Push

33. He Had a Stalker

He Had a Stalker

Toby

I stopped dead in my tracks.

A piece of white paper flapped on the windshield of my car.

This is the last damn thing I need.

The corner tore off the note when I ripped it from the wiper. Who cared? I wasn’t going to bother reading it. The signature pink lips stamped at the bottom were all I needed to see. Love, Kayleigh. She always wrote that, too.

My hand fumbled in my pocket for the key fob.

I unlocked the car, flung open the passenger door, and reached for the glove compartment.

A flip of the catch, and an avalanche of white paper spilled out.

Flustered, my hand shaking, I stuffed the notes back inside and snapped the glove compartment shut.

Kayleigh had a knack for popping up everywhere I went. I dragged my palms down my face. How ? Noah’s fever wasn’t exactly breaking news. The paparazzi weren’t hiding in the bushes next to the pharmacy, waiting for me to pick up the medicine he needed. Yet Kayleigh was always on my tail.

“It means so much to me that you kept all my love letters.”

My eyes widened. The words were intimate, whispered too close. I steadied my hand on the roof of the car, sucked down a breath, and slowly turned.

I wasn’t surprised Kayleigh stood behind me. She looked down at her white sneakers, the belt of her yellow sundress twisted around her fingers.

“Leave me alone,” I snapped at her.

Defiant, she hiked up her chin. “I won’t give up on us.”

Us? I clenched my jaw so hard I could crack a molar. How many times did I have to tell her there was no us ? I shoved past her, not sparing her another glance.

Get in the car. Drive home .

Kayleigh scurried behind me. “Why won’t you admit how you feel about me?”

“Because I don’t feel anything for you!”

“Stop lying to yourself!” Her fingers latched around my bicep and spun me around. “Please, Toby. I’ll take such good care of you.” Her eyes were wide with hope. “Come to my place. We can talk—”

“There’s nothing for us to talk about.” I yanked my arm free of her claws.

Kayleigh bit back a smile. “We can talk about how much you got off on kissing me.”

The shame burned my throat like acid. “Keep your voice down.”

She didn’t listen. She never listened. “No man kisses a woman like you did unless it means something. You wanted me.”

“I missed Gwen.” The rough honesty choked my voice.

I’d chased memories of easier times in the most selfish way possible. Kissing Kayleigh hadn’t made the emptiness inside me disappear. It had only made me miss Gwen more. Dylan and I had talked it over in one of my sessions. Those weren’t his words, but I knew he meant that.

The guilt would never fade. I wouldn’t let it.

Some nights, instead of staring at the ceiling, I tortured myself listening to Gwen’s voicemails from the night of the accident, imagining how different our lives might’ve been if I’d answered my phone.

In my fantasy, the shadow in Gwen’s eyes faded, and she never waited for the next time I’d betray her. She loved me again.

“I love my wife.” It felt so natural to declare that.

“You deserve someone who never leaves you guessing. That’s me . Gwen’s never loved you. You were her one-way ticket off the trash heap away from her drunk mother—”

“Back the hell up.” My hand froze on the car door. “That’s not the first time you’ve said something like that to me. Where’d you hear that?”

Kayleigh’s teeth caught on her bottom lip, her gaze flicking sideways. “You,” she whispered.

Nice try, psycho. “I shot my stupid mouth off about a lot of things that were none of your damn business, but Gwen’s past is off-limits.” Even to me… “Who told you that?”

Her fingers knotted in her belt. She said nothing.

“Who?” I demanded.

She flinched at the sharpness in my voice. “S-Sarah.”

“My…” I shook my head. Maybe I hadn’t heard her right. “My mother ?”

Kayleigh crept closer, but I was too stunned to move out of her way.

“Toby, you’ll be so proud of me. I was with my parents at the yacht club last year, and I introduced myself.

Your mum and I have become such good friends.

She’s been teaching me how to cook.” The way her eyes dipped, her cheeks flushing pink, I didn’t think cooking was the only lesson she’d learned under my mother’s careful teaching.

My confused mind only managed to spit out, “This is fucking crazy.”

“Toby, she misses you so much.”

I barked a laugh at the sky. “That woman is poison. She misses interfering in my life. She misses having control over me…my sister… The way she speaks about my wife sickens me to my soul. I want nothing to do with her. Or you. Ever .”

I was done.

I flung open the car door, only turning to add, “You can tell that evil bitch every word I said the next time you see her for one of your cooking lessons.”

And then I got the hell out of there.

I parked the car in the driveway, forcing down a breath. And another. My gaze slid to the glove compartment. All the ammunition I needed to explode my life into a thousand pieces was stuffed inside. But I needed to be honest with Gwen.

I threw my head back against the seat, my eyes screwed shut, and a punch of dread hit me in the gut.

I should’ve told Gwen weeks ago when I’d found the first note, but we were bouncing from crisis to crisis, and there was never a good time. And now…it was only good times.

We were almost living together under one roof again.

The three of us ate dinner together every night.

We went to Alfie’s birthday party, and even though Zach’s wife had given me the stink eye the entire afternoon, we’d had a pretty good time.

Gwen had even agreed to change Noah’s swimming lesson to Saturday mornings. We’d take him together…as a family .

But Gwen’s forgiveness was a knife edge. One wrong step, and she’d cut me out of her life—for good. Was this the wrong step?

