“All right. Fine, then.” She jabbed a fist into her hip as she headed back toward the door. “By the way, there’s someone out here on the main floor to see you.”
“Oh?” Jeremy plopped the keys down on his desk. “Who is it?”
“Some pregnant chick named Leigh Matthews.”
Chapter 28
Just stay calm. Breathe. And try to avoid making eye contact—or any contact. Leigh nodded at the instructions from the voice in the back of her head. However, it was already growing increasingly difficult to remember them since she’d started shaking like a leaf the moment she and Ariel strolled into the near-empty club.
She and Ariel opted to arrive two hours before the club opened for this very reason. There were still a number of employees around scrubbing, cleaning, stocking and waxing. The Dollhouse operated like a well-oiled machine. She was actually quite impressed.
“How much do you think this place pulls in?” Ariel asked, sounding equally impressed as she glanced around, while they waited.
“No clue,” Leigh said, unconcerned. At the moment, she wanted to concentrate on getting through this meeting.
Ariel shook her head. “I think you’re making a big mistake by not going through the courts to ensure—”
“Ariel, please.” Leigh slammed her eyes shut and counted to three.
“All right,” Ariel said, shaking her head. “I still think that you’re making a big mistake. There. I said it.”
“Fine! You’ve said it, again. So can we just focus on doing what we came here to do?” Leigh opened her eyes. “Please?” she added one more time.
“Fine!” Ariel tossed up her hands.
“Great.” Leigh sucked in another breath and then pressed a hand against her growing baby bump.
The door leading to the back of the club swung open and the hostess Leigh met earlier strolled out with a thin smile. At first seeing the woman alone made Leigh’s heart drop. Did this mean that he wasn’t coming out to talk to her? Had she waited too long to come and talk to him?
“Let’s go.” Leigh popped out of her chair and grabbed her purse.
“What?”
“He’s not coming.” But the moment she made that pronouncement, Jeremy’s tall, muscular frame strolled onto the main floor. At the sight of him, Leigh’s heart sprang from her stomach clear up to her throat, where it got stuck.
When his gaze landed on her, his full lips kicked up into a smile, which apparently detonated a switch attached to her knees given how fast they folded and made her butt plop back down into the chair. The rules that she spent all morning reciting flew right out of her head. Her pulse hammered and her breathing sounded like she’d just completed a triathlon. As for that no-eyecontact thing, Leigh couldn’t have pulled her eyes away if someone had held a gun to her head.
It seemed as if his leisurely stroll over to their small table was happening in slow motion. If he had just been stripped naked and doused in some baby oil, he would have been the perfect romance-cover model.
Jeremy stopped at the table and tilted his head. “Hello, Leigh.” He broke eye contact so that his warm gaze could roam over the rest of her body. “You look beautiful today.”
The compliment disarmed her completely. “Thank you.” It was on the tip of her tongue to return the compliment—because he, too, was a beautiful sight to see—but reality kicked in and saved her from herself.
Jeremy pulled out a chair as his gaze swung over to Ariel. “Ms. Brooks.”
“Mr. King,” Ariel said, responding in her professional lawyer voice.
It was the first time that his brows dipped in concern. “So what brings you ladies by today?” He braided his strong fingers together.
“My client here wants to formally notify you that she’s pregnant.”
Jeremy’s gaze swung back to Leigh and she read in his eyes what she had long suspected he knew. “Congratulations,” he said warmly.
“And that you are the father of the child,” Ariel added, and then waited for a response.
He waited a beat and said, “I guess it’s up to me to congratulate myself.”
Leigh almost smiled.
“Congratulations,” Ariel said stiffly and resumed her prepared spiel. “Ms. Matthews prefers for us, and your lawyer, if you’d like, to hammer out an agreement without involving the court system.”
“Is that right?” he said, easing back in his chair as his jawline seemed to stiffen.
“Ms. Matthews would prefer that you’d stay involved in the child’s life, but will respect your wishes if you choose not to.”
“If I choose not…” He cut himself off, and then sucked in a deep breath. “Of course I want to be involved in my kid’s life.” His gaze narrowed on her. “That goes without question.”
“Good. So that just leaves our working out support and visitation,” Leigh said. “Visit…”
Another deep breath. If Leigh wasn’t mistaken, his eyes began to glisten.
“Let me guess. You expect me to just be a weekend dad now?”
“We’re open to something like every other weekend, or once a month?”
His leg started bouncing and shaking the whole table. “Is that right?”
“Yes. And—”
“Excuse me,” he said to Ariel. “Would you mind giving us a few minutes?”
Leigh started to panic.
“Well, I—”
“I’m sure that my cousin at the bar wouldn’t mind keeping you company for a few minutes. Just a few.”
Ariel glanced over at her girl again. Time stood still until Leigh gave her the signal that it was okay for her to go.
Unfortunately, the moment Leigh gave the signal she started having second thoughts.
“All right. I’ll give you five minutes.” She stood up from the table and gave Jeremy a look that said she would be watching him.
