Page 80 of Cash

“Yesterday,” Zane spoke over Cash. That was to say, if Cash had more to say—which I wouldn’t know because I couldn’t see his face but I could see Nebraska’s and she was smiling. Since that freaked me out, I glanced at Kira. She wasn’t smiling, she was scowling, and that frown was aimed at Cash. “You wouldn’t let anyone get within five feet of that little girl. And more than once you looked like you were gonna take someone’s head off even suggesting she go with them. One of those people was my wife. I let that shit slide because I thought you found it.”

“Found what?” Cash asked.

“The person who you’d burn the world down for.”

Cash went solid. His arms around me had not loosened yet still managed to get tighter, making it hard to breathe for a variety of reasons. Some of which had nothing to do with how hard he was squeezing me.

“Hate to break this up,” Kira cut in. She was no longer frowning at Cash but instead at her laptop screen. “But we have a problem.”

Great.

I knew Cash had the same thoughts as me when he muttered, “Fuck.”

But he didn’t let me go, at least not fully. Even though he unwrapped his arms, it was only so he could tag my hand and guide me back to my chair.

Once we were both seated, Cash moved our still-connected hands to his thigh, mine on the bottom, and he kept it there with an unyielding grip.

I didn’t know what to make of this mainly because I’d yet to process all of what Zane had said.

And now according to Kira there was a problem, and if the look on her face was anything to go by, it was a big one.

So I did what I did best and pretended Zane hadn’t blown my world apart, and filed all those messy emotions away into my never-to-be-opened folder.

Unfortunately, that folder was overflowing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The person who’d you burn the world down for.

Zane was wrong. I hadn’t found the person. I’d found two.

You came.

Please don’t leave me.

You lied, lied, lied.

Sometimes giving your heart to someone is the scariest thing of all.

Cash.

You don’t have to worry. We’ll be out of your hair today.

I couldn’t get my mind to stop bouncing around replaying the last twenty-four-hours. Pieces of conversations. Snapshots of looks. Fragments of feelings. Everything was twisting together in a tornado of emotions making it impossible to lock on one.

We were two walking red flags.

The smart thing to do would be to ignore it, ignore her, ignore everything she made me feel and keep her safe from the shit in my head. No, the right thing to do would be to remember Cara deserved someone in her life who knew how to love Stella, who knew how to love her, keep both of them clean and safe.

Please don’t leave me.

Fuck.

The memory of those words hit me so hard, it felt like someone reached into my chest and wrapped a hand around my heart, plugging that gaping hole that had been there since birth.

I wasn’t going to run, and I wasn’t going to let Stella leave. Zane was right about one thing; the moment Stella had taken my name she’d sealed her fate. She’d given Cara to me in a way she wasn’t taking her back.

The irony wasn’t lost on me—I was a baby daddy to a little girl I didn’t help create.