“My daddy gave them to me,” she says, her eyes gleaming.
Double crap.
West’s expression goes stony. His jaw ticks and he glances at me with a sharp look in his blue eyes. Without tearing his gaze from me, he asks, “Your dad?”
“Yeah. I met my daddy! And guess what? I’m just like him. We even have the same chin. With a dimple and everything.”
“Is that so?” West finally detaches his stare from me and pays attention to Charlie. “Hey, why don’t you take your plate into the living room and put on that show you like with the blue dog.”
“Really? I can eat in the living room?”
“Yeah. Just sit at the coffee table and be extra careful, okay?”
“Yay!” She jumps and I offer her a plate I’ve filled with her favorites. She takes it cautiously and shuffles into the living room slower than I’ve ever seen her move.
I can’t read West’s expression when he returns his focus on me. Is he hurt? Angry? Just plain tired?
“So, Charlie met her dad?” His tone is subdued.
“She did.”
“And when were you going to tell me about this?”
“Well,” I begin, pushing my plate away because I’ve lost my appetite. “I had planned on talking to you last night after we got home but you couldn’t be bothered to pick us up at the airport. Or even stay awake until we were home.”
“No, don’t put this on me.” He rises to stand. “Because the way I see it, you had plenty of chances to tell me.”
“Okay, first of all, we hardly talked while I was gone. West, you’re busy all the time.”
“That’s bullshit,” he bites out, and glances over his shoulder at Charlie. “We shouldn’t be talking about this here.” Taking me by the arm, he all but drags me down the hall and into the bedroom. “Don’t bust my balls because I have to work and provide for us.”
Shoving down the offense I’m taking over his statement, because I work too, I continue. “I wanted to talk to you in person. Which is why I was hoping to talk last night after we got home, and Charlie went to bed.”
“Fine. We’re talking now. Mind filling me in on what the hell is going on?”
Releasing a deep breath, I begin. “Charlie’s father lives in Golden Harbor. We met when I went to live with Grandma Dottie while I was in high school. And when we were twenty, we got married.”
His brows shoot up to his hairline, but I keep talking or I worry I’ll never get it all out. “I found out I was pregnant really early on…I started cramping and bleeding.” Anguish builds in my chest at the memory. “Beck and I assumed I had miscarried. We were devastated. It broke us. It broke me. I couldn’t stay there. Everywhere I looked, I saw the life we could’ve had. So…I left.” Tears fill my eyes.
Pacing in the room, his fingers are interlocked and clasped at the back of his neck. I’ve never seen him like this. “And then what?” he finally asks.
“A few weeks later I went for a checkup, and she confirmed I was still pregnant. But by then, Beck and I hadn’t spoken since I left. He never came after me. And I never told him. And…well…here we are.”
West finally stops pacing and looks at me. “You didn’t tell him about Charlie until now?”
I shake my head and the tears release, rolling down my cheeks.
“What does he want? To have a relationship with her?” His eyes are dark and when I don’t answer right away, he strains out, “With you?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. Because who knows what Beck wants. I’m not even sure if Beck knows what Beck wants. “I mean, yes, he wants to have a relationship with Charlie.”
“But with you?”
I clutch at my sleeves and answer, “I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. Because that’s not what this is about.”
“The hell it isn’t.”
Taking small steps toward him, I lower my voice. “I love you. Nothing will change that.”
