Chapter 38
thirty-eight
LACHLAN
Lachlan stepped into Nathalie’s house with Davina and Halle walking two steps in front of her. She was running late. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, that something was going to ruin her day and she wasn’t going to be able to put herself back right again. And the more hours into the day that she was awake, the more that feeling sank into the pit of her stomach.
“Hey, you got a second?” Greer asked.
Lachlan checked her watch as the twins stood next to Greer. “A few seconds.”
Greer narrowed her eyes as if she was debating whether or not to talk to Lachlan just then but ultimately, she seemed to decide it’d be okay. “This is awkward, and somewhat your business and somewhat not your business.”
“All right.” Lachlan narrowed her gaze. Was this going to be the thing that threw her over the edge today? “What’s going on?”
“Baylor is late on his half of the payment for the twins.”
“Late?” Lachlan frowned. That didn’t seem like him at all.
“Which isn’t a new thing. Usually, I just send him two or three reminders, and then he’ll pay me.”
“Wait. Hold on.” Lachlan put her hand out in front of her trying to pause everything so she could get a grasp on what was happening. “Davina, Halle, go find Alaric and make sure he’s ready for school.”
The twins raced off toward Alaric’s bedroom, their feet pattering down the hallway. Lachlan straightened her back and looked directly at Greer. “You mean he’s been late before?”
“He’s late almost every month. I never mentioned it because that’s his deal and not yours, and technically the payment portion of my contract is separate for you two.” Greer’s hands were relaxed at her sides, but Lachlan could tell that she was uncomfortable even having this conversation.
“All right, I get that, but if he’s late that means you haven’t been getting paid on time.”
“Only from Baylor. Everyone else pays on time.” Greer frowned. “Like I said, usually I just send him a few reminders, and then he pays. He’s really only ever been later than ten days a couple times.”
“Ten days!” Lachlan screeched, her voice echoing through the entryway of Nathalie’s house.
“Right.” Greer pressed her lips together hard. “The point of this conversation starter was that he’s currently twenty-two days late, and he’s not responding to my reminders. I let it slide longer than I normally would, but I’m going to have to terminate his half of the contract at the end of the month if he doesn’t pay me, which means that I won’t be able to watch the girls when he has them.”
“Oh my God.” Lachlan’s heart sank. The entire point of co-parenting with Baylor, of working together with him, was so that the girls could have consistency, not just in their care, but in what their parents were saying and doing.
“I’ve already sent him the termination notice, but in a couple weeks, you’ll have to figure out drop offs and pick-ups with whoever Baylor sets up as an alternative on the days he has the twins.” Greer said it like it was no big deal. She said it like this wasn’t painful for her.
Lachlan looked deep into Greer’s dark brown eyes and wondered what she was thinking underneath all of that. Why was she even telling Lachlan about this? Because surely it couldn’t just be about pick-ups and drop offs. Surely, it had to be more involved than just that. Greer wasn’t someone who had these types of conversations just willy-nilly. There was meaning behind everything.
“Do you want me to pay his half?” Lachlan asked slowly.
“Absolutely not!” Greer smiled at her. “Really. I’m just letting you know because at this point, there’s probably going to be a change in care for the twins. And I assumed, and probably rightfully so based on your reaction right now, that Baylor hasn’t mentioned any of this to you.”
“No.” Lachlan sighed. “He hasn’t.” It was one more piece of the puzzle that she needed to add into the conversation she was now planning on having with him when she got to the office. “Thanks, Greer.”
Lachlan stepped in close, not bothering to look and see if the kids were around, and wrapped her arms around Greer and kissed her. Greer sighed into the embrace, the tension that had been in her shoulders when she’d started the conversation easing. Lachlan pulled away, feeling the same stress ease from her own. She loved that they could do that for each other.
And she loved that they had become more open about being affectionate with each other in the last few weeks. Even if it did still feel like there was something holding them back.
“There’s something else,” Greer murmured, her face drawn and her cheeks tight.
“What else could there possibly be?” Lachlan sighed, already feeling like her assumption of what today was going to be was absolutely correct.
“I’m being called as a witness against Ivy. I was served last week with the subpoena.”
“Greer.” Lachlan’s heart sank. “Because of the adultery?”
