31
31
Liam
One rap on my office door, and it swung open. I had spent over an hour trying to figure out how Liberty had done that paperless bill filing. I should have had her show me. Expecting to see Tex or Drifter walk in, I turned to see Madeline instead. The happiness I felt at the sight of her vanished when I saw the expression on her face.
“Hello, Liam,” she said, walking inside and closing the door behind her.
She had been calling me Dad more and more lately. Being addressed as Liam meant the stern expression on her face was because of me. It didn’t take me asking her to know why. Saturday had come and gone without my telling her about Liberty. I’d been a little distracted with Liberty in my bed. Blaise sure didn’t give any leeway.
I stood up and walked around the desk. I didn’t like the formal feeling of talking to her with my office desk between us. She wasn’t business. She was my family.
“By your tone of voice, I’m taking it that Blaise told you about Liberty,” I said.
She tilted her head slightly to the left and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes. My husband did tell me that my father was going to have another child. Why is it that my husband had to tell me? Why didn’t you tell me? This is kind of big news. Something that I should have heard from you.”
I really hadn’t wanted it to happen this way. She was angry and probably hurt. Disappointed in me. A host of shit that I hadn’t even thought of yet.
I motioned at the chair. “Have a seat. Let me explain,” I said.
She moved over and sat down, crossing her legs. “I’m listening.”
There was no way to make this sound good. I couldn’t sugarcoat it.
Sighing, I sat in the chair across from her and leaned back.
“A little over two months ago, I stopped at a bar on my way back from Miami. I was on my Harley, and the rain got too heavy. Anyway, the bartender was attractive. She made me laugh. I enjoyed talking to her. Her boss sent her home early, but she didn’t have a ride. I gave her one. She was living in a motel because she and her boyfriend had broken up due to his cheating on her a few weeks prior and they’d been living together.” I paused.
How was I supposed to explain this? A sexy-as-fuck woman invited me in, and I kissed her, then peeled her tank top off ?
“You had sex with her,” Madeline said. “Got that part. Continue.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Well, I left before she woke up. Figured I’d not see her again. She was young. Too young for me to be messing with. And I had my first date with the doctor lined up.”
“You’re aware my father-in-law is married to a much younger woman, and we are very close.”
I shook my head. “Fawn isn’t as young as Liberty.”
Madeline said nothing, and I took that as my cue to continue.
“I started dating Selena. She was good company. Checked all the boxes I was looking for in someone permanent. Maybe to even marry. Except …” I paused, not wanting to discuss how sex with her hadn’t been great and felt like a chore.
“She was bad at sex,” Madeline supplied.
I cleared my throat, uncomfortable talking about it. “Her younger sister needed a place to stay for a few weeks, and she let her stay with her. Imagine my shock when I saw the bartender I’d had a one-night stand with coming out of an upstairs bathroom in Selena’s house.”
Madeline’s hand flew to her mouth as her eyes went wide. “Nooo,” she said, sounding surprised.
“Blaise must have left that out.”
She laughed. “Yes, he did. I’ll deal with him later. Continue.”
“Selena said some things about Liberty, not knowing about us, and I believed her. I judged Liberty unfairly. She passed out, walking home from the bus station late one night. I thought she was drunk or on some drugs. I took her to Selena’s. Then …” I paused, realizing we hadn’t discussed this when she told me about her parents and Selena’s lies. The Liberty I knew wouldn’t have reacted the way Selena had said she did.
“She ended up leaving Selena’s house. I decided to stop by her place of work and check on her. Thinking I was helping out Selena. I caught Liberty outside, throwing up in some bushes. I confronted her about it. She admitted she was pregnant. Said it was mine. I didn’t know that I could trust that. Brought her here and kept her in my bedroom up here while we waited on the results of the paternity test.”
Madeline held up a hand, her eyebrows raised. “You mean to tell me, you brought her to a strip club? Seriously? You have a house. No woman should have to stay at this place—unless she works here, of course.”
