“No,” Sarah Collins answered, still using that snooty-ass tone that had put me on edge.
The other woman pouted. Okay, it was more of a frown, but it sent my blood pressure soaring either way. And my eyelid….
I had literally just asked him about a secret marriage or a girlfriend, and he’d said there was none of that. He wouldn’t lie to me. She could be anyone. There was no reason for my eyelid to start jumping all over the place and for me to assume my vision was about to go dark. No way.
I needed to get the fuck out of here.
Sliding my palms over my thighs, I faced the older woman and said, “You’re more than welcome to wait. There are a few water fountains and a juice bar straight ahead if you want something. Let us know if there’s anything else you need.”
And like the chickenshit I apparently was now, I turned around and headed back the way I had come.
Fucking shit. Fuck.
A part of me genuinely hoped that this woman really wasn’t related to Jonah, but my sixth sense said she was. That was just my luck. If I could take the exchange back, I wouldn’t. She’d been a bitch and so had I, but what was I going to do? Bend over and take it?
Yeah fucking right.
And then there was the woman with her. Shorter than me, slim, really fucking pretty. Asking about Hema. Who was she and why did I care so much?
I was losing it. I really was.
I needed to cool it. I needed to breathe, and I could tell meditation wasn’t going to do the trick. Not when I was this riled up.
Luckily, the solution came to me instantly.
Peter was on the floor when I got into the building, working with a small group. I kicked my boots off inside my office, sending both of them flying toward my desk. Today was his day with the lesser-experienced amateur fighters. What that meant was that they weren’t good at fighting both standing up and being on the ground. But they weren’t total noobs. The eight guys and three girls were on the mats. From the look of what Peter was trying to demonstrate, they were going to be working on handstand rolls, which meant that they were lined up in three rows and would go from a standing position to a handstand, then allowing themselves to roll out of it to get back into a standing position.
It was a lot of balance and control.
I had done it a ton in judo. Most fighters did it a ton, period. You had no idea how many muscles it took to stand up without using your hands. You also had no idea how important it was to be able to get up without using them either. The faster the better.
“Need some help?” I asked him, knowing what answer he would give me.
He eyed my pants for a second then smiled. “Show them how it’s done.”
I hoped I didn’t regret this.
I eyed the floor for a second, wondered for another second when the last time I had done a handstand was—not since I had started showing while I’d been pregnant—and decided, fuck it. I’d done these a hundred thousand times in my life. If I lost my balance, so what? They were still learning how to do them.
I tucked my shirt into my pants and went into a handstand that wasn’t as steady as they once were, but at the same time my muscles said I remember this, and let the memory of it kick in.
I did them over and over and over again, until I was sweaty and my collared shirt was damp and had fallen out of where I’d tucked it into my pants and rolled into my neck each time I went into one, until eventually, Peter and I were helping one person at a time work on their handstands against the wall furthest to the back, bodies leaning against the wall until arms and shoulders shook, until sweat dripped off faces and made tiny little watery pools all over the blue surfaces. I was catching my breath when I noticed someone with a right arm that was giving out on them and stepped forward to help them out of it.
That was when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big figure making his way across the floor in our group’s direction. The biggest man at the gym now. The biggest man in my life.
“Lenny,” Jonah Collins called out like I didn’t know it was me he wanted.
Behind him, closer to the door he’d just come in through, were the two women. The older one and the younger one. And they were looking back at me but speaking to each other. The younger one was making faces too.
“Jonah.” He didn’t owe me anything.
I forced myself to look away and glance at one of the women as she tapped her heel against the wall as she tried to push off of it and hold her balance on her own.
Mo’s dad stopped directly beside me, looking at me, and not the people still in position and said, “Could we have a moment?”
Always so polite.
I wasn’t dumb enough to ask Peter if he could handle this without me. Of course he could. He hadn’t needed me in the first place, but I still patted him on the back after I nodded at Jonah and went toward him. The second I was in front of him on the edge of the mats, his hand went to my elbow.
I didn’t say a word.
That stupid handsome and rugged face was aimed at me, and he let out just about the deepest exhale I had ever heard from his body… and that was saying something because he’d let out a pretty big one the day he’d found out he was a dad.
“You okay?” I asked him, trying to remind myself that he wasn’t a fucking liar.
He’d told me he didn’t have a girlfriend or a wife.
He hadn’t “cheated” even though there had been nothing to cheat on.
He had told me.
Those light brown eyes didn’t flicker away as he told me the truth. Like I had a feeling he always did. “I was better before you called.” His expression was tight. “Better now that I’m here talking to you.”
This was the man I thought I knew. I swallowed and gave him a little smile. Then I reached up to squeeze his forearm with my free hand, the skin smooth and warm over all that fucking muscle just there. I was relieved, and I hated that I was.
The pressure around my own elbow tightened lightly, and he said following another exhale, “My mum is here.”
Great.
The fact he didn’t exactly look happy about her visit didn’t reassure me.
“I didn’t know she was coming. Didn’t know she would bring my sister either.”
That was relief that went down my spine at my sister.