I reached over to the backseat to grab my gym bag.

I opened the glove compartment, stuffed my hands with everything hidden inside, and shoved it into the bag.

I was already out of the car when I remembered the medicine.

I bought myself extra precious seconds with my family when I raced back to snatch it off the passenger seat.

Opening the front door had never felt harder. My feet dragged with every step. And just when I thought my shitty day couldn’t get any worse…

Liam.

The blond bastard lounged on my couch like he owned the place.

His long legs stretched out, his shiny black shoes on the coffee table, ankles crossed, and his trousers pulled up just enough to show pink unicorn socks.

A magazine sat on his lap—the country living kind Gwen thumbed through when she sipped her morning coffee on the back deck.

Liam’s head turned slightly. “Welcome home, sweetheart.” A smirk followed.

I stalked over and shoved his feet off the coffee table. Gwen would lose her shit if she saw that. “What are you doing in my house?”

Unruffled, he resettled himself on the couch and propped his ankle on his knee. “ My lawyer lives here and is signing my paperwork.” His gaze dropped back to the magazine.

“Mondays are Gwen’s day off,” I spat back.

“You and Elias practically sound like twins.” Liam flicked to the next page. “A little bird informed me every day is your day off.”

My spine straightened. I didn’t owe this creep an explanation. “I’m on vacation.”

“Vacation,” Liam repeated with a soft chuckle. “I see.”

“You have some issue with me not working?”

A blond eyebrow arched. “Not at all. But if you’re open to a change of vocation, I could use someone like you on my team.

I’d take great pleasure in introducing you to some of my…

acquaintances . I can already imagine it.

” Liam gestured at me with a flourish, his tone low, almost sinister, when he said, “Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet my dear friend.

The dentist .” The darkness in his laugh chilled me to my bones.

“Are standover tactics important in the banking sector?”

Liam’s expression remained unreadable. “Perhaps you’d be pleasantly surprised.” He flicked to another page of the magazine. “Or would you be? You are a Sullivan, after all.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Didn’t your daddy share all the fascinating details about how he earned your family’s fortune?”

I narrowed my eyes on Liam. My father hadn’t told me a damn thing. I wasn’t the son he’d wanted. I’d never been the chip off the old block who’d take over his property empire. I was the dumb one. The rugby player. Ian had spent more time with my father than I had.

And so what? Why was it any of Liam’s business? The tabloid’s darling wasn’t going to waltz into my house, talk shit to me, and order my girl around on her day off.

I cocked my head. If he wanted a fight, I’d give him one. “Do you have some kind of problem with my family?”

Liam rose from the couch. He buttoned his jacket as he prowled closer. We stood toe-to-toe. Almost eye-to-eye. I narrowed my gaze. The blank expression he shot back unsettled me, but I wasn’t scared.

“I have many problems with your family,” he bit out. “It’s no loss to the world your daddy is dead. It’s only a pity the heart attack got him first. Yet, Gwen defends you. She says you aren’t like him.” Calculated eyes scanned me from head to toe. “She’s wrong.”

I’d made mistakes, but I was nothing like my father. “Fuck you.”

Liam’s lips twisted in a smile. “Is that an invitation?”

My bravado disappeared. “Wha-what?” Stunned, I blinked at him.

“Relax, sweetheart.” He gave me a condescending pat on the cheek. “You’re not my type.”

I smacked his hand away.

A throat cleared behind us. “Am I interrupting a bonding moment?”

My head snapped around in sync with Liam’s. Gwen stood at the edge of the living room, bouncing Noah on her hip. She smiled, but it was more like a grimace.

Liam’s smile matched hers. “Your husband was telling me about his vacation .”

Unruffled, Gwen frowned, and she stuck out a pile of stapled papers. “Here,” she barked at him. “Your documents for the regulator that absolutely could’ve waited until I was in the office tomorrow.”

“It’s always best to tie up loose ends as quickly as possible.” Liam glared at me before he strode over to Gwen to take his precious papers. “And I confess, I had an ulterior motive.”

She sighed. “The lunch invitation again?”

“Mama Serrano won’t take no for an answer,” he replied. “Eli’s left her waiting too long for her grandbabies. She’s eager to meet your little creature. So, lunch next Sunday?”

Oh, hell to the no. Gwen spending with this dickhead on a weekend, too? Not happening.

“Sounds great. I can’t wait,” I said, grinning right at him.

Liam didn’t grin back. “ You weren’t invited.”

“If my wife and son are there, I’m invited.”

Gwen sensed the tension prickling the air around us and jumped in to say, “Tell Cat we’ll be there. All three of us.”

“Splendid.” Liam shot another glare at me over his shoulder as he left. If looks could kill, I’d be asleep in the dirt. “I look forward to our next chat, sweetheart.”

Even after the front door shut, Gwen stared at me, her eyebrow arched, waiting for an explanation.

“I hate your brother,” I grumbled.

“Everyone does.” She laughed. “Did you get the medicine?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s in my—”

I clamped my mouth shut, my eyes darting to the gym bag stuffed with a hundred secrets. The letters and dead flowers hidden inside were light, but carrying that bag was like hauling the bag of concrete mix I’d bought at the hardware store yesterday.

“Gwen, there’s something I need to tell you.”