“I don’t know what I’m going to do when you leave.”
“Me, either. I’m attached to this thing we have even though we never defined anything, to you.”
He understood completely. Never once had it been in his plans to actually feel anything deep toward Grace. As always, his plans failed him. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Sorry for us?” She stared up at him with wide, worried eyes.
“Never about us. I’m glad that you’ve come into my life. I want you to stay here, too.” He realized how he sounded, like he wanted them to live together. He needed to turn this around fast. He made circle in the air. “I didn’t mean here… in my house. With me. In a relationship.” He could put money down on the fact that his heart stopped when he muttered that word. Relationship! Since when did he want that?
“So you want me to be your girlfriend?”
He nodded. “I don’t know how to make it work considering it’ll be a long distance thing. And I travel a lot. My schedule is usually planned out long in advance, so I can always get a copy and we can compare.” And he had a baby he didn’t tell her about… A little girl who traveled with him everywhere.
She put a finger to his lips. “Shh, Rally, don’t stress. It’ll all work out.” She leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed her cell from the pocket of the discarded clothes. Nestling back against his chest. She held her cell out in front of them to capture a picture.
“It’s going to kill me to only have a picture of us once your gone,” he whispered against her hair.
After sending a copy of the picture to him through text, she settled back in with his arms around her. A minute later, soft puffs of sleepy breaths greeted him. It felt so good to have her there with him… like everything was almost right in his world. He let his eyes drift shut, finally welcoming the peaceful sleep that summoned him.
His bedroom door flew open, banging against the back wall and sending him upright in bed,
knocking Grace off him in the process. He stared, trying to clear the sleepy cobwebs from his brain.
“Rally,” Fern cried out. “It’s Addison.”
Some was wrong with his daughter! When Fern’s words finally registered in his brain, he threw the blankets off him, he jumped to his feet. “What’s wrong?” He rushed to Fern who held a weeping Addison in her arms.
“She was crying and crying. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I tried calming her down and gave her some baby aspirin about twenty minutes ago.”
He patted his daughter’s back as the disappointment settled inside of him. “You can always get me, Fern. You should know that by now. So what happened?”
“Her ear. It has weird fluid coming out.”
He hadn’t noticed until Fern pointed it out, but sure enough, a creamy substance matted her fine, baby hair to her ear. “I’m taking her to the emergency room.” He finally shot a glance at Grace, who sat on his bed, confusion written across her face. “Come with me and I will explain.”
Without waiting for a response, he hurried through his house, grabbed his key and wallet from beside the kitchen door leading to the garage. When he reached Fern’s SUV, he buckled his princess in the car seat. Just as he was climbing into the driver’s seat, Grace slipped into the passenger side.
“Sorry. I had to put my shoes and bra on.”
“No problem,” he said. Worry pounded through him. Addison whimpered in the backseat. He hit his open palm against the steering wheel. Damn, he needed to hurry.
As soon as the garage door opened, he sped out of the garage and down the road. Minutes later, he slammed on the breaks in a parking spot outside of the emergency room doors and unbuckled Addison from the car seat. When Grace rounded the vehicle, he tossed her the keys. “Can you park and meet me inside?”
“Of course,” Grace said, disappearing inside the driver’s side.
He held Addison close as he took her into the emergency room.
“How can I help you?” asked a nurse, eyeing Addison.
“Something is wrong with my daughter.”
*****
His daughter? The hospital activity buzzed all around her and that’s all she could think of. Rally had a daughter. He’d just told her that he wanted to be in a relationship with her and they’d make the long distance thing work, yet failed to inform her that he had a daughter. Grace hugged her arms across her chest to get warm and grab some sliver of comfort. If he liked her enough to have her be his girlfriend, he should’ve told her about the pretty little girl.
With the baby girl sobbing against his shoulder, he held her up with his forearm so he could write on the papers attached to the clipboard. Grace stepped closer to peek at the information. The father’s name-Ralph Brewer-had been filled in. Under the mother section there was a big blue pen swipe. Where was the little girl’s mom? Why hadn’t Rally trusted her with that side of his life? She’d told him so much about her and now this?
He signed his name at the bottom and shoved it across the counter at the nurse. “Please, hurry. She’s in pain.” He gently rocked his daughter as he paced across the waiting room floor, pausing long enough to the SUV keys Grace held out to him. The girl buried her face in Rally’s shirt and sniffled. Grace kept her arms across her chest as she took a seat in a row of chairs lining the wall. Her gaze followed him as he kept rocking the baby girl. At one point he paused briefly at the registration desk to ask when they’d be called back. He was told to take a seat and they’ll get to his daughter shortly. Another few minutes passed before his daughter turned her head to the right and was asleep. He carried her over to the chair next to Grace’s.
He finally looked at Grace out of the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be,” she mumbled, hugging herself tighter.
“There’s so much to tell you about this. The waiting room isn’t the right place.”
“Maybe you should’ve told me before some female came slamming through the bedroom door.”
