Chapter 24 Liam #2
I reviewed the email from another potential investor and tried not to feel discouraged.
Honestly, I thought at least one of them would take me on, simply because of my name in the boxing world, especially after my recent tour in Europe.
It wasn’t like I headlined or anything, but my name still circulated.
I guess you could say I was a little cocky about it…
but fuck, how that humility burned now. I just needed one person to take me on…
just one who saw me as having something worth betting on.
I checked the books, and there wasn’t a single new membership sign up in the past two weeks.
Worry frayed my nerves, coiling in my gut.
What was I going to do?
Right as I closed my laptop, I heard my phone ring. Deciding I was done at the gym for the day, I grabbed my stuff and pulled the phone up to my ear.
“Hello.”
There was a pause, and then a breathy voice. “Liam?”
I froze in place.
Pulling the phone away from my face, I checked the number. It wasn’t familiar.
“Lacey?”
“Hey,” she said softly, and man if this wasn’t just the worst fucking day.
I focused on locking the gym doors before veering for my truck.
“Where’s the mediator?” We only ever spoke with a third-party between us.
“I figured we could chat, just the two of us.”
Opening my truck door, I set the phone down on the console, slammed the door shut, and while I started it, buckled.
Once I was situated, I pulled it back up to my ear, “—and anyway I thought it was time for me to see them.”
“Have you been talking this entire time?”
She paused, and then launched into it again.
“Liam, I want to see the girls…and you. I miss you.”
Rolling my eyes, I waited for the phone to connect to my Bluetooth.
“Lacey, our parenting plan says you can’t contact me unless you have a mediator.”
Someone spoke in the background, and the chatter and laughter got louder.
“No, it says third party…”
“Hi, Liam.” Fucking Julie.
Lacey spoke up. “See, now we have a third party.”
Fuck this.
“No, we’re not doing this.”
“Just half an hour at the park where your pretty little nanny took the girls that one time. Please, Liam.” It grated my nerves like no other when her tone dipped into mockery around the words, pretty little nanny.
“Lacey, no. Follow the parenting plan. It’s that simple.”
Julie made some comment about being right, and telling her so, but I ignored it.
“So you want me to have to be supervised like a criminal while I see my own children? How will the girls even look at me if there’s a stranger in the room with us? No, my girls need their mother without all that shit.”
“How about Maddy? Does she still need you after what you did?”
Silence met me for only a second before Julie started in.
“Fuck you, Liam. You know Lacey was in a rough place back then. She never would have left her—”
“That’s enough. Julie, get off the phone,” Lacey commanded, and I heard some shuffling then it was a bit quieter.
“Look, Liam. Fine. I can’t see the girls. But what about me and you seeing each other? I miss you, and I know you’re missing me. Maybe we could meet somewhere, just for a while. I’ll suck you off real good, let you treat me like a dirty slut. I remember how much you used to like that.”
I barked out a laugh.
“Lacey, I will not ever be touching you again. I’d become a monk before I let that happen. I will, however, be touched tonight by that pretty little nanny of mine. Don’t call me again unless you have our court-mandated mediator on the line.”
I hung up, realizing I was strangling the steering wheel and still parked in the gym parking lot.
I hated that she’d done this, that she reduced our relationship to this. I hated that her daughters didn’t have her. I hated that she was so selfish.
It was the icing on today’s shit cake.
All I wanted was to go home and curl up with Haley on the couch, and tonight, that’s exactly what I planned to do.
Pulling into my driveway made some of the tightness in my chest release.
Even more so when I opened the garage and found Haley’s SUV secured inside, safe and sound.
There was just something to her being safe, and knowing she was going to be behind that door as soon as I opened it did something to me.
Once I entered the house, I could hear the sound of the television and singing.
I dropped my gym bag in the laundry room, hung my truck keys, and slowly padded down the hall.
The lights from the lamps in the living room illuminated the floor and the huge blanket spread out on it.
All four of my girls sat on it, wearing ribbons in their hair with little foam inserts between their toes.
“Daddy!” Mila jumped up and ran to me and then the other two made their way a little slower. Once they were all in my arms, my eyes landed on Haley’s green ones, and my entire day just seemed to disappear. All the shit, all the pain—
Her eyes narrowed, her brows furrowing into a hard line.
