Seeing that the risk of them disappearing was growing by the second, I quickly snatched up two, careful not to get a hand taken off, and started backing away. “I’m gonna take these to your dad. Just . . . be mindful of the impending sugar crash you two have coming, yeah? Maybe consider saving some for later.”
Their heads came up, and I could see by the looks on their faces that they were geared up to go into a sugar coma right then, and there would be no talking them out of it. With a laugh, I spun around and headed out of the kitchen.
I started toward Leo’s bedroom, hearing the low rumble of his voice, but paused feet from the partially opened door when I heard the anger saturating his words.
“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” There was silence for a few seconds before his furious growl traveled into the hall. “He’s your fuckin’ son, Whitney. The party’s in two days, and you’re telling me this shit now? What the hell kind of game are you tryin’ to play?”
More silence came before he spoke again, even angrier, a feat I hadn’t thought possible, seeing as he was already majorly pissed. “Already told you, more than once, that isn’t gonna happen, Whit. Danika’s a part of my life, which means she’s a part of my kids’ lives. I will not uninvite the woman in my life to something just because you feel like bein’ an even bigger bitch and are threatenin’ not to come.”
Oh God. My hands began to tremble, not a good thing, considering I was still holding Leo’s éclairs. I braced my free hand against the wall to prop myself up as everything I’d just heard washed through me, leaving an ugly, sour feeling in its wake. Hardin’s party was days away, and Whitney was calling to tell Leo she wouldn’t come if I was there.
God, what a bitch!
“There are two ways to be a family,” Leo continued, unaware that I was standing nearby, listening to everything he was saying. “One way is to be together, raising your kids together. You and I are not that. Not anymore. The second kind is where we co-parent, doing what we can to maintain a respectable relationship for the benefit of the kids we have but aren’t raising together. You either get on board with bein’ that last one, or you don’t. And just a warning, Whitney, you don’t make the right choice, you’re gonna lose out in a very big way. You might not realize that now, but one day you will, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”
My heart pounded against my breast so hard it was a wonder the sound of it wasn’t making the walls rattle as I waited for what would come next. And just as I feared, it wasn’t good.
“You just made the wrong choice. Enjoy sufferin’ the consequences.”
I knew he’d hung up when I heard a loud slam. My feet came unglued and I pushed the door open, stepping inside the room. Leo’s head was hanging, so I couldn’t see his face, but I didn’t need to. I could read everything he was feeling in the tight, aggressive way he was holding his body and the rapid rise and fall of his chest. I glanced to the side, noticing the fist-sized divot in the drywall beside him and made a split-second decision.
“I won’t come on Saturday.”
His head came up and I finally saw the thunder in his expression. His normally-beautiful eyes were sparking with fury as he stared me down and clipped, “Excuse me?”
I placed the pastries on the dresser as I moved closer, freeing my hands to hold them up in a placating gesture. “It’s not a big deal, baby. I got to celebrate with him tonight, so it’s fine.”
“Fuck that,” he clipped. “You’re going to be there. That’s all there is to it.”
“Leo, please. He’ll be so busy with his friends and everything that he probably won’t even notice.”
“Maybe. But I’ll notice,” he returned in a low, menacing tone. “And you really think I’d be okay with my woman not being there for my boy’s party? Not a fucking chance, Danika. That bitch doesn’t get to win.”
“This isn’t about her winning,” I countered, keeping my voice as calm as possible. I closed the last few inches between us and placed my hands on his chest as I continued, hoping to make him see reason. “Saturday is Hardin’s day. It’s not about me, and it’s certainly not the time to try and make a point. I want him to be happy. If me not being there will prevent anything from going bad on his day, I’m good with that.”
“But I’m not.”
Those words weren’t spoken by Leo. They came from behind me, and when I finally found the strength to turn my head, I saw Hardin standing in the doorway, his body tight, his hands clenched, his face the exact replica of his father’s. “Sweetie, it’s—”
He looked past me to his dad and spoke over me. “So I’m guessin’ from what little I just heard, Mom called and said she’s not comin’ to my party if Dani’s there?”
“It’s okay,” I started. “I’m here right now to celebrate with you, so it’s not like I didn’t get the chance.”
His eyes came back to me, the same hazel as his dad’s, the same fire burning inside them. “You aren’t my mom,” he said through gritted teeth.
Those four words slammed into me like a freight train. “I know, and I’d never try to take her—”
“No, I mean, you aren’t my mom but when she put you in the spot she just did, your gut reaction was to do what you felt was best for me. Because you’re a good person.”
Okay, so that was really nice to hear, and at any other time it would have made me feel great, but I was too busy hurting on his behalf to feel it. “Hardin—”
“You didn’t even hesitate to try and fix it, and you did that ’cause you care about me. And you care about Macie.”
“Of course I do,” I said on a choked whisper.
“Son.” Leo side-stepped me and headed for his boy, but Hardin’s hand came up, stopping him. With his other, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell.
