Chapter Twenty-Six

Blake

“She’s not answering my calls,” Blake said in frustration, slamming down his phone so hard the conference room table rattled.

Irritatingly, Cole laughed. “Now you know how it feels. It’s awesome to know you’re being ignored by the one you love. She tried so hard to give you the news about the baby—you must have pissed her off royally for her to have gone off the grid like this. Kelly doesn’t strike me as someone who just quits.”

“She walked out on me in the hospital,” Blake began, then caught himself. It had been a long time coming, but he was finally manning up. “Because of everything I said. Right. Okay. I have to find her.”

He leaned back in his chair, mentally running through avenues he could pursue to chase Kelly down. Because he would find her. He had to, for any number of reasons, first and foremost to apologize and promise he’d be there for her and the baby, if she would possibly still let him. And even she refused, he wouldn’t give up. Not this time.

“I’m terrified,” Blake said bluntly, glancing sideways at Cole. “How the fuck are you handling impending fatherhood without losing your shit every few minutes? It’s a whole life depending on—”

“Who says I’m not losing my shit?” Cole interrupted in amusement. “You ought to see me I’m excited for Dana to have the baby, but I can tell you without a doubt that I am terrified. I have no idea what I am doing, and I don’t think that I magically will at the end of a few months, to be honest.” Cole shook his head with a laugh, and Blake gave him a look. It did make him feel better that Cole didn’t think he was completely ready to be a parent either, but at the same time, it didn’t take away all his stress.

“I just don’t want to be the same kind of dad that Dad was.” There. He’d said it. The three brothers never spoke of their dad in any tone that wasn’t respectful, but now he’d laid the facts bare.

“Business was his baby,” Hawk said from across the room, where he was messing with a chair that Blake wanted to replace, but which Hawk insisted was fixable. “We were just the heirs.”

It wasn’t something Blake ever thought much about, but Hawk was right. His father had been gone almost his entire childhood, drifting in and out every few weeks. When he’d been there, he’d been a nice guy, yeah, but he’d missed every birthday, football game, graduation, and major life event in between. He and his boys hadn’t even had a semblance of a conversation until they turned 18 and were suddenly summoned each in their own turn to discuss “The Family Business.”

“If you don’t want to be that kind of dad, then don’t be that kind of dad,” Hawk went on.

Blake looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Oh, and you suddenly know what it’s like to be a parent? You hardly know how to hold down a job, so how do you think you are qualified to give parenting advice?”

Cole rolled his eyes. “At this point, Hawk’s more qualified than you are, Blake. So shut up and listen for a change.”

Admittedly humbled, Blake did as he was told.

“I’m not a father and I don’t ever intend to be one,” Hawk said, unperturbed. “But I can tell you this. I am going to be one kick ass uncle, and I will do anything for my nieces or nephews. When you two piss them off, I’ll be the guy they come to in order to blow off steam.” Hawk gave his brothers a trademark smirk before going back to messing with one of the chair’s casters.

“I figure Dana’s going to help me figure things out,” Cole admitted. “It’s not fair to put even more responsibility on her than already carrying and delivering our baby, and I’m reading all the books and taking all the classes, but it seems like moms just get it automatically more than dads, maybe. Or that could be BS. I don’t know. All I’m saying is, Dana and I are going to lean majorly on each other. No reason you can’t do the same with Kelly. Parenthood has to be a partnership.”

Somewhere along the line, Cole, at the very least, had outgrown them all, Blake reflected, shaking his head. “The question is whether Kelly has any interest left in partnering with me.”

“Have you talked to Kelly about it?” Hawk asked, his voice muffled as he shoved his head up under the chair.

“She’s not answering my calls,” Blake reminded him. “She doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. Not that I blame her in the slightest. I should’ve called her immediately after that conversation.” He swore and massaged the cramp that had suddenly hit his thigh, making it tighten so painfully that beads of sweat dotted his forehead. Through gritted teeth, he went on, “I was in shock. It’s not an excuse. I’ve screwed this up from the very first day I met her. There’s no way she’ll ever want to talk to me again.”