Oh shit. The conversation with Lacey totally made me forget my fucked-up face.
“What happened?” She uncrossed her legs and stood quickly, walking over in a rush. Her tanned thighs led to a pretty purple lilac color painted across her toes, and I nearly laughed because she still had the foam piece in between each one as she stalked over.
I was on my knees, hugging the girls, when she made her way through our little throng and cupped my jaw in her hands. Gentle strokes from her thumbs brushed against my cheeks, and her eyes were so full of worry and concern that she must have completely forgotten about the kids.
“Who hit you?” She searched my eyes, still unaware of how she was touching me. I stared up at her feeling completely undone.
I loved her.
It beat like an anthem in my chest, reminding me she had no idea because I hadn’t said the words.
“Cole got in a lucky shot,” I finally answered, because I did notice that Maddy was inspecting the way Haley held my face, her eyes wide, like she was trying to piece together a puzzle.
Haley finally dropped my jaw and stepped back.
Mila’s little nose scrunched, her face twisting as if she tasted something sour. “Why did Uncle Cole hit you, Daddy?”
Oh shit. Right. This would make no sense whatsoever to them.
Haley’s eyes darted down to Mila, widening as she realized what I had just said.
“Daddy and Uncle Cole always hit each other in the gym,” Seraphina said dismissively, turning back to their blanket set up on the floor.
“Ohhhhh, that’s what you mean, with boxing gloves?”
I rubbed her back. “Of course, honey.”
“You didn’t have your hands up? You always tell us to keep our hands up.”
I had to bite back a smile and I saw Haley was too, then keeping my eyes on Haley, I said, “Daddy was distracted.”
Mila shook her head, clomping back to the blanket like her sister had.
“Last time Uncle Cole was distracted, it was because of loooove.” Mila drew out the word like she was trying to make it sound dreamy.
I knew what they were referencing. Back before Cole got with Nora, he’d come in to train, and the girls watched me clock him good.
I told them it was because he was distracted.
They also had overheard little bits of conversation throughout the year about his growing crush on his boss’s daughter.
They assumed his distraction was because of Nora.
Haley’s hair fell forward as her chin dropped to her chest, likely fighting another smile or a laugh. “Can I take my boots off before you start interrogating me?”
I grabbed Mila in my arms and tossed her on the couch. She let out a loud squeal of laughter.
I headed to the front to put my things away, and then I ran upstairs to shower.
By the time I had returned, the girls had all resumed their spots on the blanket, and Haley was pulling out the little rollers that each one of them had in their hair.
Once they were done, we’d lost a good amount of the evening. So, instead of the girls cuddling on the couch to watch a movie, I told them to go get their pajamas on.
Haley walked with me to the kitchen while the girls ran upstairs. I pulled out the dinner she had made earlier and popped it into the microwave.
Her arms were crossed as she leaned against the counter.
“Why did he hit you?”
I pulled her into my chest and kissed her neck.
“Uh…well, he knows about us…”
“What? How?” she leaned back to catch my eye.
“He knocked on the door the morning after the wedding.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. “And you opened it?”
“I didn’t realize it would be him. I thought it was one of the girls.”
Her fingers found their way around my neck as she pressed a kiss to my chest.
“So he pieced it together?”
I nodded, kissing her nose.
“What else happened today?” She gathered my hair into her fingers and gently tugged.
This was the part of being in a relationship that I wasn’t used to…talking, being vulnerable. My immediate instinct was to say that nothing else had happened and brush the conversation with Lacey under the rug, right along with the fact that I was likely going to lose my gym.
But that was a shit way to start something I wanted so fucking badly.
“Got turned down by another investor…then Lacey called me.”
Even saying it left a bad taste in my mouth, a souring feeling in my stomach.
Haley stepped back and tilted my jaw until I was making eye contact with her.
“What did she want?”
Swallowing thickly, I launched into it.
“Being an addict wasn’t what broke up my marriage,” I said in a rush, no clue at all why that’s what left my mouth. But Haley’s eyes had me continuing. “I’ve seen families work through addiction.”
Haley watched patiently, stroking my jaw.
“There was always something deeper with Lacey…a selfishness that I turned a blind eye to. She was never content. There was a part of her that was harsh and mean, something I always justified as exhaustion or stress. But—”