Page 42 of Buy Back My Love

Before I could even think of what to say, Hannah shoved her phone at me. “Keep scrolling.”

I looked down at the screen and saw Lee’s page. Apparently, Anika teaching her about photo dumps had created a damn problem for me. Lee still hadn’t posted her face, but she had put up a whole dump from our weekend in Santa Rosa.

I swiped through the pictures. There was the pool, the beach, some food and drinks, then my fucking Trackhawk sitting in the background of one. By the time I got to the picture from Fish Out of Water, there wasn’t shit left for me to explain away.

I stopped scrolling and looked up at her. “What you want me to say, Hannah?”

“I want you to tell me why you lied.” She stood across from me with her arms folded, eyes still wet from crying. “You told me you had a load going to Louisiana. Whole time, you at the beach playing house with her.”

“Because me and you both know how you act.” I pointed toward the closet. “Look at my fucking clothes. You think I could’ve told you I was taking Lee to Florida and you would’ve just said okay?”

“So lying was better?”

“I knew you was gonna be mad either way.”

Hannah stared at me for a few seconds before shaking her head. “So what am I supposed to do now, JB? Share you with her?”

“You knew what it was from the beginning.”

Her face changed. “It ain’t the beginning no more.”

I didn’t say anything, and Hannah kept going. “We got a son together. I’m pregnant with your daughter. I live in this house with you.” She wiped at her face, but more tears replaced the ones she got rid of. “How long am I supposed to keep acting like none of that means anything just because Lee came home?”

“I never said it didn’t mean anything.”

“You don’t have to say it. You spent the whole weekend with her and lied to me about where you were.”

“And what you want me to do, Hannah? Lee just did five fucking years because of me. You think she was gonna come home and I was just gonna tell her good luck and go on about my life?”

“No, but I thought eventually you were gonna tell her the truth about us.”

I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my hand over my face. “I am.”

“When?”

I looked at her, and she gave me a bitter little laugh. “Exactly.”

“It ain’t even been a week. Give me a fucking chance.”

“A chance to do what? Get her comfortable? Buy her some more shit? Take her on another trip? Fuck the bitch enough times that when you finally tell her about me and these kids, she won’t leave?”

My jaw tightened. “Watch your mouth.”

“Why? Because I’m telling the truth?” Hannah stepped closer. “You keep talking about what you owe Lee. What the fuck do you owe me, JB?”

I stared at her because I didn’t have an answer that wasn’t going to piss her off even more. Hannah had been there for the last five years. She gave me JJ, was carrying my daughter now, and had built a whole life with me inside this house. I knew what she wanted from me. I just wasn’t ready to deal with what giving it to her meant for me and Lee.

Hannah shook her head when I didn’t answer. “See, that’s the problem. When it comes to her, you know exactly what you owe. You owe her an apartment. You owe her a car. You owe her trips and whatever else she wants because she went to prison for you. But when I ask what you owe me, you sitting there looking stupid.”

“That ain’t fair.”

“What ain’t fair about it?”

“You knew about Lee when we started fucking around.”

“And you knew I loved you.”

I looked at her while she wiped under her eyes and let out a shaky breath. “I didn’t ask you for this house. I didn’t ask you to take care of me. I wanted you. I still want you. But I’m tired of having a whole family with a man I gotta pretend ain’t mine.”