by Lisa Rayne
Her face reddened. She gave Naomi an evil glare before she stalked away.
Naomi smiled at Tatum. “I wouldn’t order anything else from the kitchen if I were you.”
He chuckled. “Believe me. I won’t be putting anything in my mouth that isn’t already on this table. I suggest you do the same.”
They ate their breakfast and talked for a long while. Before long, Tatum steered the conversation back to Dash.
Cutting him off, Naomi asked, “Have you ever heard a song called Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood?” Naomi asked.
He nodded. “Sure.”
“Well, change the eyes referenced in the song from blue to brown and that’s him to a tee—the devil in disguise. All that sex appeal and charisma definitely inspire a woman to feelings she doesn’t want to fight, but I’ll be damned if I shouldn’t have run for my life.
“Loving your brother has been the most painful experience of my life when it hasn’t been the most euphoric. How’s that for foolishness?” Naomi reached inside her purse to pull out her wallet.
Tatum stopped her with a hand to her wrist. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on me.”
“Thanks.” She smiled sadly. “Too bad I didn’t meet you first. Maybe I could have fallen for the non-evil twin.”
Tatum chuckled. “It’s not too late. Maybe I could help you get over him.”
She shook her head, fighting the pools of liquid gathering in her emerald eyes. She knew he was joking, but her breaking heart gave him a real response. “If only it worked that way.” She stood, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Have a safe trip.”
Tatum watched her walk away. “Hang in there, beautiful lady,” he said quietly, out of earshot of her retreating back. “My brother loves you, too. He’s just too hardheaded to admit it to himself.”
It looked as if Dash was going to have to actually lose Naomi before he accepted the truth. Unfortunately, from the look on Naomi’s face, the moment of loss had just arrived.
Chapter 14
Dash and Naomi left Ibiza the day after Tatum. The adjoining suite door between them had remained locked on both sides during their last twenty-four hours at the resort. They’d eaten separately and avoided conversing with each other except to coordinate transportation to the airport.
On the last leg of their multi-prong return trip, Naomi sat next to a snoozing Dash. Their flight would touch down in Kansas City in about an hour. They hadn’t done much talking on the way home either. Dash had ignored her, choosing to read periodically and flirt shamelessly with the female flight attendants.
Naomi tried to work diligently on her computer, but her mind wandered from the notes and draft of the story she wanted to publish about Dash and Tatum. Dash opposed her writing the story. That was about the only thing he had talked to her about since their blow up two days ago—her dropping the story.
She couldn’t afford to drop this story. Her job hinged on delivering an exclusive, newsworthy piece to her editor. Turning the brouhaha over the infamous photo from secret homosexual lover to twins separated as infants could be the kind of story picked up and taken nationally. Tatum understood that and had given her great personal statements to include in the piece. She’d hoped Dash would do the same, but they’d argued about it when she’d asked him.
The article wouldn’t be the same without his cooperation. She sensed his desire for her to drop the story was a test. A way for her to prove her loyalty to him. She hadn’t been able to keep the last personal story about him from going public, but she could with this one. At least, that’s what he thought. That wasn’t really the issue—or the case.
He didn’t seem to get that. Or maybe he didn’t care. She glanced at his sleeping profile. Sooner or later, someone would see him and Tatum together and connect the dots. Why should she step aside and let someone else break this story? The story she’d uncovered by looking beyond the obvious.
They’d have to revisit the conversation when he awoke. Plus, she still had to explain about the phone call he’d overheard. She’d intentionally avoided that subject with him since he hadn’t brought it up himself. It was a discussion she didn’t want to have amidst strangers in airports or on crowded flights. It was a discussion, in truth, she didn’t want to have at all.
This time, she’d like to be the one who got to bury her head in the sand. She rationalized there was no sense muddying the waters before she had to, especially when she already had her hands full with convincing him to lend his authorization to the story she needed to write. It would give the story more weight if she could include quotations from Dash along with those she’d already gotten from Tatum.