While she strolled away, Jeremy took several deep breaths. Judging by his stiff body language the exercise wasn’t working.
“What is this, Leigh? Why are you coming at me like this?”
“Like what?” She coughed. “I just want us to come to some kind of arrangement.”
“I want to be a part of my child’s life. Weekend babysitting? Is this your idea of an arrangement?”
Silence.
“All right. So you hate me that much?”
“I never said I hated you,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“You just act like it,” Jeremy said.
She didn’t have a response to that either.
“How did we get to this?” he asked, leaning over the table. “There was something there in the beginning, wasn’t there? Or was it just me? Am I the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about that night, dreaming about that night?” He cocked his head and studied her face even harder. “And when you came here and we went into the back office, wasn’t that fire still there the minute we touched?”
To prove his point, he reached for her hand. At the instant connection, a spark shot up her arm.
Leigh jerked her hand back. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “All right. I admit it. It was a great night—a perfect night. But then the sun rose the next morning and it was over.”
“It doesn’t have to be over. Look where we are, look at what we’re about to do. We’re going to have a child together. Shouldn’t we at least see whether there’s a chance for more? I don’t know you, but I love you. How crazy is that? And I readily admit that most of my anger in that freezer that night wasn’t just because I found out you were my best friend’s fiancée, but because I still wanted you anyway. That knowledge was eating me up inside.”
Leigh shook her head as tears trickled down her face. “It could never work. Look. You’re probably a really nice guy. But you and men like DeShawn are not the settling-down type. You could never be what I need you to be.”
“That’s not fair. You’ve never even given me a chance. I haven’t settled down because I’ve never met a woman I ever contemplated settling
down with—until I met you. Roy and I are friends, but we are not the same person. I’m an honest man and I’m just asking for an honest chance here.”
“An honest chance to do what? Build a relationship off a one-night stand?” She shook her head faster, unaware that she was ripping his heart out. “You know what else I think about all the time?”
“What’s that?”
“I think about what it would have been like if we could’ve met under different circumstances. If I wasn’t out trying to prove something to myself and you weren’t a guy who was just looking for a good time. Maybe we were a blind date, and you took me to a nice restaurant and we talked all night and learned everything there is to know about each other. We’d stay until the restaurant employees had to ask us to leave and then we’d still find some other place to go and just talk and talk until the sun came up.” Tears streamed down her face. “I better go,” she said, pushing back her chair.
“No. Wait.” He grabbed her by the arm again. “We can’t leave it like this.”
“We can hammer out the details about the baby another time. I’m sorry—for everything. Probably for screwing up your life, ruining your friendship with DeShawn…”
“Ruin? What are you talking about?”
She paused as confusion filled her eyes. “I thought DeShawn was the one to tell you about the baby.”
“He did but, wait…” Jeremy cocked his head. “You told him it was mine?”
“Of course I did.”
Chapter 29
Jeremy didn’t bother to call, text, email or even send smoke signals to try to get a hold of his best friend Roy. This time he contacted Calvin Strozier to find out what times his boy would be at the court practicing, and then arranged it so that he could get into the gymnasium with a guest pass. He made sure to arrive toward the end of practice.
He hung outside the locker room, leaning against the concrete walls. He could hear the players laughing and joking inside, Roy being the loudest of them all. As usual, he was talking smack about the team they were going to be playing the next night. His new teammates were clearly joining in on the fun.
About forty minutes later, the locker-room door swung open and the players streamed out.
Jeremy pushed away from the wall, and then hollered out, “Yo, Roy!”
A few of the Razors turned to see who had yelled, but it was Roy DeShawn who’d whipped his head around the fastest.
Almost instantly, Roy’s jovial smile melted off his face.
“Hey, man. I need to holler at you for a minute.”
Roy hesitated, and then jutted his thumb over his shoulder. “Nah, man. Now is really not a good time. I got some business I have to take care of right now.”
“It can wait.” Jeremy stepped forward. “We need to talk.”
Roy’s teammates continued to stream out of the locker room; a few of them hung around curious about what was going on.
Calvin Strozier exited the locker room, spotted Jeremy and then gave him an encouraging nod.
Roy correctly sensed that Jeremy wasn’t about to let this go, so he huffed out a frustrated breath and started toward his childhood friend. It was clear from his body language that he didn’t want to deal with this.
Too bad.
“What is it, man? I already told you that I have a lot of stuff to do,” he said, as his voice seemed to reflect his rising irritation as he approached.
Jeremy planted his feet and thrust up his chin, and then prepared himself for what he knew was going to happen after his opening line. “You knew that I was the father.”
As expected, Roy unleashed a right hook across Jeremy’s jaw, snapping his head back.
“Whoa!” a few of the players who were left in the hallway hollered out.
One bold player stepped forward. “What’s going on over here?”
Calvin leaped in front of the crowd and ushered them back. “It’s all right. It’s all right. There’s nothing to see. Just two friends having a discussion. Everyone go on about your business.”
They stepped back but hung around to see what would happen next.
Despite the hard blow, Jeremy remained on his feet, but could taste the small trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. He slowly and calmly wiped it off with his thumb.