“Fern is Addison’s nanny.” The fact that the young woman was only a nanny made her feel a slim bit better.
The door to the emergency rooms opened and a nurse stepped out. She glanced down at the clipboard before calling out, “Addison Brewer.”
“Come with us, please,” Rally whispered.
She stood and followed him through the doors and down the hall. They were directed in a room before the nurse put her hand on the knob. “The doctor will be with you soon.”
With the door shut, Rally turned to Grace. “To them, soon means an hour or two. Thank you for coming with us.”
She didn’t know how to respond. While he held Addison and leaned against the hospital bed, she lowered to the only chair in the room, waiting for him to explain himself. She kept her voice down to avoid waking the little girl, but nobody could ignore the icy in her tone as she said, “I didn’t really have a choice. I was shocked and you told me to go with you. There’s some questions I want answered.”
He moved one hand from his daughter to rub it over his whiskers. “Okay. What do you want to know?” He let his gaze roam down the length of her, from her eyes to her toes and back up to her hair.
“Everything about…” she motioned to the sleeping child. “Her. But should we be doing this right here? We’re in the emergency room. Why don’t I go to my hotel and we’ll talk later.”
His flinched at her words. Narrowing his eyes into slits, he said, “Her name is Addison. And no. I don’t think you’ll be back to talk once you leave.”
“Fine. I want to know about Addison.” When her tone softened, the tense lines of anger relaxed in the serious set of his lips and in the lines around his eyes. What happened to them? Their softness and passion had dissolved quickly, leaving them in a hospital emergency room, angry at each other and both dressed in pajamas.
“This pretty angel is sixteen months old. Fern has been my nanny from the beginning. She lives with us and travels with Addison to my matches, so that I can be in Addison’s life
as much as possible.”
“Where’s her mom? I saw that you did a strike through that section of the paperwork.”
“She doesn’t have a mother anymore.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. Were you married?”
He turned his back to her and continued patting Addison. Such a tender gesture coming from such a strong man. “No. She decided she didn’t want Addison, so I took custody over and have been raising her since. The mother’s rights were terminated a while ago.”
“I see. So why didn’t you tell me about her?”
He turned toward her again, his voice strained as he asked, “Would my daughter have mattered to you?”
What could she say? She’d never thought about having kids. At almost thirty, the need to have a child hadn’t arrived. She just figured that she’d gotten that non-motherly gene from her own mom, who’d taken off when Grace was twelve. She’d never been that nurturing, motherly type before leaving either. She frowned. “I don’t know.
“I refuse to believe that. Don’t I mean anything to you?” His voice started to rise, but one glance at his sleeping daughter made him catch the tone and bring it back down to an angry whisper. “You were just sleeping in my bed a few hours ago. You just told me you wanted a relationship with me. Must’ve been some words to say with no real meaning behind them.”
“I meant every syllable. You should’ve given me the chance to decide if I wanted the whole family thing. I just didn’t picture myself with children-”
“You’re just like her mother.” He pointed to the closed hospital room door. “Just get the fuck out of here. We don’t need you.”
“Rally, please,” she begged. She needed a chance to explain that’s all she wanted.
“You’re nothing but a waste of my time.” He didn’t hold back anything as he said, “Didn’t you hear me? Get out!”
Tears fell as she rose from the chair. If he wanted her to leave, fine. She went to the door. With her hand on the knob, she paused, hoping he stopped her. After a second with nothing but silence behind her, she opened the door. He still didn’t call for her to come back. She walked down the hall, through the waiting room, and out the door with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She huddled underneath the shelter of a tree while as waited for the taxi to come. Alone and broken in the darkness.
Chapter Ten
A day and a half later, Grace tossed her purse on the end table next to her light blue overstuffed chair and let out a loud swear word. How could he throw her out of his hospital room when she hadn’t even done anything? He’d lied to her. Lying by admission is just as bad as outright lying. And then acted like she’d done something wrong. Blame her! That’s the easy way out. She balled her hands into fists and fought the temptation to punch something. Not having ever punched anything in her life, she could only imagine the pain that smashing her fist against the wall would bring. But damn it! The idea seemed satisfying anyway.
Revenge was always a possibility. She’d seen enough of his skeleton’s in his closet to write an in-depth article and sell that sucker. She blew away a wispy hair that had fallen in her face. Hurting him wasn’t the answer. It wouldn’t make her feel any better. She didn’t have the heart to do anything to hurt him like he’d hurt her. She was better than that. When her cheeks felt damp, she wiped them and discovered she’d started to cry. Since Rally wasn’t around, there was only one person who could cheer her up.
She grabbed her cell and dialed the only number she knew by heart. Her father’s. “Hey, Dad,” she said, forcing some happiness into her voice. “How are you doing?”
“No golf for me today.” That one simple sentence told her everything.
It pained her to hear that her father wasn’t feeling well. “I’m sorry, Dad. Is it the arthritis?”
“Of course. Something’s wrong.”
“There is? What?” she asked, confused.