Fat chance that, at least not without intervention. Maybe she should go back to DuChamps and tell him Dash wasn’t cooperating. Yeah, and that would surely piss Dash off more than he already was.
She almost wished she did have another guy waiting at home. It would serve Dash right, the flirt. The next attendant who dipped a bosom in his face was getting the remnants of Naomi’s melted ice and orange juice thrown in her face. Just out of principle.
The captain announced their approach to the Kansas City International Airport. She packed away her laptop and gathered her belongings in anticipation of landing.
Dash stirred. “My car’s at the airport. I’ll drop you at home.”
The sound of his voice made her jump. “I’ve made arrangements to take the shuttle.”
“Unmake them. We need to talk. And we need to take care of it tonight.”
“Dash, I have to make a stop on the way home. We can talk tomorrow.”
“No chance, Naomi. You can run your errand tomorrow or I can swing you by on our way. Your choice.”
Swing her by on their way? No chance that. She’d take care of her business after their talk. She needed to stop stalling. She needed to put on her big girl panties and get this over. Why not let Dash drive her home where they could handle this in private? It wasn’t as if it was out of his way. She wasn’t that far south of the airport, and he had to go way south to get to his home in the Olathe suburbs.
“Fine, Dash. You can drive me home. I’ll take care of my business later.”
Now, she had to find the words to tell him something he should already know.
*
The sound of light giggles floated towards them when Naomi opened her front door. Dash looked up to see a toddler come barreling down the hall and duck behind the couch. The little girl was naked except for a pullup diaper.
“Tallie! You come back here,” a woman’s stern voice called from the vicinity of the bathroom.
More giggles filled the air as the toddler peeked around the couch. A riot of blondish-brown curls exploded around her head in a frizzy halo. The mischievous imp grinned as she looked towards the hallway, searching for the person that went with the voice. She caught sight of Naomi instead.
Her large eyes got impossibly larger. “Mom-meeee,” she screamed and sprinted towards Naomi.
Dash’s heart twisted up from his chest and lodged in the vicinity of his throat. Mommy? Naomi had a child?
He found it hard to breath. The thought of Naomi making a baby with another man sent his head spinning. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Get a grip, man. You weren’t going to give her a family. He knew that in his head, but for some reason, seeing the evidence that she’d put aside her feelings for him enough to get serious with another man made him sick to his stomach.
“Hi, sweetie.” Naomi scooped up the beautiful little girl and kissed her on the cheek. Naomi gave Dash an anxious glance.
Well, he had his explanation. Naomi had been talking to her little girl on the telephone, not a man. Once again, seeing himself fall into the asshole category, he could kick himself. Could he not learn a lesson about jumping to conclusions?
Dash stared at the little doll whose fat, golden thighs bracketed her mother’s right hip. Chubby cheeks filled her face, but there was no mistaking her mother’s exquisite bone s
tructure beneath the childish beauty. The girl would grow up to be a stunner.
The little girl hugged her mom, head tight against Naomi’s shoulder. All the while, the child’s eyes never left his face. She appeared fascinated by him.
“Hey, honey, you’re home.” Naomi’s mother materialized from the back hallway, holding a pair of pink footie pajamas.
Dash and Naomi looked up.
“How was your … ,” Ms. Pellier’s voice trailed off when she spied him standing next to Naomi. “Hello, Dash,” she said in a guarded voice.
“Hello, Adele.” He cleared his throat. The words got stuck in his throat and came out raspy.
“Mom, why aren’t you guys at your place?” More than surprise laced Naomi’s voice. He noted an edge reminiscent of slight panic.
Adele’s eyes flicked briefly to the child and then to Naomi.
Naomi focused on her mother and moved her head in quick, understated shakes, then gave him that anxious look again.
What was that all about? What? Did they think he was going to do or say something horrid in front of the child? He may have been an ass to Naomi in the past, but he wasn’t a complete moron. He wouldn’t cause a scene in front of an impressionable child.
