He should have known.
He shouldn’t have let himself start to feel something for a woman again.
Especially one where all the warning signs of secrets were there. He’d thought it’d been a game she was playing. It was sexy and carefree. He was a fool again.
She had a child. Why wouldn’t she have told him that? And why was it that big of a deal?
“Do you have time to talk?” she asked him.
“I’ll make the time. You’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Actually, I don’t.” His shoulders tensed, but before he could say anything, she said, “We aren’t in a relationship. We’re friends. I don’t owe you any explanation as to what I do in my free time.”
And this explained why she had so little free time. “I thought friends confided in each other.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I’d rather not have this conversation where anyone can hear us and I’m already late from lunch.”
“Call Jamie and tell her you were held up. She won’t ask why and you and I are going for a ride. I’d rather not have this conversation around others either.”
She did what he said. “Where are we going?” she asked when he turned to walk to his truck.
“Wherever my truck takes me.” A few minutes of silence was all he could take and finally asked, “What’s your daughter’s name?”
“Angie. Angela, but I call her Angie.”
He wanted to stew right now, which was what he always did when he was pissed. And he was pissed off. Pretty much livid that another woman had lied to him. But she was right: she really didn’t owe him much of an explanation. They weren’t there yet and honestly he wasn’t sure they ever would be now.
That might be what really ticked him off. He was finding himself getting lost in another woman who wasn’t feeling the same thing. Who couldn’t even be upfront with him when he’d thought she was the most upfront woman he’d ever known.
If he pushed her too much now like he wanted, he’d lose her. It was best to step back and not let his true feelings be known. Not give her the satisfaction that he was bothered by what he’d discovered. Whitney used to lord it over his head if she found out he was annoyed over things she was doing, so he learned to keep those opinions and thoughts to himself.
“How old is she?”
“Three this weekend.”
The questions were just piling in his head right now. She’d just moved here, how was this all possible? “How did you meet her father? Were you here on vacation or something?”
She snorted. “Hardly. He was in Miami for work. We met in a club. We were dating. I thought it was the start of a good relationship. He was there over a month and I was planning on how to make it long distance.”
“So what happened?” he asked, trying to ignore the fact that jealousy was a nasty green beast making an appearance right now.
“I got pregnant and he got scared. He ran. He said it wasn’t his. I can’t tell you the amount of money I shelled out to prove otherwise. Then I fought him for support. He’s a hands off guy. I figured he was out of my life, but he was going to provide for his child.”
“He hurt you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, looking out the window.
“So how did you end up here?” He pulled into an empty parking lot, done driving for now and wanting to see her face as they talked. See what she was feeling right now. Her voice sounded empty and he could understand that, but he was assuming for different reasons.
“His parents found out. I guess he’d been able to keep it a secret, but he likes to spend money. He needed to dip into his trust fund or someone told his parents. I’m not sure. Either way, once they got involved, they brought in a big lawyer and said if he’s paying he had the right to see his daughter every other weekend.”
“Then he could fly down there if he has so much money,” Reed argued.
“I said that, but I didn’t have the money to fight them. I moved here because I felt like I didn’t have a choice. His parents don’t care for me. Gold digger has been thrown my way several times, but they love Angie and that is all that matters.”
“So they’re the ones that really wanted the visitations, not her father?”
“Nope. Jack is hands off, like I said. He’s a corporate lawyer. I’m not even sure what his parents do. His mother never worked. His father is retired, but they’ve got a ton of money.”
“What are their names?” He figured he might recognize it, but he didn’t know who Jack was by sight.
“Jamison. Karen and Mitch Jamison and Jack is their only son. Angie has my last name, by the way.”
“Bet that made it hard for the paternity.”
“Not really. Blood tests don’t lie.”
“So now what?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What about us?” He wasn’t sure why he was asking. As frustrated as he was over all of this, he wasn’t ready to end things either.
“I haven’t lied to you, Reed.”
“That’s debatable,” he said, feeling his blood firing again.
“You never asked if I had a child.”
“There have been plenty of opportunities that you could have said something,” he pointed out. The signs had all been there, making him look like an idiot.
“There have been, but it really doesn’t affect our arrangement.”
“So that’s the term now? Arrangement?”
“It sounds better than fuck buddies, which is more of what you really wanted. You put a pretty name on it calling us friends, but the truth is, that is what you wanted without the risk of someone latching onto you. So now I’ve got to wonder why you seem all hell bent about finding this out. Or I should say why you’re annoyed over it.”
Beat the hell out of him. “Maybe I put that name on it because you were so adamant that you were against relationships.”
“Angie comes first. Always. She has to. This doesn’t change the amount of time I can get away.”
He figured as much. Then found himself asking, “What about me spending time with you and her?”
“I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not introducing someone into Angie’s life that can walk out tomorrow. I’m just not doing it.”
He couldn’t argue with that and realized, as much as he wanted to, now wasn’t the time. Instead he put his truck in drive and brought her back to work.
***
There wasn’t anything else Taylor could say right now.
She didn’t even know why Reed brought up the topic of wanting to see Angie. She’d all but given him an out and was wondering why he looked so miserable over it.
Didn’t every guy want the kind of arrangement the two of them had?
Even if he was looking for something more—and she highly doubted it—she didn’t have it in her. Not right now. Not when she was finally getting settled, and then Jack had to come in and just mess with her head even more.
If for some ungodly reason Reed was changing the rules on her, he was going to be flying solo, because today she could barely focus on her job let alone him.
Then why was she feeling so miserable that Reed might end things?