The breath stalled in my lungs and he swiped at the screen and brought it up to his ear. “Mom? Yeah. No, I heard what you just did.” There was a pause, then, “Stop. God, just stop.” He reached up and dragged his fingers through his dark hair in frustration. “I’m not callin’ to listen to you put this all on Dad. It’s not his fault. It’s yours. My own mom threw a fit to get her way, not thinkin’ once what that would do to me or how it would make me feel.”
The air all around changed in a flash, suddenly charged with electricity. I turned to see Leo standing beside me, completely shell shocked. For a year he’d suffered through the pain of his son blaming the fallout of their family on him. He’d carried that burden on his shoulders, and now he wasn’t sure how to handle his boy coming to the hard and painful realization that he’d been wrong. I reached over, taking his big hand in mine, and gave it a squeeze as Hardin continued to lay his mom out.
“The only reason I’m callin’ is to tell you I don’t want you here on Saturday. Dani overheard Dad when he was talkin’ to you, and you know what she did? She tried to tell Dad it was okay, that she didn’t mind not bein’ here if it meant you’d come. She did that for me. She did that because she’s a good person. If you were even a little bit like her, you never would’ve put her and Dad in that spot in the first place. So I don’t want you here. I want Dani here, because she deserves to be.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear and hung up, not waiting to listen to anything else she had to say. When it started ringing almost immediately, he rejected the call and put the phone on silent.
He stuffed it back into his pocket, pulled in a big breath and looked back to me and his father. “Right. Well, I’m beat, so I’m gonna crash. Night, guys.”
He turned and took off before either of us could say another word.
Leo was still staring toward the door, the pain and anger on his face tearing me apart
My fingers clenched around his again. “I’m gonna straighten up in the kitchen and say goodnight to Macie. You do what you need to do for him, yeah?”
He shook himself out of the fog he’d been in the past few minutes and looked down at me. “Do you have any idea how much
you mean to me, sweetness?”
That was the first time he’d said that to me, and it felt amazing. It might not have been a declaration of love, but to me, it was just as good. “I do, because you mean just as much to me.” Lifting up on my toes, I pressed a gentle kiss against Leo’s lips, letting out a tiny sigh when his tongue snuck out and brushed against mine.
Lowering back down, I lifted a hand and dragged my fingertips across the stubble on his jaw. “Go take care of your boy, honey. I’ll only be a phone call away if you need me.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that.”
“Go for it,” I said with a small grin. Then I left him to do what he needed to do, having complete faith that Leo would be able to guide his son back into the light.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Leo
I decided to give him a little time, knowing my boy enough to know he needed time to calm down after a situation like the one he’d just experienced. He was too much like me in that sense.
I took my time after Danika left to do a walk-through of the downstairs.
Once I was done with that, I headed upstairs. I hit Macie’s room first, moving in to place a kiss on her head. “Love you, Daddy,” she murmured, already halfway to sleep.
“Love you too, baby girl.” I brushed my fingers through her hair before standing tall and heading into the hallway.
Hardin’s door was closed, but I could see the light shining through the small space at the bottom. I lifted my fist and rapped my knuckles against the wood, waiting for his muffled, “Yeah,” before twisting the knob and pushing the door open.
He was sitting on his bed, his back to the headboard, his knees cocked, feet to the mattress as he typed something out on his phone. Crossing my arms over my chest, I braced a shoulder against the doorframe and tipped my chin to the phone. “Am I interruptin’?”
He tossed the cell onto the mattress between his feet. “Nah. I was just textin’ with Amy.”
That was the first I’d heard mention of a girl named Amy before. I arched a brow and had to fight to contain my smirk as I asked, “Amy, huh? So . . . she cute?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. He kept his eyes on his hands, but I could see the corner of his mouth working to fight back a grin. “She’s really pretty. And smart. She’s really good at thinkin’ of the right things to say.”
Pushing off the door, I moved deeper into his room, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. “I take that to mean you talked to her about what went down tonight.”
“Yeah,” he answered, still mumbling. “She said I did the right thing, that it was wrong of Mom to put me in that situation, and that it’s our job to point out to the people we love when they’re doin’ wrong so they can see it and hopefully fix it.”
I hadn’t met this Amy, and while a part of me hated the fact that my son was old enough to have a girl in his life, there was an even bigger part of me that liked this girl already.
“That’s good advice. You’re right son, Amy is very smart.”
He finally looked up, giving me his eyes. “She was also the one who told me that I needed to quit beatin’ myself up for bein’ an asshole to you and Dani. That I needed to own up to how I’d been treating you guys and apologize already, ’cause draggin’ it out wasn’t helpin’ anything.”
I hadn’t been expecting that, and it took me several seconds to try and find my words. “Son, you already made it right with Dani. There’s nothing you need—”
“But I haven’t apologized to you,” he insisted with a fierce shake of his head. “I’ve been treating you like crap for a year now. And when I found out about you and Dani . . . You just took it. You didn’t do anything wrong, but you took it, ’cause you’re my dad and you were tryin’ to do right by me.”
“Hardin,” I started gently. “You’re fifteen—”
“Sixteen,” he shot back quickly.