“With you, silly girl. You can’t hide anything from me.”
She sighed. Not wanting to tell her father that she was having a bout of guy trouble, she said, “I have to go into the office today. If I didn’t have some irreplaceable stuff at my office, I wouldn’t even go in there.”
He let out a groan of frustration. “I tried getting your stuff, so you could take your time coming back. He wouldn’t let me past the front door.”
Shrugging even though her father didn’t have the ability to see her, she followed with, “You know, Pops, I’m glad he fired me.”
Her father chuckled. “I am, too.”
“All of this scares me, but I have a lot of stuff to figure out.”
Her dad gave a gruff, “You’ve got that right. Hey, come by for dinner sometime this week.”
“I will, Pops.”
She could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “I love that nickname.”
A tad bit of warmth entered her sad heart as she said goodbye to her dad. Fatigue weighed on her and she wanted nothing more than to cry until she could barely blink. Her bed was calling to her and no other placed seemed better than her comforter and pillows to wallow in her sorrows. She glanced at the clock above her kitchen table. Not much time to get to the office. If traffic was light, she would get there a half an hour early. If not, well, who the hell knew? Her stuff might just end up in the Dumpster.
Grabbing a brush from her purse, she ran it through her windblown hair as she hurried out of her apartment. Tears welled in her eyes. She fought them away and kept moving to her car. A mother chased her young son through the parking lot, the child laughing hysterically when the mother failed to catch him. Did Rally have days like those? She wished she could find out. Not only had she lost her job, but Rally, too. Now she had to live with the fact that she’d never get the chance to know his daughter. He’d assumed she didn’t want to. That was the most hurtful of it all. Now with everything so final, she knew she wanted to be with him and learn how to take care of his beautiful baby girl.
Traffic turned out to be in her favor. Before she knew it, she pulled into the large glass and chrome building. She climbed out and hurried into the lobby. The fifth floor couldn’t come quick enough. Her hands trembled as she watched each floor number light up. Maybe Ray wasn’t in the office. In that case she wouldn’t have to face him. And that gave her the easy way out. She stood taller, squared her shoulders, and stepped forward. If she couldn’t confront him face-to-face, she’d do it over the phone. No easy way out for Grace Avery.
She entered the office, ignored the secretary, and went straight to her own office to find the door ajar. Some of her drawers were open, letting her know that someone had been rifling through the contents. Damn them. Damn them all! She gently bit her lip to hold her foul language inside. Her hands trembled with anger as she packed up her two favorite pictures, one of her and her father on the day of her graduation from UCLA and the other of her standing with her mom on Christmas three years before. Both frames had been given to her as gifts from her best girlfriends from college. She’d kept those frames until she had perfect pictures to put in them. Tucking the pictures under her arm and holding them close to her body, she did a swift scan of the room. All of her work on the computer was backed up on a flash drive that she’d taken with her on her trip. None of the files in the cabinet belonged to her either. When she was hired two years before, she’d been so excited to have her first office that she went shopping. The framed art, fake flowers, and the chair in the corner belonged to her. All of the items were inexpensive and she didn’t want any reminders of what had taken place here. She closed the office door behind her.
As she returned to the lobby, she noticed Ray’s door open with him perched on the corner of his desk. Anger burst through her veins. She pivoted on her heels and stormed into his office. His hair was combed back and he wore a smirk.
“Is that all you’re taking with you?”
“Yep. So tell me, Ray,” she started, forcing her voice to stay even. “Why is the interview with Rally so important?”
“It’s not.” He laughed. “He’s my favorite boxer, and well, not even the most experienced journalists have gotten through to him.”
She slid her phone out of the compartment of her purse. “That’s interesting. You see, I did get an interview with Rally Brewer. In fact, I got more than that. I can even describe what his bedroom looks like and how his bed feels.”
His laugh echoed in the office, grabbing the receptionist’s attention at the front desk. “That is the oldest trick in the book. Hotter journalists have tried sleeping their way into Rally’s life. That nut doesn’t crack. And you, honey, are not hot.”
She scrolled through her apps and opened the photo gallery. “Mm hm. It seems like it worked for me. As a matter of fact, we’re dating. Check it out for yourself.” So she lied about their current relationship status, but who cared? Rally would never give Ray the time of day for Ray to check that fact.
Ray’s eyes widened in concert with the softening of the lines around his mouth. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I have a picture.” She held the phone toward him, only close enough to give him a good look at Grace and Rally smiling at the camera. “If you can’t tell, we are in his bed.”
He relaxed his shoulders and uncrossed his hands. “I see that. Maybe you do know how to get a good story, after all.”
She shrugged. “I tried to tell you that. So, yes, I do have that interview. He was more than happy to do it for me.”
“You know, Grace, maybe I have been too hard on you.” His mouth turned up in a smile. “No maybe’s. I have been. I under estimated your potential. Shall we renegotiate your employment?” He held a thin hand out in a gesture to call a truce with her.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 24