Greer nodded, pulling her lip between her teeth. Lachlan did the only thing she could think, and she wrapped Greer up tightly in a hug. She breathed in Greer’s scent, she held onto her tightly, rubbing her hands up and down Greer’s back.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d get called either, because of… well, how Penny found out. I assume she saw the night all three of us…”
“We were in Ivy’s bedroom,” Lachlan answered. “We didn’t really do anything where there were cameras.”
“Right.”
Was Greer trembling? God, Lachlan wanted nothing more than to stay here all day and comfort her. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Greer straightened her shoulders and stepped away. She plastered on that smile that she seemed to always be wearing, but because Lachlan knew her so much better now, she could tell that it was forced, that it wasn’t genuine, and that Greer was putting up a front. “It’ll all be fine.”
“Yeah, it will be.” Lachlan squeezed Greer’s hand tightly. “Text me if you need to talk today, okay? I have a lighter day with patients and no procedures.”
Greer nodded. And somewhere in the back of Lachlan’s mind, she knew that Greer wouldn’t text.
“I’ll come see you when I get home. We all will.”
“It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“All of it is a big deal.” Lachlan squeezed her hand again. “I’ll let the others know.”
“Thanks. I wasn’t sure how to tell Ivy.”
Lachlan hummed her agreement. “Yeah, that one’s going to be tough, but I think she’ll be more mad than anything—and not at you.”
“That’s good.”
Lachlan kissed Greer’s cheek. “I’ll check in at lunch.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I want to.” Lachlan made eye contact with Greer and nodded at her, just to make sure that Greer understood that Lachlan was going to be there for her, no matter what. She was part of them now, and Lachlan wasn’t going to let anything happen to upset that balance.
The drive to work didn’t take her that long. But finding time to sit down with Nathalie did. It wasn’t until Lachlan was finally able to corner Nathalie in her office, with Abagail locked outside and hanging around the reception desk, and Baylor in with a patient, that Lachlan had a moment to even look Nathalie over.
“We’ve got drama.”
Nathalie groaned and plopped down into her chair. “It better be the good kind of drama, because I’m tired of the shitty kind.”
Lachlan’s lips quirked upward at that. “It’s not the great kind.”
“What is it?”
“Penny is calling Greer as a witness against Ivy.”
“Because of the adultery.” Nathalie said it like a statement. There was no question about it now. “But not you? Or me?”
Lachlan shook her head. “Not yet anyway. She might not know. I hate feeling like Ivy’s house is the enemy, but that’s what it feels like right now.”
Nathalie frowned her agreement. “And Greer?”
“She’s panicked. I think that’s why she went to Kam’s last weekend, just to get away from it all and get some breathing room.”
“Makes sense.” Nathalie hit the mouse on her desk to wake up her computer. “Was that all the drama or was there more?”
“Well, what are we going to do about Greer?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Nathalie opened up her email.
That answer didn’t sit well with Lachlan. The ache that had started in her chest that morning deepened, and she wanted it gone, not worse. “I don’t believe that.”
“There’s really nothing we can do, Lachlan. If she’s called as a witness, she’ll have to get up and testify, which means, she’ll have to answer questions about what she and Ivy did in Ivy’s house. And I don’t really think there’s any way around that.”
Lachlan grunted, and then she sat on the edge of Nathalie’s desk, making sure that she had Nathalie’s full attention. “But what are we going to do to make sure that Greer feels supported and loved?”
Nathalie narrowed her gaze, following a path from Lachlan’s fingers on the top of her desk, up Lachlan’s arm, lingering on her lips, and then locking on her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“You’re the one who said we need to seduce her into our lives, Nathalie. This is part of that. If we want Greer to stay around, to feel like she’s one of us, then we need to make sure that she has the support and love that she needs to do the things she’s being asked.” Lachlan bit the inside of her cheek. Her next step was to find Baylor and rip him a new asshole, but she wanted to do that after hours, when most of the staff was gone, and when she could yell as loudly and as bluntly as possible.
“I…she’s fine, isn’t she? This isn’t a slight against her. It’s just a crappy situation made crappier by Ivy’s vindictive ex.”
“Look, Greer isn’t like you. Well, not in this way.” Lachlan’s cheeks heated at the memory of what they’d done a few weeks ago, at the touches, the kisses, the pleasure, and the way that both Nathalie and Greer had taken such amazing control and good care of everyone in the room. “She’s fragile, and there’s something about her that makes me think she doesn’t believe she’s worthy of support and love. And that has to change. Because she absolutely is.”
