pull them out, trailing back down her body before I situate myself to the left, and press my fingers into her core.
She pushes up against me, wanting what I can give her, moaning as she tilts her head back against the pillow. Her hands come around my back, clutching at my ass. “Don’t tease me, Trick. I need you. Just slip it in and fuck me.”
I don’t need any other directions but those. She doesn’t have to ask me or tell me twice. Doing as she asks, I grip her hands in mine, settle on my knees, and slide my hard cock deep, grunting as she takes me with no resistance. There’s something about her giving herself over to me this way that brings goosebumps to my chest and makes my hair stand on end. It feels good, better than it’s ever felt with her or anyone else before. Her hands grip mine as she bows her body up into me, thrusting against my invasion, taking me deeper than she ever has. It’s quiet between us as we move against one another. I bury my face in her neck, sucking strongly on the skin, wanting to leave my mark, but I know it won’t look good when we go before the magistrate. I hold myself back, but only barely.
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