Chapter Twenty-Four
A week, Mom. I had no idea where you were for a week,” her daughter said with a pinched look on her face and Max the cat cuddled to her chest.
Gia was beginning to think stopping at the lavender farm on her way home hadn’t been such a great idea.
“But you did know where I was, honey,” she pointed out gently, wondering what had happened to her daughter.
This wasn’t the woman she knew and loved.
Sage was acting like a petulant teenager, and she hadn’t even been petulant back then.
Sage dabbed at her eyes with a tissue while nuzzling the cat in her arms. “You’re such a sweet boy. You knew Mommy needed some extra love, didn’t you?”
Gia looked around the living room for a camera, positive she was being pranked. She didn’t find one, though. “Honey, is everything all right?”
“All right? How can it be all right? You were gone for an entire week! And all we got was some cryptic text about you needing time alone and that you were staying at a hotel in Boston. Really, Mom? You don’t think you need to call us or send us daily proof of life?
Nonna was… is… beside herself. Did you let her know you were home? ”
“Uh, no. I stopped here first.” Gia was beginning to feel like she was the child and Sage the mother. “Did anything happen while I was away? You seem… overwrought?”
Sage’s face crumpled, and she burst into tears.
Gia stood there for a moment, stunned, and then she moved closer, about to nudge Max out of the way, but Sage clutched the cat tighter to her chest. “Honey, you need to tell me what’s wrong,” she said, unable to keep the panic from her voice. “Where’s Jake?”
“He’s… he’s gone,” her daughter sobbed.
“Gone where, honey?” Gia didn’t care that she liked Jake; she was going to hunt him down and hurt him for putting her daughter in such a state.
The front door opened, and Aaron walked in carrying a bag from the farmers market. “Gia, welcome back. How are you doing, babe? Sagey, you didn’t tell me your mom was dropping by.” He frowned. “What’s gotten into her?”
In her gut, Gia knew. It wasn’t Jake she needed to hurt. It was her ex-husband. “What are you doing here, Aaron?”
“What do you think I’m doing here? Me and Sage are bonding, aren’t we, honey?” He put the bag on the counter. “You want a coffee, Gia? I think we still have some of that stuff from Fair Trade left, don’t we, Sagey?”
Sage lifted her head and held Gia’s gaze.
Gia stood up. “Don’t worry, I can make my own coffee, Aaron.” She brushed past him. “You moved in with Sage as soon as I left town, didn’t you?”
“Someone had to look after our daughter. Look at her. She’s a mess.
” He wagged a bunch of carrots at her. “I’m surprised at you, taking off like that, cutting off all communication with your family.
” She caught a hint of a smirk when he opened the fridge, and her stomach knotted.
He couldn’t have known what she’d do, could he?
“When did Jake leave?” She directed her question at Sage, but Aaron answered.
“Not soon enough, if you ask me. I’ve been telling Sagey I don’t get a good feeling about that guy. You must feel the same as me, but I understand why you would have been uncomfortable kicking him out. He’s a big SOB.”
“There’s only one person I don’t get a good feeling about, and that’s you, Aaron.” She turned to her daughter. “Please tell me you didn’t kick Jake out of his own home because of something he did.” She jabbed her finger at Aaron.
“Hey, wait a damn minute here. It’s not my fault he had a problem with me staying at the farm with my daughter.”
She shouldn’t have left town. She should have known better than to leave her sweet girl at the mercy of this man.
“Any fool knows you don’t make your girlfriend choose between you and her family.”
She nodded. “You’re right. No one should ever choose a man over her family.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I said.”
He already knew where she was going with this, and he was getting nervous. She could tell by the way he fidgeted with the collar of his shirt. The problem with a nervous or angry Aaron Abbott was that you never knew when or how hard he’d strike back.
“You played me, Aaron, and that’s on me, not you.
I won’t be party to the emergency injunction, and I’m going to make sure Cami doesn’t give you a dime to make your suit go away.
Because that’s what you really want, don’t you?
You know you don’t have a chance of winning.
You just wanted to create enough of a headache that Cami or her publisher would pay you off.
” She stepped closer, getting into his face.
“I want you to pack your bags and get out of Jake and my daughter’s home. ”
“Sagey, are you going to let her talk to me like this?”
Her daughter cast a nervous glance at her father but then met Gia’s gaze and nodded. “Mom’s right. It’s Jake’s home too.”
