Page 26

“What is it?” Jackson asked, rounding the foot of the bed. “Can I drive you someplace?”

I jump to my feet, pulling on my tank top, wrapping my sweatshirt sleeves around my waist, and cinching them tight. “No, I can handle it.”

“Is it your mom? Is she sick?”

Why won’t he stop? This was hard enough without his questions sending fear and emotions racing through me, twisting me up. “It’s a long story,” I muttered, holding my head in my hands as I tried to remember what I did with my bag. By the door, right. I dashed over there, dropping my phone inside, frantically looking around in case I forgot anything. Jackson had put on his boxer briefs by the time he found me with my hand on the doorknob, prepared to go.

“Goddammit,” he barked. “What are you hiding from me? What is so important that you need to keep it a secret? I know there is someone else in your life, Frosty.” How could one little word carry so much disgust?

“You think that’s what this is about?”

“Liam, right?” The name might as well have been a weapon, the way he threw it at me. “This is about him, isn’t it?”

And there I was, so close to getting away when the gut punch of his question knocked the air from my lungs and glued my feet to the floor. “What did you say?”

“I heard his name a couple of times now. What is it with you and this guy?” Folding his arms, he sneered. “He needs you, you drop everything and go running. Who is he to you? How can you fuck me the way you just did, then go running off to some other guy?”

Turning slowly toward him, I asked, “That’s what you think this is about?” Then again, why wouldn’t he? He didn’t have the first clue about the truth. There was no time for this. I had to get to the hospital to be with my baby. “You’re wrong. Can we please leave it there? I really have to go.”

Instead of being decent and letting me leave, he stepped between me and the door. “Who is he? You’re not leaving until I know.”

A scream started building in my chest. If I didn’t let it out, I’d explode. I opened my mouth, ready to let it go, but instead, I said, “Liam is…” Our son. “Liam is… my son. He’s three years old, and he’s sick, and I need to get to Summerlin to be with him because he’s probably scared. All right? Now you know.”

His jaw ticked. His throat worked. His amber eyes searched my face for understanding. “You have a son? You have a kid, and you didn’t tell me? Why?”

“Like I said. Long story. I have to go,” I insisted. I didn’t notice I had started to cry until he blurred in front of me. “Please, just let me go. I have to be with him.”

His shoulders sank as he released a resigned sigh, then stepped aside. “Yeah. Go.”

I did, hurling myself into the hall as soon as the door was open, smashing my finger against the button to call the elevator. I was lost in indecision, ready to take the stairs, but the soft ping and gentle woosh of opening doors stopped me.

Only when I was in the elevator, leaning against the wall with my arms wrapped around my trembling body, did it hit me.

He wasn’t going to be satisfied with that.

He would want to know more.

Because like it or not, we had just taken things to the next level, which meant he would be more determined than ever to find out everything.

11

JACKSON

A son. Three years old.

There I was, assuming Liam was a man she was seeing because my mind didn’t want to entertain any other possibility.

She has a son.

She had run off, gotten herself hooked up with another guy, and had his baby. It was an ugly scenario, but it was where my mind immediately went. No wonder she wanted to keep things professional between us all the time, so she wouldn’t have to confess how she had basically left my bed and jumped into someone else’s.

And I am supposed to accept that?

My blood was boiling. I realized I hadn’t moved since she dropped the bombshell. Certain announcements had the power to shut a man’s mind down while he tried to process them. Now I moved with purpose, taking a quick shower before toweling off and getting dressed.

A son, and she had no intention of telling me about him. Now it all made sense—the way she ran off the night I found her in the theater, working alone, and our first meeting, too, when Audra had said something about Liam then. What’s with all the secrecy? Why not tell me the truth from the beginning if there was nothing to hide?

By the time I finished pulling on a pair of slacks and buttoning my shirt, my mind was made up. I needed something to help me forget the turmoil I suddenly found myself in, and there was one person who was always up for a good time. “What are you doing tonight?” I asked Aiden once he answered my call.