Page 11 of Collide

“Oh, I don’t know…You might have more in common with her. Maybe she’ll appreciate your secret love of the Bee Gees.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He laughs outright before waving over a waitress to take his drink order.

“I saw you last night with Gage.”

“Saw me?” I question. Nothing happened with Gage, and I’m sadly disappointed.

“On the patio.” He pauses a second. “I have to ask. Cash?”

I nod, lowering my head, embarrassed.

“Darlin’, condoms—”

I raise a hand to stop him. I don’t need the lecture. Nothing’s foolproof, and I obviously was a fool.

“You’re asking for trouble if you go for Gage next.”

“Tommy,” I shriek, appalled.

“I like the kid. I do. He has vision. He’s got a goal, baby girl, but it doesn’t involve a commitment to a woman, especially not one with a baby on the way.”

I glance left and right before hissing in his direction. “You don’t think I don’t know that? What man is going to want me now?”

“Any man, but you have other priorities as well.” I briefly wonder if Tommy gave this same lecture to my mother when she showed up pregnant and not married to my father, but ready to take the world by storm.

“I’m not going after him,” I repeat, my eyes drifting to the pool and noticing three built men entering the area. Their aura leaves no question despite the aviators covering their eyes: rock stars. A headband pulls back Petty’s crazy blond hair, but his body reads sexy as sin. Jared looks tamer but equally as good looking in a hometown hero sort of way, and then there is Gage. With a leather strap around his neck and a medallion dangling before his bare chest, and the dark waves on his head, his swagger demands attention. I watch them circle the pool, turning heads in their direction. Petty waves at some girls in the pool, but my eyes focus on Gage.

“You have that look in your eyes like when your mother saw Hank, especially when he was with another woman.”

My mother and Hank Paige had an on-again, off-again relationship that was explosive at the worst of times. He loved her. She loved him. But she denied him the one thing he wanted most—her as his wife. It was a sick game she played, and I’ll never understand why she didn’t say yes.

“And how is that?” I ask Tommy, pulling my eyes from Gage.

“Hungry.” Tommy’s voice drops, accentuating the Southern drawl he tries to cover.

“I’m always hungry in my condition,” I tease, ignoring him.

“Speaking of…” Tommy’s eyes drift to our approaching visitors. “Doctors? Your due date?”

“I’m covered, Uncle Tommy.”

“I’m just worried about—” I raise a hand to stop him. I know what he’s going to say—or rather who he’s going to mention—and I don’t want to discuss it.

“I’m looking into it.” I have a test scheduled for when I return to Los Angeles.

“I’ll take care of everything.” He’s referring to insurance and hospital stays and anything else I’ll need for a baby.

“I know you will,” I say, smiling at him. He’s such a good man. “But for once, I think I need to take care of me.”

“No need to be a martyr when you have family, baby.” Tommy speaks from his experience of his own parents disowning my mother when she ran off—pregnant and unmarried. Tommy’s eyes stay trained on the boys as they draw closer.

“You’re a smart girl, Ivy. Don’t be stupid,” he warns. But my heart races when Gage pulls down his aviators to look in my direction, and I know I want to get stupid with him.

And that’s just…stupid.

7

GAGE