“Our phone call lasted ten minutes. I’ve been sorting my thoughts the rest of the time.”
I wanted to demand answers, but it wasn’t my place. This was about her daughter and her daughter’s father. Not me.
So, I waited.
She sucked in a breath. “I told him all about Joey. Her milestones, how she’s sleeping, who she looks like, that kind of thing. He said he was glad we were doing well and apologized.”
“Do you believe him?”
A shrug. “I don’t know. He might be sorry, but he doesn’t love her, so he doesn’t really get how sorry he should be.”
But I do.
She went on. “He says he’s going to come here next week to meet her. He actually emailed me his flight information once we were off the phone, so I think he really meant it. Oh, and he sent me the money he stole from me. Fudging asshole.”
My heart slammed then stuttered to a stop. During my conversation with Liam, I never truly believed he’d had an interest in Joey, nor had I imagined in my wildest dreams he’d book a flight to meet her, that he’d want a relationship with her.
Out of my control.
“How do you feel about that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She’s technically his too, so if he wants a relationship with her, I should encourage it, but I…I guess she doesn’t feel like she’s his. She’s mine and—” She cut herself off, shifting in my lap. “She’s mine.”
I slid my palm down her arm to take her hand in mine, going through the motions though my head was miles away. “She is yours. You’re not going to ever lose her.”
That was a fact. No matter what happened, I would never allow anything to separate Cathrine from her daughter, not even the father of her child.
“Thanks to you.” Sitting up, she brought my hand to her mouth and kissed my knuckles, but I didn’t feel much of anything. “I would be freaking out times a thousand if you hadn’t gone to him like you had. And I know my knee-jerk reaction was to say you overstepped—which you definitely did—but in this case, I can only say thank you for being you and taking control. I would be floundering without you.”
“You would have figured it out, Catherine. You didn’t need me to do it.”
Out of my control.
“Sure. I would have ignored the problem until it had fallen down around me. Like my house.” She tugged on my shirt. “Which reminds me, will you come to the house with me tomorrow? I want to show you how good it looks. I’m pretty proud of all I’ve accomplished.”
I wanted to burn that house to the ground with Liam inside it.
But I nodded, blood roaring in my ears. My fingertips were numb, and my chest was in a vise. I recognized panic for what it was, remembering these feelings from when my mother was alive.
“Tomorrow.” I patted the outside of her leg, needing her up and out of here so I could catch my breath and think critically. Panicking would get me nowhere. “I have some work to do, so…”
“Oh.” She straightened. “Oh, okay. I’ll let you get to that.”
She walked out of my office, looking back twice. I should have said more. Reassured her in some way. But I wasn’t there.
I was losing my dad.
My mom.
In chaos.
The reins were slipping from my hands.
Joey wasn’t mine.
Catherine didn’t live here.
Out of my control.
This was why I didn’t do this. I didn’t open up to more people than I had to because I couldn’t control the outcome. Business made sense. I could predict market fluctuations. People weren’t so easy. Falling in love didn’t guarantee she would stay or even fall too.
Now that I had them, I wasn’t willing to lose Catherine or Joey, but I had to get my head straight. If I didn’t accept that I couldn’t control everything, I wouldn’t be good for either of them.
Catherine’s house was beautiful.
I hadn’t seen it since she’d started working on it. In fact, she had forbidden me from coming, wanting it to be a surprise.
And it was.
The new wood floors gleamed. The walls were freshly painted and crisp. She had a kitchen. A really nice kitchen.
With Joey in one arm and my hand clasped in hers, she pulled me through the house, enthusiastically detailing everything that had been done, pointing out how Miles had helped, what Raymond’s cousin had done, the projects she’d worked on with Raymond and Davida.
“I tiled that backsplash, Elliot. Me.” She beamed, her cheeks glowing rosy.
“Amazing.”
It was. She’d put her all into fixing this place up, literally dirtying her own hands to bring these walls back to livable conditions. More than livable. A nice family home.
It made me sick.
She looked so fucking pleased, and I couldn’t bring myself to match her enthusiasm.
But if she wanted this, I’d give it to her, even if it killed me to let them go. Catherine had to make the right choices for her and Joey, and if she thought living on her own was it, I wouldn’t stand in her way.
Her smile wavered. “Let’s go upstairs. Maybe you’ll be suitably impressed with my bedroom.”
“I’m impressed already, sweetheart. You wanted this, so you made it happen.”
She kissed my knuckles. “Without any help from you. Don’t you appreciate your independent girlfriend? If it weren’t so cringe, I’d call myself a girl boss.”
“Ah, good thing you told me it was cringe. I’ll return the girl boss mug I bought you.”
Her teeth nipped at my knuckles. “Don’t joke about that, Elliot Levy. That’s not funny.”
“It’s rose gold,” I teased, but my heart wasn’t in it. Not even a little bit. I felt like I was losing her and she was right fucking here.
I had to get over it. Give her the life she wanted. If it was this, she’d have it.
Puffing her cheeks, she released a heavy breath. “You know how much I love rose gold, but no.” Another kiss on my knuckles. “Come on. Let’s go check out the rest of the place.”
With my hand in hers, I followed like a dead man walking.
Chapter Thirty-four
Catherine
As someone painfully familiar with being unwanted, I was always vigilant for the signs.
Disinterest.
Loss of affection.
Sudden silence.
Impatience.
I’d been so eager and proud to show Elliot my almost-finished house, and he stalked through like he couldn’t wait to be out.
That was after barely speaking to me the night before when I’d kind of needed his support. I was scared of what would happen when Liam showed up and had thought I’d made that clear, but Elliot had stayed locked in his home office until long after I’d gone to sleep. Only then had he slid into bed with me.
I’d woken sometime around one a.m. to him holding me in his sleep and had watched him dream. He’d been restless, his mouth moving, muscles twitching, and had finally settled when I’d tangled my legs with his and scooted closer, our bodies flush.
It’d made me feel so good to be the one who could settle him, and I’d thought maybe we were okay.