CHAPTER FIFTEEN #2
Once dressed and after I brush my teeth, with Levi’s toothbrush, I make my way out and find him on his phone, typing away.
He notices me right away and puts his phone up.
He’s already dressed in jeans and a polo, looking like he just walked right out of a store catalog and not just rolled out of bed.
“I’m going to go over to Grandma’s to get Halo.” I avoid his gaze on me. I can’t help but think that this is the most bizarre situation I’ve ever been in.
“Can I see her again?” he asks, and it’s the second time I’ve ever heard Levi sound vulnerable. The first was when we had a showdown at Brody’s house the other night. My heart sinks with him thinking that he has to ask to see his own daughter.
“Of course, she’s your daughter. You have every right to see her,” I assure him. “Levi, I’d never keep her away from you. This might be a crazy situation but you are her father and that will never change.”
“Thank you.” I nod and he lets out a breath. “I’ve got a session with Dr. Blake in a few minutes, would you like to stay and have one with me?”
I know that patience was never a strong suit with Levi, but this is one case that isn’t going to be fixed overnight.
“I’m not ready to sit down with you and a shrink. The last few days have been a lot, and I need time to process that on my own before I do anything else or speak with someone.”
He nods his understanding, but I can tell he’s disappointed.
I move to leave, but turn to face him.
“Levi,” I blush before I continue. “As great as last night was, it can’t happen again.
Drunk or not, it shouldn’t have happened.
I’ll take the blame because we both know I can be persuasive when it comes to alcohol, but it can’t and won’t happen again.
” He smirks, and a giggle leaves my lips.
“We share a daughter and right now she needs to be the priority. We have a lot of trust issues that need to be worked through to even become friends at this point,” I say with finality.
“I don’t even know what the next steps are.
Then there’s the Brody situation, and I need time to work through all of this. ”
“I understand.” He nods.
Walking into Grandma’s house, the smell of breakfast fills my nose. I hear voices in the kitchen and make my way there. Greasy food sounds good and will hopefully help the slight hangover I’ve got.
“Good morning!” I say in my best cheery voice, but inside my stomach is in knots. Can they tell Levi and I had sex last night? I don’t think I could handle Grandma and Grandpa thinking of me in a bad light, jumping from one man to the other.
Glammy and Granddad are here, along with Alice, Everly and Linc. I’m surrounded with hugs before I can make it three steps into the room.
“Good morning, dear!” Grandma returns with the same excitement. “Come have a seat and we’ll all have breakfast together.”
I nod and make my way over to Halo, giving her kisses all over her face. She’s got a million cheerios on her tray, trying to line them up in a straight line. Halo hates been interrupted when she’s concentrating hard and starts to fuss, so I walk over to the fridge to grab the jug of orange juice.
“Brody contacted the house last night,” Grandpa whispers next to me so that the others don’t hear our conversation.
“Oh.” Crap, I didn’t even think he’d try to come find me. Wait. Of course, he would but he was the furthest thing from my mind.
“I told him you were here with Halo and were already asleep, and that I’d tell you to give him a call when you woke up.”
Does Grandpa know I was with Levi?
“I was there when Levi was called to come pick you up,” he answers my silent question, and I can tell from his eyes that there isn’t any judgement there.
“Thank you, Grandpa.” I feel a little better.
“This is a horrible situation that my grandson has put us all in but I want you to know that we still support you and our angel baby, in any way that you choose.” I give a slight nod.
“But Brody has a lot to answer for, and I think he owes you an explanation. There is no excuse for him keeping a father and daughter from each other. I know that Grandma and I did, but we thought he wasn’t looking for you and had moved on as well.
In our eyes, we thought he’d pushed you and Halo away and didn’t care where you landed.
If we’d known that Levi was actually looking for you this entire time, then things would have been different. ”
“I agree. It seems that he has been keeping just as many secrets as Levi. But at least Levi was trying to protect us from a threat; Brody seems to have kept us for himself,” I say.
“I’ll tell you this because I love my family. I’ll always fight for Levi and his happiness. If you make the choice to get back with him, at least make him work for it,” Grandpa says and we both smile, because even though I’m not blood to them, they still like me better.
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do at this point. Did you know that we’re still married?” He nods and tells me that they found out the other night.
“You’ll know, just follow your heart and let it lead you,” he offers, then looks over to the sink where Grandma is washing fruit. “I did.”
After breakfast, I take Halo outside before it gets too hot and play in the backyard when Levi, Mitch and Dean pull up. Security goes inside, while Levi comes over to us and starts to play at the water table that Halo is splashing at.
“Dada!” Halo shouts, then dumps a cup full of water on his shirt when she tries to hand it to him.
I burst out laughing, seeing his polo soaked.
“Something funny Saylor?” He has a gleam in his eyes and because I’ve seen it before, I know what’s to come.
“Don’t you do it!” I snap and move to get up and run away.
I don’t get very far before a set of strong arms rope around me, hauling me back. Levi brings me back over to the water table, kicking and screaming, all the while Halo is giggling.
“Levi!” I shout as he grabs the water hose and wets me and him in the process. “Stop!” I’m yelling and screeching as the coldness soaks me to my panties.