Had she grown out her hair? Was that why I hadn’t recognized her? Or had I just gotten pissed off before I’d even bothered to try and figure it out? I felt just a little ashamed of myself for jumping to conclusions. Just a little.
“It’s a bit of a story, Lenny,” he explained, oblivious to how close he’d been to finally losing his balls as he gave me a smile so tight that his dimples didn’t come out. “A long one. I didn’t tell her about Mo until a few minutes ago.”
“You still hadn’t told your mom about her?”
He shook his head gravely. “I haven’t told anyone, but not because I didn’t want them to know. I just… didn’t want them to know yet.” His dimple finally popped then. “It’s selfish, yeah, but I wanted you both to myself for a bit longer, and if it got me out of answering some questions that aren’t going to be comfortable, that was a nice bonus.”
Oh.
“She knows now, and so does my sister, and in a matter of minutes, my entire family will as well. I’ll have to call my agent as soon as I can to break the news to him too before he finds out from my brothers. He’s their agent too, and he’s still upset with me over what I did before. He’s not going to be happy to find out I have a daughter I didn’t tell him about.”
I bet he wasn’t.
I had a decent idea of how much shit he’d gotten after his injury. And unless someone knew the whole story—at least his pieces of it—it didn’t look that great for him. And as far as I knew, he hadn’t signed a new contract with a new team. It could and would, more than likely, look really bad for him.
Jonah’s expression went tight but hopeful, and all it made me want to do was whatever I could so that this wouldn’t
backfire on him. “Will you come eat with us? Mum is in a foul mood, I’m sorry, but she would like to meet our girl. My sister would too.”
I swallowed that our girl.
“If you don’t want to, or can’t, it isn’t an issue,” he clarified. “I just thought….”
I looked from one eyeball to the other. “Why weren’t you answering your mom’s calls before? Is there something wrong with her?”
The fact that it took him a second to snort said everything. Then his words after that were super liar, liar, pants on fire. “Yeh, nah,” he tried to say even as his cheeks went pink. “She’s a bit intense is all.”
Intense? More like bish level 100. But I kept that to myself to share it with Grandpa later.
“Liar.” I smiled at him. “You should probably know that I didn’t exactly get off to the best start with her.” And I was worried your sister was really your secret girlfriend, I thought but didn’t say either.
“It’s all right.”
Something told me most people didn’t get along with his mom, but my goal was to find out firsthand why he didn’t answer her calls.
And now that I thought about it, I’d never even heard his phone ring around me. Not ever. Not even at night when he was at the house for hours. Even my phone was constantly bing-bing-binging, and that’s why I set it on vibrate.
I wasn’t that fucking popular.
But he was.
I’d ask him about it later.
“Are you sure you want me to go with you? Because you can go get Mo by yourself if you want, since you’ve got your own car and everything now.”
If I was surprised by how easily the offer popped into my head, then Jonah was just as surprised to hear it. Those light-colored eyes just bore right into me before bouncing from one of mine to the other and back again. And even with his pink cheeks and the lies in his eyes about not being worried about his mom, he was still too cute. Handsome. Just fucking handsome.
“I want you to come,” he said, looking right into my eyes.
He wanted me to really meet his mom? AKA spend time with her?
I made myself not glance at her because that would have been weak as hell, and instead did the same thing to his eyes that he’d done to me: like I was searching for something in them that said bullshit, bitch.
But there was nothing there even close to that. Not a single thing.
He wanted me to meet his mom. And sister. Wanted us to spend time together.
Fuck it.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I want you to tell me the whole story later.” Because I had questions. A few of them.
“I will,” he agreed easily.
I hated how much I liked him. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”
He gave me that tiny little smile.
I smirked back at him. “Why do you look so relieved?”
“I’m just glad you’re coming,” he replied. “Let me introduce you, eh. I’ve got my ute—”
I tried to process that.
He caught it. “My car.” He flashed me that trademark smile. “I told you I was hiring a car. We can go together to get Mo, or if you’d like, we can meet somewhere instead.”
I felt like a pussy considering option B, but I took it. “We can meet somewhere. That’ll give you some one-on-one time with your mom and sister.” Poor sucker.
The smile he gave me didn’t make it clear whether he knew why I’d chosen that option or not, but he didn’t tease me over it. Jonah tugged me forward, and I went along willingly, noticing that his palm slid down my arm as we turned, and he gave my wrist a light hold for a second before dropping away.
He really was a good guy.
And as we headed toward his mom, and I took in the look on her face, I could tell that I wasn’t going to be saying the same thing about her cranky ass.
In three seconds we were in front of the two women, and Jonah’s hand was at the base of my spine, his palm halfway on my jeans and halfway over my shirt, which I knew was crazy sweaty, and he was saying, “Mum, Natia, I’d like you to meet Lenny, my girl’s mum.”
Somewhere inside, I flinched. Not his friend. Not… anything else. His girl’s mom.
That’s what I was, I guessed. My most important title. It wasn’t like that should be a surprise.
And I had no reason to feel disappointed.
“Lenny, this is my mum, Sarah, and my middle sister, Natia.”
