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He’d told himself over and over not to go there with her. It would be a huge mistake. And he’d been right. As soon as he’d come inside her, he’d come to the realization that once would never be enough and it scared the shit out of him. That’s why he’d been so mean.
God, he was such a lame ass the way he treated her. He wasn’t stupid. He treated her worse than he’d ever treated any of the sweet butts or hang arounds. He should be ashamed of himself. Hewasashamed. If anyone treated one of his girls like that, he’d kick their ass.
Thanking her for taking the edge off his bad day and then telling her to be careful walking home had been a knee jerk reaction. What had happened between him and Bellamy had been more than a simple fuck. As soon as he’d seen the starry-eyed, dazed look on her face, he knew he’d fucked up. She wasn’t the one-night stand kind of woman. She deserved better than being treated like someone with no value.
His only thought at the time was to chase her off any way possible. He wasn’t the settling down type anymore. He’d loved his wife and he tried to change for her, but it didn’t work out. He vowed to himself he would never try to change for another woman ever again. Bellamy deserved someone more refined and less, well, like him.
As he sat in his recliner after she left, he couldn’t help watching her through her window. He’d watched her eat her ice cream while she cried, staring blankly at her television. The fact that she was crying because of his cruelty gutted him. He’d always hated it when women cried. It was immensely more difficult to see when he was the one who caused the tears.
His phone ringing brought him out of his tortured musings. “Hey, Eve. What’s up?” Eve was his ex-wife and mother of his three children. She looked as good now as she did when he first met her. He was happy that after she left him she’d been able to find a man that could be the kind of man she deserved. He and Alex weren’t best friends, but they got along.
“Well, I thought I should touch base with you about something that involves Liza.”
He knew it. This is where he’d find out what was upsetting his girl this weekend. “Okay. Shoot.”
She took a deep breath as if bracing to tell him. That wasn’t a good sign. “Well, there’s this boy at school by the name of Clay Walker. He’s a junior and plays football with Derrick.”
“Yeah. Derrick mentioned that Clay’s been sniffing around Liza.”
“Yes. And she tutored him in chemistry last week a couple of times at his house with his parents home.”
Race didn’t know how he felt about Liza tutoring this Clay kid at his house. If she was going to tutor anyone, they were going to do it where either Eve or himself could keep an eye on them. If the kid had to come to the clubhouse to be tutored, great. He was all for it. He waited for her to continue, unsure where she was going to go with this.
“It would seem that sometime Saturday Liza’s friends texted her to tell her he’d posted on Facebook that they’d had sex.”
“What did you say?” Race’s voice dropped, turning into a soft but deadly growl. He clutched his phone tight so that he didn’t explode and throw it against the wall. That explained why she was acting so off this weekend. Had she told Bellamy? It would explain why she looked like she’d been crying.
“Race, now simmer down. Don’t go off half-cocked. Let me finish before you go and do your thing.”
“My thing?” What was she getting at?
“Yes, you know. You’re either going to scare the living hell out of this Clay kid or possibly beat his father’s ass. So, I’m saying let’s look into this a little more, then you can come up with a game plan that doesn’t involve embarrassing or alienating our daughter at school. Okay?”
“I promise not to kill the kid. That’s the best I can do.” Race felt that was a major concession on his part.
“All right. I guess that’s the best I can ask for. Just keep in mind that whatever you do will effect Liza, too.”
“I get it.” His tone indicated he was running out of patience.
“Who is this Bellamy woman the kids are talking about?”
His head jerked back with the sudden curve ball she just threw him. “She’s my neighbor and my tenant.”
“The kids seem to think she’s more than that. They think you have the hots for her.” He could hear the tease in her voice. Good grief. Just what he needed. His kids gossiping about him to their mother.
He laughed. “Thehotsfor her?” He felt something for her but he wasn’t sure what. Confusion being the front runner at the moment. “Why are you asking about Bellamy?”
“Because Liza apparently went to her this weekend and told her about the Facebook fiasco. She didn’t want to call me because Alex and I were away this weekend and she didn’t want to put a damper on our weekend. And she was scared of what you would do to Clay, so she talked to Bellamy. Bellamy told her to talk to me or she was going to talk to you herself. She didn’t like keeping things from you that involved your kids. I like the way she handled that.”
Race was kind of pissed that Bellamy didn’t immediately share what she knew about Liza and this Clay kid, but he got it. She took the time to listen to his daughter and encouraged her to speak with her mother. Even went so far as to tell Liza if she didn’t tell her mom what was going on, she’d tell him.
“Maybe you should give her a shot?” Eve pressed.
“Are you giving me dating advice?”
“God, no,” she blurted. Then in a softer tone she said, “I just want you to be happy. Not just happy for as long as it takes to get off, but truly, deeply happy.”
“Geez. Tell me what you really think, Eve.” He rubbed his hand over his brow wondering what he’d done in life to deserve this conversation with his ex.