“I oughta…”
Jeremy held up his hand and warned. “You only get one.”
Roy hesitated. Undoubtedly, a slew of memories flooded and reminded him that Xavier wasn’t the only King who knew how to land punches. At long last, he lowered his fist, but anger still radiated off him in waves.
“Help me understand,” Jeremy said. “That night you came to The Dollhouse, breathing fire. If you knew, why?”
Roy continued to grind his back teeth for about a minute. “I wanted to—started to…but in the end, I couldn’t.” He shrugged his tight shoulders. “You’re my brother, man.”
“I didn’t know,” Jeremy informed him. “Not until that night.”
“Yeah, she said as much. Plus…” He dropped his head. “I remembered you telling me about your Baby Girl, how you two met and it matched her version of events down to a T.”
After concluding that there wasn’t going to be any more fists flying, the rest of the players drifted out of the gym until it was just Roy and Jeremy.
Roy inhaled a long breath. “When I left her place, I was steaming. I wondered why you hadn’t told me yourself. Then came the question of would you.”
“You came to The Dollhouse to test me?”
“Needed to know whether you were going to man up.”
“It was hard, I was trying…”
“I know. When I saw that you were going to go for it, suddenly I thought that I couldn’t take hearing it.”
“So you got the hell out of there?” Jeremy concluded.
Roy nodded, still having trouble maintaining eye contact.
“And all my calls?”
“Wasn’t ready, man. I was beginning to doubt that I’d ever be.” Pause. “I tell you what. It’s true what they say. You never know what you got until it’s gone.” Once I left your place and started driving around, I knew that between the two of us—you were the better man. She deserves someone like you. Honest. Loyal. Reliable.”
It was Jeremy’s turn to drop his head. “I don’t think I deserve such high praise, man.”
“What do you mean?”
“That night…after I found out who she was, I still wanted her for myself.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I was angry about finding out who she was. But I still wanted her.”
Roy’s eyes narrowed.
Jeremy glanced up and saw that his boy’s fists were balling up. Shrugging his shoulders, Jeremy planted his feet and lifted his chin again. “All right, man. Go ahead.”
Roy’s fist snapped his head left.
Jeremy saw one or two stars after that one, but quickly held up his hand to make sure that it was the last one. By the time he focused his gaze back on his buddy, there was some satisfaction in seeing Roy having to wave his hand from the sting of the punch.
“So are we cool?” Jeremy asked, wiping away another dab of blood from the other side of his mouth. “Don’t tell anybody else. But I think I’m starting to miss your big knucklehead.”
The corners of Roy’s mouth twitched. “Of course you do. I’m me.”
Jeremy laughed, and then the two old friends and longtime blood brothers came together for a one-arm hug. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Thanks.” As they walked down the long hallway together, Roy cut a sheepish look over at his friend. “So how is she doing?”
After testing his jaw to make sure that it wasn’t broken, Jeremy answered the best way he could. “Fine. I guess.”
Roy’s head jerked up. “What do you mean you guess? Aren’t you two together?”
Jeremy shook his head. “No, doesn’t look like things are going to work out that way.”
Roy’s voice dipped and hardened. “Wh
at did you do?”
“What? Me? Nothing. The relationship was dead before I even got out of the gate good.”
“She’s pregnant. I think it’s safe to say that you cleared the gate,” Roy joked, pounding his hand on Jeremy’s back.
“True,” he acknowledged.
“So?”
“So nothing. I said something to upset her at the engagement party. She didn’t speak to me for a long time, and then when she did pop up, it was with her lawyer, talking to me like I was just some sperm donor with weekend visitation rights.”
“What did you say to upset her?”
“No. You’re not getting another excuse to punch me,” Jeremy said. “Though I should deck you for not telling me you’re already a father.”
Roy shrugged. “She claimed they were mine. I accepted it, though nobody in my family has green eyes. But hey, the girl is a freak in the bedroom. It’s enough to keep me happy for the moment.”
Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t think that I’ll ever understand you, man.”
“Me, either. But are you cool with your situation?”
“Honestly, no.” He hunched up his shoulders just as they reached his boy’s Range Rover. “I just don’t know what I can do about it.”
“All I know is, if you get the chance, don’t screw it up like I did. Leigh was the best thing to happen to me and I was just too blind to see it.”
“I guess she was the best thing to happen to the both of us—it’s just too bad that she doesn’t want either one of us.”
Roy shook his head, feeling sorry for his best friend. “C’mon. Pick your bottom lip off the floor. I’m sure between the two of us, we can think of something to win your baby momma back.”
Chapter 30
Leigh and Ariel’s morning runs through the park had now been replaced with long walks along Malibu’s sandy beach. Dolly, her Yorkie, and the one gift that she kept from Jeremy, spent most of her time barking at the waves than actually keeping up with her owner.
The sight of the small dog running toward the ocean, most likely because the lap dog thought all that barking would actually force the waves back, wasn’t nearly as amusing as seeing her tiny little legs do double time getting out of the way when the surf came crashing in.
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