“The fuck I don’t. I’m their father.”
Brody’s eyes grew wide and I thought he might jump the railing and kill Zach right there on the lawn. “Their father? What the fuck do you know about being their father? I’m their father! You’re a deadbeat sperm donor—Kacie’s big fucking mistake in life. The hell if I’m going to let her make the same mistake twice. Now, get the hell out of here.”
Zach narrowed his eyes at me. “He doesn’t know, does he?”
“Know what?” Brody growled.
I sighed, pulling my shaking hands up to my face. Alexa was right, I should’ve told him a long time ago. This was so much worse than I ever imagined it could be. My stomach cramped like I was going to throw up.
“Know what?” he roared again, causing me to flinch.
“Know what?” Kacie flinched as I demanded an answer for the second time.
“We work at the hospital together,” Zach said through clenched teeth, still holding on to the side of his head.
“You what?” I yelled at Kacie, pretending it was her that told me and not Zach.
Her hands fell from her face just enough for me to see her tear-filled eyes. “We work together.” She pulled her hands all the way down and reached for me, but I stepped back. “But not really. He’s an EMT, so we don’t see each other every day, just occasionally. I had no idea he worked there, Brody. I saw him my first day and-”
“Your first day?” I shouted. “That was weeks ago!”
What. The. Fuck.
The front door to the house flew open and Sophia stepped out onto the porch. “What’s going on out here? I can hear yelling all the way from my bedroom.” Her eyes panned the front yard and stopped suddenly on Zach. “What are you doing here?”
Zach didn’t answer her; he just looked down at his lap.
“Brody, let me explain.” Kacie ignored her mom as her chin trembled and tears poured from her eyes.
Normally when I saw Kacie cry, I would walk through walls of fire to make her stop, but right now I just couldn’t. She put those damn walls up and needed to get out from behind them on her own.
I was seething.
“Wait,” Zach interrupted. “Before you do, I’m gonna go.”
“I would say that’s a good idea.” Sophia walked to the edge of the porch and crossed her arms across her chest.
He wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, reached over to grab his hat, and stood up slowly. I stared a hole through him as he walked to his truck, thankful that he was at least smart enough not to say a word to me or Kacie.
When he opened his driver’s door, Kacie called after him, “Zach! Wait!” She looked from him to me. “He’s drunk, Brody. He can’t drive.”
“He drove himself over here, didn’t he? He can drive his ass home,” I snapped.
“I had no idea he was coming. He just showed up here,” she defended. “Please, let me just drive him home, and then we can talk and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Drive him home?” I pointed toward Zach. “Not a chance in hell.”
“Please. You can follow us and then give me a ride back,” she begged.
I sighed and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “Fine. There’s no fucking way he’s getting in a car with you, though. You drive his car; he rides with me.”
She opened her mouth to argue and I cut her off. “That’s the only option, Kacie.”
She nodded and turned toward the porch. “Mom, will you—”
Sophia waved her off. “I’ve got them. Go.”
“I’m not riding in a car with him,” Zach argued as Kacie walked up to him and held her hand out for the keys.
“Please.” She sniffed. “If you want to make things better, please make this easy on me.”
Zach looked from her to me and back again. “Fine,” he grunted, dropping the keys in her hand. “I live in the Meadowbrook Apartments on Maple. Do you know where that is?”
She nodded and sat down in his truck, turning to watch as he walked back to my truck. I hopped up into my driver’s seat and rested my wrists on the steering wheel, watching her. She pulled her eyebrows in tight and looked at me with sad eyes. More than anything, I wanted to go over, pull her into my arms, and take away her misery, but she caused mine and I was pissed the fuck off.
“In the back, D.” I watched as Diesel woke up and gingerly crawled into the backseat, still half-asleep.
Zach opened the truck door while I looked out my window, worried that if I met his deadbeat eyes, I’d pull him out of the truck and beat the shit out of him again. My hand throbbed as I wrapped it around the steering wheel, and the thought crossed my mind that it might be broken. I couldn’t get it checked out and I couldn’t complain. Not this season.
He climbed up and sat down. Before I even put the truck in reverse, he tried talking.