"I'm sorry," he said as he shut the door while I stood there staring, wishing Lainey would materialize from somewhere inside the house and change his mind.
But the door shut, and the lock clicked, and I stood there alone, stewing over my choices. Lainey was clearly hurting enough to send me away, whether it'd been her father's choice or hers, and banging on that door to make her come talk to me would only make it worse, no matter how much I wished it wouldn’t. I had to give her space to deal with her feelings.
But I didn't want space. I wanted her in my arms where I could be the one drying her tears and reassuring her that the reporters were idiots and we'd be fine. I'd lived through things like this often enough to know "this too shall pass" wasn't just a saying. It was real life. They'd find some other celebrity to gossip about and forget me in a matter of days. This wasn’t worth throwing what we had away.
So I stood there, debating whether to knock again and ask nicely or just walk away. It wasn’t in my nature to fight so hard to hold on to something. Normally I let things come and go as they pleased, because life never tired of bringing me things I wanted. But this time I felt different.
Lainey was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a person who doesn’t show up twice, and I knew I would never be the same again if I lost her. The thought of waking up every day for the rest of my life knowing I'd hurt her so bad she shut me out felt crippling. I pushed up my sleeve and raised my hand to knock again, but before I got the chance I heard an engine rumble and turned to see Brandon's Range Rover rolling up the driveway. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
I turned slowly to watch Brandon climb out of his car carrying a teddy bear and a candy bar. He had a glare on his face that could kill, and he stalked right to me without so much as a hint of hesitation.
"What are you doing here!" I hissed, ready to fight this prick if he thought he could move in on my territory. She needed space, not pressure from another interested party.
"The better question is, what are you doing here? Haven't you done enough?" His chest puffed out as he looked down his nose at me, and I remembered how painful it was when his fist connected with my face.
I clenched my hands into fists and looked down at the stuffed bear in his hand, then the candy and I lost it. I couldn’t think straight. I was in no mindset to mess with his games at all. My fist flew before I could stop myself and Brandon went stumbling backward into the side of the house. I let another one rip and clocked his jaw, which made him drop the gifts he'd brought, but when his hand shot up toward me, he wasn’t trying to hit me; he was trying to stop me.
"Knock it off, jerk-wad,” he grumbled, wiping a bit of spit from his face while he held my fist back. I hadn't even bruised him, though his jaw was red. "Or I'll wipe the ground with you." He glared at me as he pinned my wrist to my chest, then shoved me back a few steps. I started to launch at him again but his words stopped me. "You know she loves you, right?"
Brandon's ice-cold stare froze me solid. "What?" I hissed, not comprehending what was happening.
He stooped and picked up the bear and the candy bar, which thankfully wasn’t smashed by our feet. "I said, she loves you, you idiot." He dusted the bear off on his slacks and scowled at me. "And your life is ruining it for her." He shook his head and I took a step back, relaxing a little.
I'd said a few very harsh things to him; really ticked him off. It didn't make sense why he was telling me what Lainey felt for me, or how he knew. My mind was reeling.
"And she's pregnant, too. But you're too self-absorbed to notice it, aren’t you?"
That was it. I'd heard enough. I drove my fist forward, grabbing his shirt collar and pinning him to the brick while he shook his head and sighed hard.
"What the heck are you talking about?" I snarled, now so angry there was no stopping me at all. He was twice my size, but I'd tear him limb from limb if that was what it took. No way would he spread rumors about Lainey like that. The tabloids were bad enough.
Except, what I thought I could handle I couldn't. Brandon doubled his fist up and hit me with a sucker punch to the gut that had me bent over, sucking air.
"You idiot," he grumbled. "Wren called me because Lainey and I have been friends since we were like twelve. Okay? I'm not here to 'steal your girl.' I'm here to help a good friend who is really hurting. If Lainey didn’t tell you about the baby, maybe she doesn’t think you're a safe person to know. And if she let her sister tell me about it, then what does that say?"
He scoffed, and I flinched when it seemed like he might kick me or hit me again, but he backed off and straightened his polo shirt.
My gut hurt so bad, but not as bad as my heart. Lainey was pregnant? With my baby? And she hadn’t told me? it didn’t make sense.
"Why... I don't understand..." I started to straighten, but it took me a second to get my bearings.
"Look, she's known for weeks now, but maybe this whole thing is the reason why she never told you, loser. She deserves to be protected from this chaos you call a life. You might want to throw your own life away but she doesn't want hers trashed by tabloids. You're thirty-six, man. Grow up and take some responsibility."
He huffed and turned toward the door as he reached into his pocket and produced a key. It gutted me to see that key slide right into her parents' door and unlock it. All I could do was stand frozen once again and stare at him as he opened the door.
"I might not have any future with her anymore, but I promise you that if you keep screwing up this bad, you don’t either. And if you hurt her... if you so much as make her shed one tear, I will find you and you won't know how to walk when I'm done with you."
Brandon walked into the house and locked the door behind himself. I heard as Mr. Rowan called to Lainey and greeted Brandon, all while my heart was being ripped out.
It couldn't be true, could it? That Lainey knew she was pregnant for weeks and said nothing to me? It hurt so bad that she'd keep that secret from me. What if she had never told me? What if she intended to let me send those annulment papers and she’d cut ties and never told me I was a father...
I ran a hand through my hair and winced at the pain in my hand from where I'd struck Brandon.
He was in there comforting the woman I loved, while I was locked out with no clue how to fix what had happened.
It wasn’t even my fault. I didn't ask to be born into this family where I had no privacy. And I did not send those images to the tabloids either. I hated it every bit as much as Lainey did, but I was being edged out because of my name.
This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t lose her because of the media. I had to do something to make this right, and I had to do it right now. Lainey was too special to me.
