“Hey, boss, are you all right?” Jaxson asked.
“Yeah, I’m good,” he said realizing he must have made a noise during the time he was sorting out his feelings.Tell him how you feel.And Tyler was right. He wanted Lucas to know how he felt and not because he was carrying his children.
* * *
Lucas was goingout of his damn mind. He’d never spent so much time with himself, and he honestly hated it. He hadn’t realized how much noise and life Tucker had brought into his world until now. He missed his husband, and he wasn’t the only one, their nightly phone calls were the highlight of his and Zoi’s day.
“Daddy, Papa come soon?” Zoi asked again for maybe the hundredth time in the last two months they’d been in hiding.
“Yes, sweetie, I promise you will get to see your papa very soon.” She started talking and expressing herself a lot more lately.
“And baby,” she said cheerfully.
Lucas smiled, he hadn’t guessed how she would take being a big sister, but she loved the idea even if she didn’t understand everything. “Yup, and the baby too.” He and Tucker still hadn’t told her that she was going to be a big sister of two and not one. They were waiting to tell everyone the gender, and that they were having twins. There was a knock at his door, and Lucas froze for a second.
No one knew where he was except for his father and Tucker. He’d spoken with his husband the night before, and he didn’t mention anything about visiting him. As a matter of fact, Tucker wanted to keep as much distance between them as possible just in case Gianni was watching them. He was in Virginia where they hoped no one knew who he was, staying in a rented house under an assumed name.
“Zoi, do you want to play a game of hide-and-seek?” She nodded excitedly. “Okay, how about you go and hide, and Daddy will try to find you?” Before he could finish his words, Zoi hopped off the couch and ran out of the room. He waited until she was completely up the stairs before he got up, walked over to the cabinet in the hall and pulled out his gun checking to make sure that it’s loaded before walking to the door.
“Who is it?” Standing to the side of the door not looking through the peephole.
“Lucas, it’s your mother, now open the door.”
What, what the fuck is she doing here? She cannot be this damn stupid.
Only then did he look to see if it was actually his mother. Unlocking the door, he shook his head at the absurdity that his mother would risk both their lives by showing up. “Mom, what the hell are you doing here? And how the hell did you know I was here, anyway?”
“Once you let me inside, then I’ll answer your questions.”
Sighing, he stepped aside giving her entrance then closed the door and putting the lock back on. He walked over to the cabinet and put his gun away. “Mom, you really shouldn’t be here? What if you were followed?” he asked turning to face her.
“Where is Zoi, I’d like to see my granddaughter before I answer all of your questions?”
“Shit, Zoi,” he said hurrying out of the living room and up the stairs to find his daughter in her hiding spot. He didn’t have to search long, the lump on the bed and her giggles told him exactly where she was. Walking over to the bed, he pulled back the covers and yelled, “Found you!” She squealed with joy and started giggling. Sitting on the bed, he tickled her pulling more laughter from her.
“There is my little Zoi-monster,” his mother said at the door.
“Grammy,” Zoi screamed with excitement. She got off the bed and hurried over to his mom who picked her up and loved on her with kisses and hugs bringing more joy to his daughter’s life than she’d had in weeks.
* * *
“What are you doing here, Mom?”he asked for the fifth time. “No one, other than Dad and Tucker, know where I’m at, so how did you find out?” They were sitting down at the dining room table. His mom had made his favorite chicken and dumplings soup that he hadn’t realized he was dying to have until then. “I can’t believe you want to do this now.”
“How many times have I told you that your father could never keep things from me?”
“Yeah, not when he was cheating on you,” he snapped. “How long was it going on?”
Marilyn set her spoon down and moved her half-eaten soup bowl away from her. Folding her hands, she looked directly at him. “Gods, when in the hell did you become so judgmental?” She shook her head and sighed in disappointment.
“I’m not judging you, Mom.”
“No, just your dad,” she snapped.
“Well, he is the one that cheated on you, why aren’t you angry about it?”
“Because not everything is as black and white as you think it is.”
They glared at each other and Lucas was trying to figure out who the woman was that was standing in front of him. The Marilyn Hamilton he knew would have raised hell finding out that her husband cheated and had a kid by someone else.