“It’s not that bad,” I defended myself. “Your husband just doesn’t want you here. I understand it, but that doesn’t mean it’s some awful place to be. Speaking of which, when he finds out you came here, he’s not going to like it.”
Using her thumb, she pointed over her shoulder toward the door. “He’s right outside. Huck is at the back entrance. Six is at the main entrance,” she told me with a roll of her eyes.
“Surprised there is no one with the vehicle,” I drawled sarcastically.
“Trev,” she replied.
I chuckled. “Of course.”
“So, the paternity test came back, and it was yours,” she said, bringing us back on topic.
“Yeah. I took her to the clubhouse and left her there for a couple of weeks.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.” Her brows were drawn together in a frown.
“No. That way, she wasn’t alone. She was safe. Nina and Goldie loved her. She was fine. Got her set up with an OB-GYN, et cetera. Then, things happened, and I thought it was for the best that she move back here and just stay at my house. She’s good with landscaping and plants and flowers. She takes Ozzy out for me, so I don’t have to leave work to do it or send Tex over there. I’m letting her stay there and be the dog sitter and landscaper while she’s pregnant. Once the baby comes, we will figure things out.” Guilt was eating at me before I even said the words.
I’d known I was going to lie or make the situation sound like something else. Telling Madeline I was fucking Liberty like a feral animal and couldn’t stop would not help the way she saw me right now.
Madeline was frowning. “So, that’s all you want with her?”
No. It wasn’t.
I nodded. “She’s thirty-one. We are at two different points in our life. We don’t fit. Nothing in common.”
Madeline sighed. “Oh. Well, that’s not what I thought I’d hear. She’s young, sure. But she’s having your baby. You get to raise a child of your own. I get a sibling. It’s exciting. I guess I just thought maybe you’d found someone you wanted to have a family with. Grow old with.”
“You thought I would want to grow old with a woman sixteen years younger than me? I’d be old long before she got a gray hair, Madeline. You think a forty-five-year-old woman would want to be stuck with a sixty-one-year-old man? Hell, I’m a grandfather, having a baby.”
Madeline shrugged. “You’re a good-looking man, Dad. You don’t look forty-seven, and if she loved you, she wouldn’t care about age. Not now or in twenty years. But if you don’t love her, then I get that.”
Love her? I hadn’t even considered love. That wasn’t necessarily something I expected when I settled down with someone. Love was a strong emotion. I’d felt it with Etta, but I had also been young. I hadn’t seen how those who claimed to love one another often destroyed each other when it ended.
“This isn’t a love match. It’s a one-night stand and two people trying to form some kind of friendship or relationship so that we can amicably raise a child together. Not be together.”
“I guess the doctor thing is done then,” she said.
I nodded. “Yeah. That wouldn’t work anymore.” Especially now that I knew the lies Selena had told about Liberty. I hoped I never ran into the woman again.
“That’s for the best. Especially if sex wasn’t good. That should be one of the top boxes. If she doesn’t check it, then move on along.”
I grinned. “Noted. I’ll keep that in mind when I decide to try the dating thing again.”
Madeline studied me for a moment. “And you’re sure there is no chance you and Liberty could feel something for each other?”
I shook my head. “Not going down that road.”
“Well, she’s gorgeous, and you enjoy conversations with her. Was the sex any good?”
“I’m not discussing that with my daughter,” I told her.
Her mouth twitched, as if she wanted to smile. “But you told me how not good the sex was with the doctor. You had no problem pointing it out. Yet you won’t talk about sex with Liberty. Which means it’s good and you don’t want to tell me that.”
She stood up. “I want to meet her. She’s going to be my sibling’s mom. I’ll let you figure out when is best. But just because you don’t want to have something more than friendship or amicable whatever with her doesn’t mean I don’t want to have a relationship with her. She’ll be my family too.”
I hadn’t expected that. Picturing it made me uneasy. Seeing Liberty blending with my daughter and grandkids as seamlessly as she had with The Judgment would mess with my head. Make me forget all the reasons why a romantic relationship with Liberty would be a bad idea. Although Madeline had just taken one of those reasons and blown it to hell.