Levi stops but doesn’t release me. I feel little hands on my legs and stop kicking so that I don’t knock into her.
“Help Halo! Get Daddy!” I cheer, hoping Levi will let me go and focus back on Halo.
“Oh, does my baby doll want to help Mommy?” he asks and my heart flutters at his endearment towards our daughter.
Halo starts to talk, but Levi swoops down and circles her around the waist and pulls both of us up into his strong arms. He lets off an evil laugh and brings us both over to the water.
I know this is going to be crazy. I can see that we have an audience, as the whole family has gathered out and are sitting on the rocking chairs, watching us.
Mitch and Grandma both have cameras out filming this no doubt.
This goes on for a while, until I hear the voice that I’ve been avoiding until now.
“Am I interrupting?” Brody says from the gate to the backyard.
All movement stops, and both Linc and Mitch come off the porch to get closer to us.
“Da!” Halo squeals, oblivious to the undercurrent happening around us. She takes off and heads over to Brody.
Brody lets himself in the gate and swings her up in his arms. I know this is going to be confusing to her, but just hope that both men will calm enough not to make a scene in front of her.
Levi is at his full height and clinching his fists as he watches Brody with Halo. I give him a pleading look, hoping he doesn’t lose his cool.
Walking over, I get in front of the laser beam shooting out of Levi’s eyes and greet Brody. He and I have so much to discuss, but not here and not in front of Halo.
“Hey,” I greet, and shove my hands in my back pockets that are drenched from the water table so I won’t touch Brody. Levi is barely hanging on by a thread with another man holding his baby, and I don’t want to make it worse. “I was going to call you after I put this little one down for a nap.”
“Let’s leave and we can put her to bed at home,” he urges.
I need answers from Brody, but I don’t want Halo to hear if we get loud or it turns ugly.
“She’s already here. It’s not a big deal.” Halo wiggles in Brody’s arms and he promptly places her back on her feet. She takes off towards Everly and I see she’s holding her favorite doll. Sneaky bitch!
“Sadie, what’s going on here?” Brody asks, and I feel Levi approach now that our daughter is out of hearing range.
“What does it look like? It’s a family reconnecting after being held apart for over two years, dipshit,” Levi bites out. “And her name is Saylor.”
“And whose fault is that?” Brody retorts.
“You, you motherfuck—”
This is going to get ugly if I don’t step in.
“Enough! Not here in front of Halo,” I say, and put up a hand onto both their chests.
“Sadie, let’s get our baby and go home.”
Oh, shit. Wrong thing to say in front of a possessive caveman who just found his family.
Gently as he can, Levi hooks an arm around my waist and physically moves me behind him and steps up to Brody. Both Mitch and Linc are within arm’s reach, as Linc stands behind Brody.
“That’s MY daughter, fucker, just like that’s MY wife.” Levi snares as he bumps Brody in the chest. I know they both work out hard and it’ll be a bloodbath if it comes to blows.
“Stop! Don’t do this,” I yell and squeeze my way in between the two men. “Brody, you and I need to talk. Let’s go back to your house and do it there.”
“You’re not going anywhere with this lying, scheming sack of shit!” Levi fumes and tries to maneuver me again, but I dodge him.
“Levi, you can’t tell me what to do. Now go and put our daughter down for a nap,” I order.
“Everybody shut up!” We hear a voice coming up towards us. I barely look away and see Grandpa and Granddad marching over to us. Halo, Glammy, Everly, Alice and Grandma are all missing, and I hope they’ve gone inside.
“Sorry Grandpa,” we all three mumble as he finally reaches us.
“This is not going to happen here, do you two hear me?” Grandpa lectures us.
“Yes, sir,” they both say.
“Brody, I’ll meet you at the house. Let me check on Halo and then I’ll head out,” I tell him.
He nods, then turns to head back to the truck. Grandpa walks with him as they converse about something. I let out a breath, thankful that they didn’t come to blows, then start to make my way to the house to check on Halo before I leave.
A hand wraps around my wrists, halting me from moving.
“Don’t go over there with him. Please Saylor, you know I’m not a begging man but I am now.” He looks conflicted and I hate that, but this is something I have to do.
“Levi, so much has happened since I came here to Montana. Brody and I have been through a lot, and whether you like it or not, we have history together. He was the one to put the pieces back together when you broke me. I know he’s played a role in all this, along with you, but he deserves to get to explain. ”
“So, what, you just go back to him? Where does that leave me? Us?” he asks.
“I don’t know, Levi. Two days ago, I thought I’d never see you again and now I find out that not only have you been looking for me and Halo this entire time, but that we are still married. I need to process all of this. This isn’t going to be fixed overnight, and you can’t ask that of me.”
He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes then reopens them. A look of resolve is there and he nods.
“Okay. I know this is going to take some time. I’ll wait for however long it takes.”
“Thank you.”
We walk into the house and find Halo playing happily with her toys, but I can see it in her eyes that it’s naptime.
I give her a big kiss and show Levi our naptime routine.
I love how he takes it all in, wanting to learn everything he can to help where Halo is concerned.
After getting in the truck, I rub my forehead and temples to rid the headache threatening to come back.
Turning on the road towards the ranch, I can’t help but dread what I’m about to find out.