He held Adele’s gaze for a few moments, trying to gage her reaction to seeing him here. She couldn’t be his biggest fan, if she was a fan of his at all anymore, after the way he and Naomi had broken up. Despite his concern about his standing with Ms. Pellier, his eyes slid back to the gorgeous little girl in her mother’s arms.
Ms. Pellier walked over and reached for the child. The child twisted in her mother’s arms to avoid being grabbed. Pressing a hand to the girl’s back, Naomi kept her from falling.
Adele stepped back and lowered her hands. “When you texted you were coming home early, I figured you’d want to see little bit as soon as possible. So, I thought I’d put her to bed here tonight so she’d be here when you got in.” She glanced back at Dash. “I didn’t realize you’d have company with you.”
Naomi’s eyes closed. She let out a deep sigh. “Dash and I had some things to discuss. He insisted we get it out of the way tonight.”
“Well, why don’t I take Tallie to her room so you two can talk?”
Dash studied the little girl, considering her unusual name. “Tallie?” The little girl smiled at him when he said her name. Dimples popped alive in her cheeks, and she reached for him, arms outstretched.
Naomi’s eyes flew wide at her daughter’s gesture.
Dash dropped the suitcases still in his hands and snatched up the little girl before Naomi could pull her away. The little girl giggled when he settled her against his chest, one hand against her thigh as he balanced her on his forearm and the other locked under her shoulder to keep her steady. She smelled good, like baby powder and sweet, scented lotion. He wanted to snuggle her close and breathe in that smell of innocence.
He held Naomi’s child. The thought that the child should have been his caused an irrational longing. He knew who he was. Despite the hoard of wealth he’d amassed during his professional athletic career, he was still the kid nobody had wanted. He’d learned a lot of things being bounced from dysfunctional foster home to really dysfunctional foster home, but how to be a father or a family man a woman could depend on wasn’t any of them.
“I’ll take her, Dash.” Naomi reached for Tallie. “Sorry about that.”
Tallie shook her head and threw her arms around Dash’s neck, holding on for dear life. Dash rubbed his hand up and down her back. He turned slightly away from Naomi, not ready to give up the child. It was crazy, but he wanted to hold on to her for a little longer. The thought that the child had bewitched him at first glance just like her mother made him want to smile even though the hole in his soul had opened a little wider when the little girl had grabbed his neck. “She’s fine, Naomi.”
Naomi looked at him uncertainly then glanced at her mother. Dash also glanced at Adele, whose face sent her daughter a message he couldn’t decipher. Those looks again. He was beginning to feel like a less-than-desirable interloper.
“Geez, ladies. I’m not going to drop her. I’ve had enough photo-ops to know how to hold a baby.”
Tallie lifted her head. She looked at her mother as if trying to gage whether she’d earned a reprieve. When her mother didn’t reach for her again, she turned back to Dash and studied his face.
He studied her right back. “Hi, pretty girl. Where’d your momma come up with a name like Tallie?”
“It’s short for Taliana,” Adele said.
“Mom.” Naomi stepped towards her mother and shook her head. “Could you give us a minute, please?”
“Taliana?” Dash chuckled. “Leave it to your mother to come up with something creative but beautiful,” he said to Tallie. He ran a bent index finger down her smooth cheek. “It suits you.”
Tallie pressed her palm against his cheek. “Talun.”
Dash stiffened. He looked at Naomi. “She knows who I am?”
Ignoring Naomi’s request, Adele answered Dash. “She has a picture of you in her room.”
Tallie threw both arms in the air and yelled, “Football!”
Adele grinned. “Wearing your Griffins jersey.” Adele glanced at her daughter’s horrified face. “It’s a picture Naomi used to keep on her nightstand. Tallie kept taking it so Naomi finally gave it to her.”
Beside herself and looking a little embarrassed, Naomi grabbed her mother by the arm. “Mom, please. Give us a minute.”