“My apologies,” I amended with a grin. “All right, sixteen. What I’m getting at is, you’re still just a kid. You might feel grown up sometimes, but you’re not, and situations arise that you aren’t equipped to handle. Your mom’s and my divorce wasn’t pretty. It was hard on you, and you reacted how a kid your age would. I told you before that I love you, and nothing will ever change that. What’s done is done. Let’s move on from here, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. Then, “But I’m still sorry, Dad. Really sorry.”
Christ, my boy. “You’re forgiven, bud. Always will be.” I hesitated for a beat before finally asking the question that brought me in here. “You good? After everything that went down?”
He inhaled deeply and gave it to me straight. “It sucks, and I’m a lot mad and a little sad, but I’ll be okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, Dad. I’m sure.”
I slowly rose to my feet, reaching out to place my hand on his shoulder. “All right, Hardin. But if that changes, you know you can come to me, right? I’m always here.”
“Yeah. I know. Thanks.”
I squeezed his shoulder and released it, taking a step back and heading for the door. I’d just grabbed the knob and was pulling it closed behind me when he spoke up. “Dani makes you really happy.”
It wasn’t a question, but I still nodded my head in confirmation. “Yeah, she does.”
“I’ve never seen you like that before, the way you are with her. I know me and Macie make you happy; you’ve never hidden that from us. But it was never like this. Especially not when you were with Mom.”
“Your mom and I weren’t right for each other,” I admitted.
“Do you love Dani?”
It was a question that threw me for a loop. I knew what I felt for her was unlike anything I’d ever felt for another woman, that the things that moved through my chest whenever she was around were so strong, so intense, they scared the living hell out of me. I also knew that I couldn’t imagine a single day without her in my life, and I’d learned that from experience, nearly ruining something that meant everything. But I’d never said the words. At least until now.
“Yeah, bud. I love her.”
He nodded solemnly. “Good. She’s sweet and funny and really pretty, and she’s kind of shy in that way that just makes her even prettier, you know?”
Oh, I knew. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“I’m glad you have her. But I’m also glad she has you. A woman like her deserves a guy like you. A good guy.”
I swallowed, working to beat back the tightness in my throat. “Thanks, son,” I said in a voice like gravel. “Means the world you think that about me.”
“I’ve always thought that.” One corner of his mouth curled up. “Even when I was actin’ like a punk.”
My chest rattled on a chuckle. “Lights out and phone down in fifteen, yeah? You can see Amy at school tomorrow.”
He reached for the phone again, swiping across the screen with his thumb. “Yeah, okay, Dad.”
“Love you, bud.”
His attention was now fully on that cell and whatever this Amy was writing to him, but I was fine with that. “Love you too.”
“And tell Amy I’m lookin’ forward to meeting her on Saturday.”
I pulled his door shut and started down the stairs. I closed the door to my room, quickly changed into a pair of sleep pants, killed the lights, and crawled into the bed. Once there, I grabbed my phone, much like my son, and pulled up my texts.
Me: You still awake?
She didn’t make me wait for a reply.
Danika: I’m here. How’s Hardin?
Danika: Did you guys talk?
Danika: Is he okay?
Just like that, she showed all that sweetness by getting right down to her concern for my son.
Me: He’s good. Pissed and upset, but he’ll be fine.
Those three bubbles popped up, blinking in and out as she typed.
Danika: Okay, good. I’ve been worried. I mean, I knew you could handle it, but still. I hate that that happened to him.
Me: Don’t worry, baby. He’s gonna be just fine. But just a heads up, he’s got himself a girl.
There was a pause before her next message came through.
Danika: Really?
Me: Yep. And according to him, she’s really smart. She talked him through the situation with his mom, told him he did the right thing.
Her texts started coming in at a rapid-fire pace after that.
Danika: Oh wow!
Danika: Okay, that . . .
Danika: WOW! A girlfriend? Are you cool with that?
Danika: She sounds kind of awesome, but if you don’t want me to like her, I’ll give it my best shot. Not sure I can pull it off, but I’ll try.
I let out a laugh. Of course she wouldn’t be able to pull that off. Danika was good and sweet to her very core.
Me: Yeah, I’m cool with it. From talking to him I get the impression she’s a good kid. Let’s wait until this weekend to make a decision on what we think of her.
Danika: Okay. Deal.
That warmth I felt talking to Hardin earlier, that warmth I felt whenever she was around, moved through me again, scorching a path through my chest. Christ, but I loved this woman.
Me: Pack a bag for Saturday and bring Roscoe with you. I want you spending the night after the party.
That was a move we hadn’t made since getting back together. It was something I wanted, but that she’d been hesitant about, not that I blamed her. I’d done that. But I was sick of sleeping like shit because I didn’t have her beside me.
Danika: If you’re sure it’s not too soon.
Me: I’m sure. Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?
Her response took a while, but when it finally came through, it was row after row of yellow smiley faces with red hearts for eyes followed up quickly with, Yeah, honey. I think I’m getting it.
She didn’t, at least not yet. Not until I said the words to her out loud. But I’d be damned if I was going to do that over the phone. I wanted her in front of me when I said that. I wanted to be able to hold her, to feel her against me. And I hoped like hell I’d get those words back, but I could wait as long as it took. Just as long as I still had her.
Waiting for Forever (Hope Valley Book 8) Page 20