Like he was searching for an answer or maybe restraint, he looked to the ceiling, before he dropped his attention back to me, gaze penetrating.
“You have to be straight up with me, Baz. Did you know Jennings was Kallie’s father? The press is all over this shit this morning.”
Just the thought of Kallie belonging to that piece of shit spiked my pulse.
“No. Not until CPS showed up and handed her over to him last night.”
Glancing at his feet, he shook his head as his tone filled with disbelief. “So you’re telling me you’ve been seeing this girl for what…close to two months…and you never thought to ask her who the baby’s daddy was?”
He kept right on talking as he began to pace, like each step would help make each piece in this fucked-up situation add up.
“One minute you tell me you’re back in California permanently because you can’t stay in Savannah for a second longer…during which time you’re acting like a fucking bear because you’re so miserable. Next thing I know, you’re packing the band up again and heading back here because of a girl I know nothing about.”
He paused and pinned me with his stare. “Which is all fine. I’ve already made it clear I want that for you. But I didn’t even know there was a kid involved until my phone started ringing off the hook at 4:00 a.m. yesterday about the pictures on the beach that had hit the tabloids. Then last night?” The words dropped flat.
He huffed in frustration. “Every time I turn around, I’m blindsided by something else involving you, Baz. I can’t keep up. How am I supposed to protect you and this band if I don’t have the first clue what’s going on?”
There was no missing the edge biting his words.
Anthony knew next to nothing when it came to Shea. Guess it was no surprise considering Shea and I were just finally breaking down the walls that’d kept us separated.
Exposing us.
Even though Shea was right.
We knew everything that mattered.
I swallowed hard. I knew how this was going to sound. Anthony didn’t understand Shea the way I did, and I knew this sounded fucking bad. I had to push the words out. “She told me Kallie’s father was dead.”
Anthony blinked back at me in a you’ve got to be kidding me way.
I inhaled, doing my best not to get all pissy with him, because not one goddamned part of this situation was his fault.
“Look…things were complicated between me and Shea. Neither of us were looking to start something up.”
I gestured between the ceiling and myself. “We never expected this, and we both went into this the wrong way, thinking things were only going to be temporary, so we didn’t get into all the shit complicating our lives.”
Both of us desperate to feel something good.
I’d thought all I wanted was for that gorgeous girl to make me forget…just for a little while.
Little did we know how our lives were getting ready to be ripped up and reshaped.
“She and I have both been keeping enough secrets to sink a ship. This lands on both of us. She only just found out who I really am the night before I ran back to California the week before last…”
We all knew how that ended.
When I remembered the blow I’d received last night, my throat grew thick. “It was only last night I found out she was Delaney Rhoads.”
My brow twisted with all the restraint it took to admit this aloud. “Found out Jennings was Kallie’s father in the same damn second.”
“God,” he swore below his breath, rubbing his index finger back and forth over his top lip.
“You can’t put any blame on Shea for this, Anthony. She did it because she was protecting her little girl. Trying to survive and live a normal life. I promise you, there was zero malicious intent behind it.”
Questions took hold of the silence.
Another shock of realization slammed my mind, and I finally muttered, “All of this can’t be a coincidence.”
A heavy sigh blew from him, and he raked a flustered hand through his hair. “No, Baz, you’re right. It’s not a fucking coincidence.”
My stomach churned with nausea, and I clenched my fists on the counter.