“Dude, in my experience, chicks always want to talk, especially when they’re mad at you,” Hawk said wryly. “I bet you she’s probably just as freaked out about this as you are and is hoping you’ll chase her down and make things right.”

“Trying,” Blake reminding him yet again. “Her work won’t tell me where she lives, for obvious reasons. I put a private eye on it. I know, I know,” he preempted his brothers’ protests. “Maybe that was a mistake too. Whatever. I need to see her. And I can only do that if I can find her.” He was about to continue when at that moment Lisa, his personal assistant, knocked on the door.

“Excuse me, but if you aren’t busy, there’s a man here who says he urgently needs to speak with you.

***

“What do you mean it was empty?” Blake bellowed.

Nicholas, the private eye currently sitting across from the three Parker brothers, didn’t flinch. “The landlord says she vacated the premises two weeks ago, which concurs with the timeline of when she quit her job.”

“Quit her what?” Blake was sure his head was starting to spin. “Why would she do that, for God’s sake? Kelly’s a smart woman. She chased me down to tell me about the kid, not to ask me for money. I know that as deeply as I know that I’m an ass. But how is she planning on providing for her baby—our baby, dammit—without work?”

“New job,” Nicholas said simply. “I’m working on tracking her next steps. It may take a few more days.”

“Then what are you doing sitting here? Get out there and track!” Blake roared.

Calmly, Nicholas gathered up the documents he’d brought along with him and departed the room. Once the door closed, Blake’s brothers finally weighed in.

“Piss off the PI who’s canvassing the city for your girl. Nice move. Brother, you really may want to consider some kind of therapy and/or medication,” Cole informed him.

“You better be paying him a hell of a lot,” Hawk added. “I wouldn’t take that shit.”

Blake could not have cared less about the exceedingly-well-compensated PI’s feeling. “I can’t believe she’s just gone—where the hell would she go?”

“Screw the PI,” Hawk said succinctly. “You want advice, Blake? Listen close, because I’m not repeating this. You’ve screwed up and screwed up and screwed up some more. Now is the time to put things right. Think.” He leaned forward intently. “You were the one who spent the most time with her. You know that girl. I’m guessing you might know her better than you know yourself. What do you think she would do in a time like this? You love her. You’ve never loved anybody before. Odds are you know her well enough to know the kind of decision she would be making.” Hawk looked at him square in the eye, and Blake clenched his jaw, nodding, and thinking. Hard.

“She’s smart, resourceful, and she would do something that would be best for her in the long run. She isn’t going to do anything stupid. I bet she also wanted to get as far away from us—from me—as she could.” Blake got up and began to walk around the room, forgetting his cane as he did.

Unbeknownst to him, his brothers exchanged approving glances behind his back. The physical therapist had recently suggested he try walking without it at least a few hours a day, and so far, Blake had been recalcitrant. It hurt, obviously. Finally, though it looked like their brother was in a mental state where things were falling into place.

“There’s no way, with the bills she was paying,” Blake went on, “that she had enough money to get really far, especially if she moved that quickly and she was looking for something that would last her for the long term.”

He walked idly around, picking up random office objects left over from meetings—staplers, napkins, a pen that he twirled as he paced, only slightly favoring his right leg as he did.

“Where’s somewhere that has cheap rents and some kind of built-in art community?”

“Uh … Greenwich?” Cole ventured uncertainly.

Hawk laughed derisively. “Last time I checked, Greenwich was on the opposite spectrum from cheap. What about Chelsea? Plenty of cheap fleabag places—”

“Kelly wouldn’t choose a fleabag place for our baby,” Blake said sharply. “No matter how cheap. No. We’re looking at outer boroughs. I’m sure of it.”

“Artsy borough with cheap rents in at least some neighborhoods, but maybe not necessarily fleabag cheap?” Cole and Hawk looked at each other once more and then all three brothers spoke as one.

“Brooklyn.”

“Her former gallery was curating an exhibit for the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition,” Hawk said in realization. “That must have given her the idea.”

Blake was already dialing the PI. Thankfully, the guy answered. “Nicholas, I have a new lead for you, and there’s a hefty bonus attached if you can track it down within 24 hours.”