Page 59 of Hard to Love

My phone is buzzing like crazy in my pocket, but I toss it on the sofa in my office, completely entranced by the woman on the TV in front of me.

“And that’s why we’re here.”

“Yes. In the past, my father was the one who handled all of this kind of stuff. With him gone, facing these things forced me to grow up.”

“When you say your father—”

“He was my father,” Stevie asserts. “I don’t care what this lady—”

“Mary Johnson.”

“—says. Liam Lancaster was my father every second of every minute of every day. For her to insinuate that he isn’t or wasn’t, is probably one of the cruelest things someone could ever accuse or attest. To try and take that from me after his death is not something a mother would do to her child.”

“Since you brought it up, let’s go there. Do you believe Mary Johnson is your mother?”

“I don’t care if she is or isn’t. She might even be the person named on my birth certificate. While my father, Liam, was there every second, she wasn’t. Even if I did a DNA test to prove her allegations to be true, that she is in fact the woman who birthed me, she would still mean nothing to me. A true mother would move heaven and earth to see their child if they wanted to. She didn’t.”

“That brings up another point. Mary states that she couldn’t contact you because that was part of the conditions of her settlement with your dad.”

“You mean the monthly payments she alleges he made to her? Cash payments that haven’t been proven? Isn’t that proof enough why she’s talking publicly at this point? If she wanted a relationship with her supposed daughter, then all she had to do was reach out to my people. My father is dead so whatever agreement they had between them would be null and void.”

“You said ‘isn’t that proof why she’s talking publicly.’ Can you clarify what you mean by that?”

“She wants money. Plain and simple.”

“If she hasn’t contacted you like you say, then how can you be so sure?”

Stevie emits a disbelieving laugh before taking a moment to collect her words. “Just like your audience has to make a judgment call on if my apology during this interview is sincere or not without even meeting me, I had to do the same with this woman.”

“And you conclude she’s after a payoff.”

“Hasn’t she already gotten one? From the television network who released her exclusive interview? From the tabloids who have her tell-all story? She’s been paid. Regardless, if my father sent her checks or not, she won’t get a dime from me.”

“But let’s stop right there. If he was in fact paying her a repeated sum, then doesn’t that reinforce the fact that she is in fact your mother?”

“My dad was my fiercest protector. If he thought someone was going to hurt me or my career in any way, then he would have done everything he could to keep me safe.”

“But that means he might have also kept you from having a mother.”

She swallows forcibly and I know that question got to her. Just as it would have gotten to me. But she takes her time choosing her words before answering. “Clearly, he was right in his decision, seeing as her first steps toward me after twenty-plus years were through the media to try and destroy everything I’ve ever known to be true. It’s almost as if she thought using the press against me was a form of blackmail—that I’d be afraid she’d ruin my image—and that would scare me enough to pay to shut her up.”

“That’s a big accusation.”

“Just as hers are,” Stevie says with a steely resolve that leaves me shaking my head.

“So I guess a live-for-television family reunion is out of the question?” Kyle asks with a laugh.

Stevie joins in but then her expression becomes serious. “Like I said, I have zero desire to ever meet Mary Johnson and if I had in the past, she killed every possibility of it by the things she said.”

Kyle nods and lets the weight of Stevie’s statement settle. “So what now for Stevie Lancaster?”

“I move on, but I don’t forget.” She gives a bittersweet smile that tugs on my heart. “Now with my head on straight, I start training for the Open with a vengeance and then maybe, every once in a while, do something spontaneous that makes me feel alive.”

“I like the sound of that.” Kyle leans back in his chair. “On a closing note, tell me something about your father. Something you learned from him or that you want people to know about him.”

“He was my best friend,” she murmurs.

“That’s sweet, but there is no way that even through the teenage years that you two were that close. I have a fifteen-year-old daughter and I think she likes me about one minute out of every sixty.”