“Don’t worry about it.”
“I know there’s something you aren’t telling me. What is it?”
He shifted in his seat again. “Let’s not talk about her on Christmas, babe.”
“Too late. Tell me.”
His expression darkened slightly. “She’s made comments about wanting to get with me.”
My heart nearly stopped. “Get with you? Are you serious? What, like sexually?”
He gave a half shrug. “Yeah, but not just that. She wanted us to try a relationship.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” My voice was high with panic but still laced with anger.
“I told her no, Viv.”
“Pull the car over.”
“Babe, don’t––”
“Now. Pull over, Kane. Right. Now.”
With a heavy sigh, he did. Then he just looked at me, his expression a mixture of annoyance and expectation.
“Why didn’t you tell me? How could you take me over there and not tell me that?”
“I told her no,” he repeated, as though it answered everything.
“Did she even know I was coming with you today?”
He lowered his brows and stared straight out the windshield. “No. I don’t need her fucking permission to bring my girlfriend places with me.”
“But to her house? On Christmas?”
“Look. She got out of line last weekend and I was trying to send her a message. I’m with you, and she needs to respect that.”
My mouth fell open in shock. “What do you mean, out of line?”
He shifted in his seat. “Does it matter?”
“You bet your ass it matters.”
“She . . . came on to me, I guess. Grabbed my dick and said some stuff.”
My heart pounded wildly. “Grabbed your dick? And you didn’t think you should mention that to me? What did she say?”
“I already told you. She wanted to get with me. Talked about her pussy being shaved and shit.”
The fucking whore. I thought it and almost let it fly out of my mouth.
“With Brooklyn there?”
“No. Brook left to go to a sleepover.”
Tears pricked at my eyes. “And you stayed? With Cori? Who was grabbing your dick?”
“I left when she started that shit.”
I buried my face in my hands and took a few deep breaths.
“Viv, what are you so pissed about? I turned her down cold. Several times. I’m with you. I love you.”
“And what about seeing Brooklyn? You’ll just keep going over there and playing right into Cori’s hands, because it’s the only way you can see her.”
“I’ll never turn my back on Brooklyn again. Don’t ask me to do that, Viv.”
I lowered my hands to my lap, clenching them into fists. “I’d never ask that. But now I feel like a homewrecker.”
“That’s fucking nuts. Cori and I slept together a few times ten years ago. I was too high to even remember it. She got pregnant. We’ve never been together. Not like you and me.”
“She’s Brooklyn’s mom.”
“So what?”
I turned to face him, gathering my courage to ask a question I was afraid of the answer to.
“Did you think about it? Giving things with her a chance so the three of you can be a family?”
He pressed his lips together, silent for a few seconds. The longest seconds of my life.
“There’s my answer,” I said, my voice breaking. “Take me home. I don’t want you coming with me tomorrow.”
“Be rational, Viv.” He scowled at me. “What matters is that I chose you.”
“While I foolishly didn’t even know I was in a contest with anyone.” I wiped the tears from my face. “I hate you right now. Take me home.”
He did, and I slammed the car door and stormed into the house alone, locking the deadbolt. I got in bed and cried and cried and cried, not stopping until my eyes were swollen and I had a pounding headache.
It hurt bone deep that my one and only had considered another woman, even for a second. I didn’t think that was something I’d be able to forgive.
TWO FUCKING WEEKS.
Viv hadn’t answered my texts or phone calls since Christmas Day, and I was out of my mind. I stared at the January calendar on Jeff’s wall, wondering how many more weeks it would take. How many days. How many hours.
“What’s going on with you and Viv?” Jeff asked, closing the screen on his laptop. Obviously he’d figured out I had no interest in his boring financial forecast for the club.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
“Bullshit. The servers are afraid to even make eye contact with you.”
“Nothing’s going on with us,” I said sharply. “Nothing at all since Christmas. She hasn’t spoken to me since we had a fight that day.”
“Shit, man. What happened?”
I rubbed my forehead and exhaled deeply. “I fucked up like I always do.”
“Don’t give me some abstract shit, Kane. What, exactly, happened?”
“You know I’ve been seeing Brooklyn over at Cori’s place.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the weekend before Christmas Cori asked me to come over for dinner and didn’t mention Brooklyn was going to a sleepover right after dinner. She hit on me while we washed dishes. Grabbed my cock and told me I should give us a chance at a relationship so Brook can have a real family.”
“That’s fucking low.”
“Is it? I feel responsible for the situation she’s in. She was a single mom at age twenty. I never once did right by her except when I paid back the child support I owed her.”
“Yeah, but grabbing your junk when you’re with someone else is inexcusable.”
“I shut her down. Told her I’m with Viv.”
Jeff said back in his chair. “But?”
“But I felt like shit for days after. Like I fucked all of them over. Cori, Brook and Viv. I wondered if I should put my feelings aside and make Brooklyn number one. Cori’s a good mom.”
“What, you mean be with Cori even though you don’t want to? Leave Viv?”
His outraged tone underscored what a dickhead I’d been.
“I don’t know, man. I love Viv. But I wondered if I was being selfish for thinking of me instead of Brooklyn.”
“Kane . . . you can be a great dad to her without being involved with her mom. People do it all the time.”
“I get that. I do. I was just eaten up with guilt over all of it. And Cori holds the fucking cards, man. I see Brook when she says I can. I can’t give that up. Cori didn’t want her meeting Viv.”
“Didn’t? So they met?”
My shoulders slumped forward in defeat. “Yeah. I brought Viv over there with me on Christmas to drop off Brook’s present. I wanted Cori to know I’m with Viv and that’s not changing.”
“And it didn’t go well.”
“Viv felt blindsided. Understandably.”
Jeff gave me an incredulous look. “You didn’t tell her about Cori coming on to you? And you just took her to Cori’s house?”
I scowled at him. “Yeah, asshole, that’s what I did. I didn’t want Viv worrying. But Cori was cold to her and she made me tell her everything on the way home.”
“Man, that really sucks.”
“Yeah, you think? I can’t think about anything else. Can’t sleep. All I do is call and text and wait and wonder when she’ll fucking talk to me.”
“Maybe she just needs some time.”
“It’s been two fucking weeks,” I said, my tone more like a growl. “Fuck this. I can’t take it. I’m in love with her. It’s like I’d never filled my lungs completely with air before her, and now I know how it feels to breathe deep. I don’t want to stop.”
Jeff was somber. “I’m sorry.”
“I know I was wrong. I know I fucked up. It was never that I wanted Cori. Never. I just wondered if I should be putting my daughter first. Giving her a chance at something she never had. But I can’t. It’s not . . . not even an option. Viv is my heart and soul.”