“Everyone is,” Nathalie mumbled under her breath. “But I don’t see what I can do about it.”
“You’re so dense sometimes. You know that?”
“I’m sorry, what?” Nathalie glowered.
“Nothing. I need to go yell at Baylor.” Lachlan stood up. She’d figure out Nathalie later, when she was ready for this day to be done and had a few minutes to figure out how to make her understand exactly what was going on and how to fix the damn problem.
“Yell at him?” Nathalie raised an eyebrow. “If this is work related, then I should…”
“No. It’s not. Well, actually, maybe it is.” Lachlan frowned. “He’s not been paying Greer on time for months, apparently, and currently, he hasn’t paid her for this current month. So she’s been working for him for free.”
“What the hell, Lachlan?”
“I know, right?” Lachlan put her hands out to her sides. “Ridiculous. But I had a thought just now… if he’s not paying her, my guess is it’s because he can’t afford to pay her. He’s bad with money, but I didn’t think he’d ever get this bad.”
“If he can’t afford to pay her, then what makes him think he can buy Ivy’s shares?” Nathalie asked.
“Exactly!” Lachlan pointed at her. “He might think that he can get a loan, but he’ll struggle to make those payments if he can’t even pay the nanny to watch his kids half time.” Lachlan’s heart raced. “And I plan on figuring out exactly what the idiot has gotten up to that has spent all of his money.”
“Don’t ask that.” Nathalie shook her head. “You know the answer to that already.”
Lachlan sneered. “You’re right. I do.” She hated that she did, because he was spending this cash on his new fiancée instead of his kids like he should be doing. She put her hands on her hips and glowered. “I’m going to have a fun little conversation with my ex.”
“You do that. Don’t make it too loud!” Nathalie called as Lachlan stepped toward the door. “I’ll make sure to relieve Greer of Davina and Halle when I get back since I imagine your argument is going to make you late.”
“Thanks.” Lachlan looked over her shoulder at Nathalie. “Appreciate you!”
“Uh-huh.”
Lachlan waited until she saw Baylor leaving for the day and walking by her office. She called through the doorway. “Baylor!”
He stopped, faced her, and immediately cowered. “What’d I do now?” He stepped into her office and shut the door behind him. “Because I assume this isn’t work related.”
“It is and it isn’t. Let’s start with the it isn’t.” Lachlan stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why haven’t you paid Greer?”
“She shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Well, she’s cancelling your care of our children, so yes, she should have. But more than that, you should have told me. Especially if you couldn’t afford her.” Lachlan wasn’t going to back down on this one. She was sick and tired of being jerked around.
“I can afford her! I’m a doctor.”
“Then why aren’t you paying her?” Lachlan glared at him.
“Because I don’t have the money.”
“God, you’re an idiot. An absolute idiot. I’m not even going to ask what you spent it on or where it went. That’s not my business. What I am going to tell you is that you’ll pay Greer, and then you’re going to pay her ahead for next month, and then you’re going to figure out a way to pay her on time every single month from here on out. I won’t have our kids tossed around from sitter to sitter because you refuse to be an adult and figure out how to take care of them.”
“Lachlan…” Baylor paled. “I don’t have the money.”
“Figure it the fuck out!” Lachlan’s voice rang through the office loudly.
Baylor took a full step back from her. She was pretty sure, he’d never seen her like that before, that he’d never truly experienced her rage.
“And for that matter, since you can’t afford to pay our nanny to watch our kids, which is definitely a higher priority than anything else, you can forget about your little idea to buy Ivy’s shares. You can’t afford it.”
“That’s business. Not personal!” Baylor straightened his back.
“It’s not either for you, right now. You work for me, and I don’t want to work for you.” Lachlan stepped around her desk and plopped her butt down in her chair. “I’ll see you in the morning, Baylor. Try not to be late to work again.”
He spluttered, but she refused to engage in conversation with him. Lachlan opened up her email to check it, even though she wasn’t seeing a damn thing on the screen. Baylor finally huffed and left the room when she didn’t give him the attention or reaction that he wanted.
As soon as he was gone, Lachlan closed her eyes and put her head on her desk.
This day couldn’t get any worse, could it?