“Why are you still living in a dump like this if you’re with McGregor?”
I grit my teeth. “It’s not adump. And West and I are taking things slow.”
He laughs. “You know he has a bunny in every city we play in, right?”
Ugh. That’s gross to even think about.
“And?” I fold my arms across my chest, tapping my foot impatiently.
“He’s not going to marry you, Serena. You’re not even acting anymore. At least back then you had something worthwhile going on. Now you’re a single mom with…what? Some kind of teaching job?”
He’s done a background check or something. At the very least, he found out where I work and live.
This is just the beginning of whatever it is he has planned, apparently, so I need to brace myself.
“Again, what do you want? I have to go get Joey.”
“I want to spend some time with my son.” He suddenly drops the arrogant façade and runs a hand through his unruly dark hair. “Look, I’m sorry about the way I reacted when you told me you were pregnant. It was a couple of nights of fun—I had no plans to see you again. I definitely had no interest in becoming a dad. I was focused on hockey, you know? I was scared too.”
“So, your reaction to fear was to threaten to take him away from me? Even though with your schedule you know damn well you wouldn’t have been able to take care of him.”
“I thought that would scare you enough to get rid of it!” he says quietly. “Then neither of us would be impacted. I never dreamed you’d walk away from Dusty Peaks and be this…” He motions around us. “I don’t know. The stereotypical single mom.”
“There’s nothing wrong with who I am, what I’m doing, or how I’m raising my son.”
“Our son.”
I sigh. “So, what? You want visitation? You planning to send me three years of child support?”
He looks startled for a beat but then shrugs. “I guess. If that’s what I have to do.”
“Why, Tony? You’re on the road, you don’t live in Atlanta, or?—”
“I could ask for a trade.”
My heart stutters.
Like hell. If he comes here, West told me he would leave.
No no no.
This can’t be happening. I don’t know how I’m going to fix this, but I have to come up with a plan.
“Even if you managed to get traded here, you still have a crazy schedule. When would you see him? On your days off, he’s at school. And?—”
“We’d work it out. Lots of guys are married with kids.”
“But we’re not married. Nor are we going to be.”
“There’s no reason we couldn’t try to… you know, see what happens? For Joey’s sake? I mean, if it doesn’t work out, at least we tried.”
“That’s not happening. I’m involved with West. It’s serious.”
“Then why do you live in this dump instead of with him?”
“Because I’m not a gold digger, like you insinuated. We’re moving toward that point but I want it to be on my terms.”
He rolls his eyes. “Jesus, Serena. If you don’t care about yourself, don’t you care about the kid?”