Yeah. From the look his mom was giving me, she wasn’t exactly going to be joining the Lenny DeMaio Fan Club anytime soon. That was for sure. And ask me how many fucks I gave? Zero, that was how many.
But one glance at the younger woman had me pausing.
She was grinning wide, and her hands were laced together under her chin.
Okay then. I thrust my hand out toward his mom first, keeping any excuses or lies to myself. I wasn’t that glad to meet her. I wasn’t sorry for how I’d spoken to her either. So I went with the most basic shit: “Hi.”
Those eyes that she had given her son, who had then given them to my daughter, flicked from my hand to my face to Jonah’s and then back to my hand.
Yep. Kind of a bitch. She wanted to make it awkward, we could play.
I wiggled my fingers just as the man beside me started to grumble, “Mum.”
I wasn’t dumb or blind, and I watched her force herself to take my hand, giving it a shake that wasn’t anything close to a limp fish. I could respect that. I could at least respect that a whole hell of a lot more than her making it seem like I had cooties.
No part of me was surprised when she said in that cultured—and pained—voice “Hello” like she couldn’t bear to have a conversation with me.
I could respect that too. A lot more than her forcing out a “pleasure to meet you” or some fake shit like that. We both knew neither one of us was all that pleased right then.
Fine by me.
Jonah let out a sigh that wasn’t one that belonged to a man who was all that relieved. I’d think about what that meant later. In the meantime, I stuck my hand out toward his smiling sister, and fortunately, she didn’t make me wait at all to take mine.
Or to pull me into her with surprising strength and throw her arms around me with a “It’s awesome to meet you!”
All right, I hadn’t been expecting that.
I snorted and hugged her right back. “It’s nice to meet you too.” She squeezed me even closer, and I thought okay and returned it.
I must have not been the only one thinking the same thing, because when I pulled back, Jonah’s big smile had taken over his face while I’d been hugging his sister.
His sister.
I still didn’t want to think too much about how much of a relief that knowledge had been. Later on, when no one could catch me, maybe I’d creep on her Picturegram account and see why I hadn’t recognized her. It was bugging me. I was usually good with faces and names.
“Off to lunch then?” he asked, still cautiously, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t imagining his wary expression as he kept an eye on the space between his mom and me like we were going to fight each other.
“Ooh, I’d love some lunch. Mum made us come straight here,” Natia complained with a roll of her eyes.
“I’ll go get Mo and meet up with you then?” I asked him.
“My granddaughter’s name is Mo?” Sarah, Mrs. Collins, asked with dismay. She didn’t look all that excited about it. Like I had chosen that name because it was short and I didn’t know how to spell anything longer? Uh-huh.
I took a breath in through my nose and reminded myself that my own grandpa was a pain in the fucking ass. That thought made me feel a lot better. It gave me hope. This lady didn’t know me. She didn’t know, more than likely, what had happened between her son and me. “It’s her nickname,” I answered, specifically leaving out what her real name was to be a shit.
The look Jonah gave his mom was one Grandpa Gus and I had given each other a lot over the years. You need to calm down face. Because crazy knew cra
zy.
“Can we meet at the café we’ve gone to before?” the Tiny Bit of an Asshole said at the tail end of the look he gave the other woman.
Panera. He was talking about Panera. I nodded.
One corner of Jonah’s mouth went up, like he was trying to hold on to what he could so that he wouldn’t get mad or upset or whatever it was that was stewing there between him and his mom. “How long do you suppose it’ll take? Thirty minutes?”
“Give or take,” I agreed. Looking at Sarah again, seeing her gripping the strap of her purse like she was trying to choke the life out of it from how white her fingers were getting. His sister just stood there with a smirk on her face, looking back and forth between the two of them.
This kind of tension wasn’t new. I could tell that real easy.
I wasn’t expecting the warm fingertips that lightly brushed over my forearm. Just for a second, but enough to have me snapping my eyes up to that face so close. “See you there then, love,” he told me quietly, and I heard the tiny, quiet noise his mom made when he said it.
Fuck her.
Tugging on the bottom of my shirt, I was thankful I had extra clothes in my office at all times. “See you there.”
The rest of Jonah’s smile fell off as his gaze flicked to his mom.
* * *
“Look, I don’t know how this is going to go down, okay? Hopefully it’ll be fine, and she’ll be nice once she sees that you’re the cutest and sweetest baby on the face of the planet, but you don’t have anything to be worried about, all right? If she’s mean, we’ll leave and you’ll only have to see her if your dad forces you, but I think your dad already knows how cool you are, and he’ll keep her in check. But if he doesn’t, you know I will. You know I’ll cut her if I have to, right?”
I glanced into the rearview mirror to eye the back of her car seat.
I snorted. “Right. I knew you’d agree, Mo.”
Obviously she was so worried.
She’d shouted at the top of her lungs when I’d gotten to Mr. Cooper’s house—that was my best friend’s father-in-law who watched Mo every once in a while—to pick her up. Apparently Grandpa Gus had been invited to play a pickup game of basketball and had dropped her off an hour ago. Luckily, Mr. Cooper’s house wasn’t too, too far from the gym. I’d known him my whole life, and he was the nicest man.
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