“It wouldn’t be if you’d listened to me and contested the will.” He leaned into Gia. “You haven’t changed, have you? You’re still a bitch.” He backhanded the bag from the market, sending lemons and oranges tumbling onto the floor.
Gia fisted her hands at her sides in an effort to keep from trembling in the face of his fury.
He had never hit her. Instead, he’d vented his rage on her personal belongings, her paints and paintings.
Then he’d tell her he’d done her a favor—the critics would have torn her exhibition to shreds.
She had no talent. She’d never amount to anything anyway.
Sage stood up. Aaron had made a mistake venting his anger in front of his daughter.
A woman who spent every waking hour of every day defending her clients from men like him.
She was no longer the little girl who’d wished for her daddy to come home when she blew out her candles on her third, fourth, and fifth birthday cakes.
On her sixth birthday, when she’d wished for a new scooter instead, Gia had been relieved, but as she’d seen this morning, her daughter had never given up on that dream. Sadly for her, the father she’d wished for was a nightmare.
There was no emotion in Sage’s voice when she said, “Before you go, leave the keys to my car on the counter.”
“You don’t mean that. I’m not a well man. How do you expect me to get around?”
Gia put her arm around Sage’s shoulder. “Walk? It’s good for your health.”
“I have congestive heart failure!”
“Jake fixed your rental before he left,” Sage said, bending down to pick up the oranges and lemons off the floor.
“You know what? He should thank me for you showing him the door. You would have made his life a living hell. You’re just like your mother.” Aaron snorted. “I bet he’s having a real good time in San Diego bonking his ex-wi—”
Sage drilled an orange at Aaron. He crouched down, covering his head, and that’s when Max attacked. He leaped off the couch, paws and claws out, looking like a flying carpet. He landed on Aaron’s back and took him down.
Once Sage and Gia stopped laughing, they freed Max’s impressive claws from Aaron’s shirt. He didn’t stick around long, rushing to the bedroom to pack his bag and then fast-walking across the living room to get to the front door, keeping an eye on Max the entire way.
“You’re going to regret this. You both are,” Aaron said, storming out and slamming the door behind him.
“For a guy who is supposedly dying from congestive heart failure, he is surprisingly fast on his feet. He wasn’t even breathless.” Gia glanced at her daughter and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t make light of it. He’s your father.”
Sage hugged her back. “Thank you for rescuing me,” she said, letting go of Gia to walk to the couch. She sat and put her elbows on her knees, burying her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I let him drive a wedge between Jake and me. I’m such an idiot.”
Gia sat beside her. “Jake’s a smart guy.
I bet he knew exactly what Aaron was up to, and he’d know how difficult it would be for you to take his side over a man you’d been wanting to meet since you were a little girl.
” She took Sage’s hand in hers. “I should have handled things differently when you were young. I did try to find him after your third birthday, but I couldn’t, so I thought it was better to act like he didn’t exist.”
“I wish I hadn’t met him. He could have stayed the fantasy father in my head. I loved that guy. Aaron, I…” She looked at her. “He gave me the creeps, Mom. Am I a horrible person?”
“No, just a perceptive one.”
“If I was so perceptive, he wouldn’t have gotten through the front door, and I wouldn’t have had a fight with Jake and asked him to leave.”
“Did he go to San Diego?” Gia asked carefully.
“Yeah, he had to pack up his apartment. He’s having some of his things sent here, and he’s giving away the rest.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “You don’t think Jake and his ex-wife…?”
“No, of course not.”
“That wasn’t a very convincing no , Mom.” Sage leaned back on the couch and lifted Max onto her lap.
“Ignore me. That was just me projecting.” She reached out and patted the purring cat. “I’m sure you know by now that I broke up with Flynn.”
“In a text. Yeah, I know. That’s all I’ve heard about, that and you joining Aaron’s lawsuit.
Willow and I are no longer talking, and honestly, if she keeps talking about you like she has been, I’m never speaking to her again.
” She swiped at her eyes. “Why did you end it with Flynn? Everyone thinks it’s because you and Aaron are getting back together, and trust me, just the thought of that makes me want to throw up in my mouth, but from what I just witnessed, he had nothing to do with it. ”
Maybe going radio silent hadn’t been the smartest idea. Gia took her phone from her purse and showed Sage the picture of Flynn kissing Cami on the dock.