He came to an abrupt halt and stared me down, his eyes flashing furiously. Something seemed to be warring inside of him, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it was gone before I could place it.
“Deposit those checks,” he ordered, his jaw clenched.
“I told you, any money you want her to have goes into a bank account set up byyouuntil we agree she’s old enough to access it. Until then I’m more than capable of taking care of my daughter.”
“She’s my fuckin’ daughter too.”
I pushed off the wall and straightened my back, refusing to let him see what our most recent fight had taken out of me. Every single maternal instinct inside of me rushed to the surface. Liddy was my world, the only flesh and blood family I had left on this earth, and she deserved so much better than what she’d been born into. My life might not have turned out the way I’d planned, but the minute I saw the pink plus sign on that test stick, I became a mother. Every breath I’d taken since that moment was for her, and they would be until the day I died. She was the most precious thing I had, and I’d be damned if I stood there and let this man make excuses for all but abandoning her.
“Then start acting like a father! You want the right to tell me to deposit those checks? Then prove to me that you can be more than someone who pops into her life whenever it’s convenient for him. Until that happens, you have no right to make any demands.”
With that, I spun and stomped up the stairs, determined to get the hell out of Garrett’s house. That stupid mansion, in all its opulent glory, held nothing but bad memories.
SIX
There wereparts of my body at risk of freezing off that I hadn’t even realized existed. It was after ten at night and I was standing outside a nightclub in the middle of downtown, shifting from foot to foot on a pair of ridiculously high stilettos as I tried to rub heat into my bare arms.
“For the love of God, Corrie, can we just go? The line’s barely moved in the past twenty minutes, and I’m freezing my ass off.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “No. We aren’t leaving. We are young and hot, and we’re going to have fun tonight if I have to drag you kicking and screaming into this club, damn it!”
After the latest showdown with Garrett the day before, Corrine had gotten it into her head that I needed a night out to blow off some steam. She’d called Bernie to babysit Liddy and insisted we go out for a night of drinking and dancing. Seeing as the last time I’d let my hair down and actually had a little fun was the night I’d inadvertently gotten pregnant, I felt I was past due for me to get out and live a little. I just hadn’t realized that a night out meant standing outside in the cold for damn near anhour, hoping to get into some exclusive club while surrounded by dozens of scantily clad, barely legal girls.
I’d never felt so out of place in my life. Standing next to all those women with their tight little bodies and flat, stretchmark-less stomachs, I felt so much older than my twenty-six years.
“I feel like I should be lecturing these girls about the horrors of unprotected sex and how to make good choices,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth as the line shuffled a few inches forward. “I suspect at least one out of five will be walking away from tonight with some sort of venereal disease.”
“Will you stop it?” Corrine hissed, smacking me in the arm. “You sound like a mom.”
“Iama mom,” I continued to whisper. “And I look ridiculous. I mean, look at me!” I waved my arms down my frame. When we left my apartment earlier, I thought I looked good, but now I felt really overdressed in the tight black pencil skirt that hit me at mid-thigh and the white ribbed tank top I had tucked into it. I’d felt daring earlier, wearing such high, strappy heels and a black lace bra that showed through my top, but now I just thought I looked like a librarian in comparison to the chicks around us.
“I mean, look at them.” I tilted my chin at a group of girls to our left. “I’m pretty sure that one’s wearing a scarf as a skirt, and that other girl is using a headband as a top.”
“Ohmigod, this is so stupid.” Corrine huffed and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”
My heels clacked against the sidewalk as I hurried to keep up while she dragged me toward the entrance of the club. “What? Wait. Where are we going?”
She jerked us to a halt in front of the huge guy manning the door. I could have sworn his neck was as thick as both of my thighs put together. I nearly swallowed my tongue at the sight ofhim. Talk about intimidating. The dude looked like he could pound me straight through the cement with just his fist.
“Hey. Hi. Hello there—”
“Name,” the beast-man cut her off, not taking his eyes off the clipboard in his hands.
We both looked at each other and shrugged in confusion. “Uh…,” she continued, but the giant spoke again.
“You with the band?”
“Band?” My brows shot up.
“We just came to dance,” Corrine added, finally drawing the big guy’s attention from the list of names. He gave each of us a leering up-and-down appraisal before stating, rather oddly, “You’ll do. Go on in.”
And just like that, we were in. The streetlights from outside gave way to bright beams of neon colors and loud techno music. If I felt out of place standing outside, it was nothing compared to how awkward I felt inside. It was safe to say motherhood had given me the mentality of an old lady.
“That was weird,” I stated loudly as Corrie grasped my hand and began pulling me toward the bar.
“Who cares,” she yelled over the music. “We didn’t have to pay a cover charge. You know what that means?”
The wicked look on her face made the hairs on my arm stand on end. “Oh no.”