“Sure.” Adele nodded. Turning towards the hallway, she added with another grin, “I’ll just leave Tallie with you guys.” Adele dropped Tallie’s pajamas on the couch and waved at Dash. “Dash, it was nice to finally see you again. It’s about time you made it by. Goodnight, all.”
“Goodnight, Adele.”
Naomi didn’t respond to her mother. She stood transfixed, one hand at the base of her throat, the other fisted at her side. That inexplicable unease still covered her face.
Tallie waved night-night to her grandmother using the open-and-close fist motion common for children her age. When she was done waving, she said his name again. This time, she said it so fast it almost sounded like three syllables. It came out “Talion.”
The longing in the pit of his stomach morphed into a flock of giant geese. Talion. Taliana. Talon.
He looked closer at the child, who favored her mother except for her large, amberish eyes rimmed thickly in black.
“Good, Lord,” he whispered. Those were his eyes staring back at him.
He ran his hand over Tallie’s head, feeling the soft, bright locks, the color of which now registered as what you got when you mixed dark blond with chestnut brown.
Dash felt a burning behind his eyes, and he choked down the boulder trying to rise in his throat. He looked at Naomi. Her expression answered the question he hadn’t yet asked. “Naomi, what’s going on?”
*
Naomi swallowed. She’d been trying to find the words to explain Tallie ever since Dash had caught her on the phone in Ibiza. This wasn’t how she’d anticipated him finding out he was a father.
The shock on Dash’s face wasn’t a surprise, nor was his building anger, but she felt the need to defend herself. She lifted both her hands and made a hold-on-a-minute gesture. “Before you get upset, remember those letters of mine you said you never read?”
He closed his eyes and nodded.
“I tried to tell you, Dash. I did.”
“The letters,” he whispered. “You sent me letters to tell me I was going to be a father and just gave up and walked away when I didn’t respond?”
“It wasn’t just the letters, Dash.” She inhaled a long breath through her nose and expelled it slowly through her mouth before pacing to the other side of the room. Arms wrapped tightly across her waist, she held herself, staring into an unlit fireplace. When she turned back to him, the haunted look in his eyes matched the feeling resurfacing inside her as she recalled her attempts t
o contact him. “I called you repeatedly when I found out I was pregnant. You wouldn’t take my calls or call me back. This wasn’t something I wanted to leave on a voicemail or send in an email or text message. Heaven forbid someone else retrieve the information.”
She dropped her head and swiped her palm up her forehead to her hairline. “I even tried to see you in person, and you refused to talk to me alone.” Her hand dropped and fisted at her side. The old anger at his treatment of her brewing anew. “The last time I tried to talk to you, in a room full of people, you accused me of being clingy and needy. You humiliated me in front of people we both knew and made me out to be some sports groupie who couldn’t take no for an answer.
“That night, I’d had enough. I decided you were an ass and our baby would be better off without you. And you were an ass, but ultimately, I knew she wouldn’t be better off without you. I know first hand what it’s like not to have your father take part in your life. So, I tried again and sent correspondence directly to your house. More than once. But you never responded.”
“Why didn’t you come and see me again later? The minute I saw you were pregnant, I would have known why you wanted to talk to me.”
“So would have everyone else, Dash. That’s the last thing I wanted. You’d been very public about your hatred of me and your belief that I had intentionally leaked that story about you and Peyton to boost my career. My getting knocked up by you would have created a whole new media free-for-all.”
Dash checked the baby in his arms. She’d dropped her head on his shoulder and was falling asleep. He continued to rub her back.
He looked at Naomi and said in a quiet voice, “You’ve been a part of that media circus from the other side before. You couldn’t have toughed it out and risked being on the receiving end for a change?”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “No, I couldn’t.” She noted the hurt and frustration in his eyes. She added quietly, “I almost lost her, Dash. I couldn’t risk that again.”
Dash squeezed Tallie. She squirmed in his arms.
Naomi grabbed the footie pajamas her mom had dropped on the edge of the couch. “Here. I’ll take her.”
