Clenching my jaw, I finished tugging the majority of the wrinkles out of my shirt and turned for the door. “You should hurry, Zander. Maybe you could show Mieke around the city. She would enjoy that. I have meetings today. More loose ends to tie up so I can get back to Nashville.” And as far away from you as humanly possible.
“Damn it, Anna. Come back and talk to me,” he called after me.
I ignored him, something I’d learned from him how to do like a pro. Natalie and Mieke were in the kitchen. Natalie was by the coffee maker while Mieke sat at the island in the middle of the huge room. Seeing the look on my daughter’s face startled me. Why was she glaring at Natalie Cutter like she was the enemy? What the hell was her problem?
I touched her arm and her angry eyes lifted from where she was shooting daggers into Natalie’s turned back. “What’s wrong with you?” I whispered so as not to embarrass my child. I would never do that to Mieke.
The anger and pain in her eyes gutted me, but I didn’t understand why she was feeling like that. “She rang the doorbell forever, so I got up to answer it. But by the time I got there she was using a key to get in. A key, Mom. This chick has a key to Dad’s apartment, and it’s more than obvious that she is pregnant. Did he start a new family without us? Did he?”
I let out a deep, frustrated breath. The pain in her eyes and voice was excruciating to see and there was nothing I could do about it. Mieke had built up some kind of fairy tale in her mind —that one day her father would ride in and swoop the two of us up and we’d be a family again. I’d turned a blind eye to it, and only now did I realize how big of a mistake that had been. I knew Zander hadn’t started a family, but if he had, Mieke would have been destroyed right then.
“Honey, I know this is hard for you, and I understand why it would hurt you to think that your dad had a new family here while… But don’t stress yourself over this. Natalie is married to Devlin Cutter. That’s his baby in her belly. Trust me when I say that Dev would cut off your dad’s nuts and shove them down his throat before he let your dad touch his wife. Okay?”
Mieke shook her head. “That wasn’t the case over a year ago when the band was having issues and Dad and this Devlin guy were fighting over her.”
I couldn’t help but blink at the venom in Mieke’s voice any more than I could help the stab of pain straight to the center of my chest. Over the years I’d bent over backward to avoid any news about OtherWorld, but I knew that Mieke had kept up with the band through social media groups as well as the tabloids and entertainment shows. Even though Noah and I had tried to beat into her head that most of the tabloid stuff was just rumors at best, she had still continued to read anything she could get her hands on.
But even I had heard people talking about the possibility of OtherWorld breaking up due to an inner conflict between the band’s drummer and bassist. Apparently there had been a bet between the two best friends, and that bet had led to the breakup between Natalie and Devlin for over a year.
Mentally shaking away my pain, I grasped Mieke’s elbow a little firmer. “Nothing is going on between Nat and your dad, sweetheart. And even if there were, that is his business. Don’t get pissed because he has a life here.”
“But I am pissed,” she cried, her voice rising.
Natalie turned her head and raised a brow at the two of us. I gave her a small, grim smile and tugged on Mieke’s elbow. “Excuse us, Natalie. I need to—”
Mieke jerked away from my hold. “You don’t need to do anything.” She turned the full force of her glare on Natalie. “Are you knocked up with my little brother or sister, or what?”
Natalie’s lips twitched for a moment and then she was tossing her head back and laughing out loud. “Are you serious?” Mieke’s glare only turned icier and Natalie’s laugh stopped, but she was still grinning. “No, kid. This is one hundred percent Devlin Cutter’s baby girl. That thing between your dad and me was never more than friendship. Cool your jets, princess. I’m not the competition around here. Actually, you don’t have any competition. Z has always kept his demons to himself, but now I can see why he’s never hooked up with anyone while we were on the road.”
Mieke’s shoulders actually dropped in relief. “So Dad hasn’t ever had a girlfriend?”
“No girlfriend that I’ve ever seen, honey. And hookups were few and far between.” Natalie turned her blue-gray eyes on me, as if she was speaking solely to me now. “I’m not going to tell you the dude was a monk, but honestly it’s a pretty close call on that end. I always wondered why,” —she shrugged —“but now I don’t have to wonder anymore.”
I wasn’t lying when I told Zander I had meetings all day. There were things that needed my immediate attention so I could get my ass back to Nashville where it belonged. So I left Mieke—reluctantly—with Zander, who promised to show her all his favorite places in the city. Natalie had still been there and had promised she would plan them out a day and then send me an itinerary so I would at least know where my daughter was.
Pulling my rental car into Emmie’s driveway, I rushed inside and started up to the second floor when I nearly ran straight into the solid chest of Nik Armstrong. Letting out a squeak, I thought for sure I was going to fall backward down the stairs when strong hands caught me around the waist and steadied me.
Nik’s hands didn’t linger, just steadied me and let me go as soon as he was sure I wasn’t going to fall. “Whoa there, Annabelle. You okay?”
I grimaced and nodded up at him. “I’m good.”
Clear, ice-blue eyes narrowed on me as he lifted a brow. “Emmie said you went over to Z’s last night. Everything okay?”
Mentally I groaned but gave him a tight smile. He was bound to find out anyway so there was no use in lying about it. “My daughter decided to come into town. She’s going to be staying with her dad until I’m ready to go back to Nashville. Since she should be in school right now, it looks like I’m going to have to rush through what still needs my attention so I can get her stubborn ass home.”
Ice-blue eyes darkened for a moment and then he threw his head back and laughed out loud. “Are you telling me that Zander Brockman is the father of your daughter?” I didn’t return his laugh, merely nodding, causing Nik to abruptly stop laughing. “What the fuck? I had no idea he had a kid.”
I shrugged. “Neither did he until last night.”
The amusement faded completely and he glared down at me. “You kept his kid from him, Annabelle? Really? I thought better of you than that. That’s a low thing to do to anyone.”
Anger boiled in my veins at his instant judgment. I liked Nik —really, I did. He was a nice guy—mostly. He loved his family and his band-brothers, and when it came to his friends he was always ready to fight in their corner. However, anyone outside his small group of family and friends wasn’t honored enough to see the good guy he was. To everyone else, and especially to the paps, Nik could be a total dick. He had no idea what had happened between Zander and me, and honestly he had no room to judge. “This really isn’t any of your business, Nik. But even if it were, get your facts straight before you start condemning people. I tried to tell Zander I was pregnant so many times, I lost count. He didn’t want anything to do with me and completely ignored every attempt I made to get in contact with him. He didn’t want to know.”
I pushed past him as I finished climbing the stairs. At the top, I turned to glare down at him. “The Zander you know isn’t the same guy I was once in love with. I have no idea who this new version of him is, and I’m not even sure I want to know. If you think you should take sides, by all means take the side of your friend. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit around and let anyone make me out to be the bad guy in all of this. So fuck you, Nik Armstrong. Fuck you and anyone else who wants to believe that I kept Zander’s daughter from him on purpose.”