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“I know you probably hate me for getting you caught up in all this…”
“I don’t hate you, Liq. I’m disappointed that you didn’t come to me but I don’t hate you.”
He nodded tightly. “Even if you don’t, just know I’m sorry. This thing with Sheets could have ended a long time ago and we wouldn’t be here.”
I considered what he was saying as my phone vibrated in my lap. It was a number I didn’t know so before I answered I made clear, “If we never ended up here, I never would have met her and that’s enough for me to give you a pass on all this.”
It took him a minute but he smiled. Like really fucking smiled and with him those were rare these days. When the call ended and started right back, he pointed to my lap.
“That her?”
“No, but it’s a local number,” I said, swiping my finger across the screen and lifting it to answer.
“Yeah.”
“Sol?”
My expression stoned over.
“Who’s this?’
“Val.”
“How you get this number?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah, it fucking matters, so tell me.”
It was likely that Cadence had given it to her or she’d taken it on her own just to call and cut into my ass. I knew she wasn’t feeling me from the first time she’d laid eyes on me and she was very protective of Cadence.
As much as I hated that she was, at least I knew that if Cadence and Gracie didn’t have me they had someone ready to go to war for them, Val.
“I logged into her cloud account and found your contact.”
“Why you do that? Is she okay? Fuck, is Gracie okay? Did something happen?” I was standing without thought, ready to go to them. I didn’t give a damn about Cadence insisting things between us were done.
“Gracie’s fine. She’s with me but Cadee is at the bar. There are reporters there. A lot of them. She can’t leave. I told her I was going to call you and she made me promise not to. This is getting out of control. These idiots are here at the house too. They don’t give a damn about respecting privacy.”
“You made her a promise you wouldn’t call?” I brushed a hand down my face.
“No, she made me promise but I didn’t agree one way or another. All I said was okay.”
I chuckled, knowing that was some shit I would have done. Hell I did it all the time with Drew.
“Your mom there?”
“Yes, why?”
“Tell her to make sure Cadence doesn’t leave. I’m about to go get her but also make sure she doesn’t tell Cadence I’m coming.”
Her stubborn ass would leave just to spite me or prove she didn’t need my help.
“I guess you know her better than I thought. I’ll call Mom now and Sol…”
“Yeah.”
“You need to fix this. Things were really bad when she came home pregnant with Gracie. She was so messed up after what happened in New York. She would barely eat or sleep and that was dangerous for both her and the baby. She found her way back, pulled herself together, and then Gracie came. She’s been happy since the day she laid eyes on that little girl. She loves Gracie with her whole heart. She lives and dies for her and this is taking Cadence back to that very dark time in her life. If she falls apart, I’ll be here to put her back together again but the most important question is will I have to?”
