“Hey,” Bric says, running his fingers through his hair. He always does that when he’s nervous. It’s a tell with him. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” I raise an eyebrow at him. Is he fucking serious? “There’s so much bullshit going on here, I have no idea where to start.”
Bric pushes past me and follows Rochelle over to the window. “I hope you’re not gonna start shit. I think we’ve had enough for one day.”
“Me?” I just can’t. “None of what’s happening has anything to do with me.”
“You’d be surprised,” Bric says. He walks into the kitchen, grabs two beers from the fridge, and offers me one. When I don’t acknowledge him, he shrugs, puts one back, and pops the top of his.
I laugh. He’s got some balls. “Is that how you plan on spinning this? Everything is my fault?”
“Of course not,” Rochelle calls out from the other end of the loft. “Didn’t you hear? Smith Baldwin blames me for everything. According to pretty much everybody, I’m the bad guy today.”
I stare at the back of her head. I can see Adley’s smiling face. It hurts my heart to look at her. So fucking much.
“I’ve thought things through on my way over here,” I say in a low, calm voice. “I even sat down in the garage for a few minutes, making sure I have it straight. I can deal with Adley being yours,” I say to Bric. “I can. It won’t be easy, but I’d be OK with it in the end. But I have no idea how I’d feel if she’s neither of ours.”
Rochelle shakes her head and grunts in disgust.
“We’re never going to know,” Bric says. “So just stop.”
“Yeah,” I say, looking back at Bric. “I figured that’d be your response. That’s the line you’ve been feeding me this whole time, right? We’re both her father. We’re a team. A thriple, Rochelle calls it. How cute. So damn cute. But what I want to know—what I need to know—is what’s really going on with that investigator guy, Bric. Let’s start there.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Bric says.
“No?” I ask. “You lied to me and you don’t think that’s a big deal?” My voice is still calm. I refuse to have a fight in front of Adley. I will not do it. But I’m gonna have my say. Right now. “Because if that’s the case, Bric, I don’t know who the hell you are.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he says, walking over to the window to sit in the chair next to Rochelle.
“It’s OK,” Rochelle says, sniffling. “He doesn’t know who I am either, remember?”
Stay calm, I tell myself.
I count to ten, then join them, taking the chair on the other side of Rochelle.
“Is that going to be your angle too?” I ask her. “Blame Quin?”
“You have no idea what’s going on.”
“So tell me,” I say, turning in my chair so I can see her face better. “Tell me, Rochelle. Explain to me again how you ended up in Denver after leaving me behind a year ago? And this time,” I say, looking at Bric, “don’t leave out the part where Bric finds out where you live the day before, OK? Do me that favor. Don’t lie this time.”
Bric lets out a long sigh. “Chella did hire that guy.”
“And he did find her,” I add.
“Yes. He found her right away.”
“Yeah, he mentioned that after you left. Said it took nothing at all to pull up all kinds of bank transactions in Pagosa Springs, including,” I say, my voice getting louder than I want it to—I look down at Adley, so fucking sorry this has to happen right now—“including,” I repeat, softening my tone, “the bill for the resort on her fucking credit card. Were you even looking, Bric? All last year, did you even bother looking? Or was all that a lie too?”
“I looked,” he says, narrowing his eyes at me. “But I can’t see credit cards, Quin. And I wasn’t going to do anything illegal.”
“OK,” I say. “I’ll accept that. I don’t exactly believe you, but fine. You looked, never found her, then Chella hired an old friend, who found her immediately. Am I right so far?” Bric glares at me. “Stop me when I get it wrong.”
“I called the Club last summer,” Rochelle says. “Right after Adley was born. I was upset. Crying. Sorry for leaving like that,” she says, looking at me with watery eyes. “And then Adley started crying and I knew Bric was gonna ask a bunch of questions about me keeping the baby, so I hung up. And then Bric came to my suite at the resort,” Rochelle says. “The day before I came back. He spent the night.”
“You called him?” I ask, looking at Bric. “And you never thought I’d need to know that? When you knew damn well I had no idea she was dead or alive?”
“I was on my way out of town,” Bric says. “I was closing the Club for the summer and I had a flight to catch.”
“A flight to catch?” I want to laugh, it’s so ridiculous. “So you’re telling me your summer vacation was more important than letting me know the woman I love was OK? That I had a baby?”
“You don’t even know if Adley’s yours,” Bric says.
“No.” I laugh. “I guess I don’t. But that doesn’t even matter at this point. You stayed the night with Rochelle and Adley?”
“In another room,” Bric counters, seething at me.
“Then what happened? How did you two decide to lie? And better yet, why? Why the hell did you even bother? What did you think you were gaining by not telling me the truth?”
“You weren’t even talking to me,” Bric says.
“He didn’t think… we didn’t think…” Rochelle falters. Which means she’s trying to tell me the truth, but the truth is gonna hurt too much, so she can’t say it.
“Just tell me,” I say. “For fuck’s sake, just tell me what the hell is going on with you two?”
“Bric wanted to play the game with you again.” Rochelle says. She looks at me. Her eyes are glassy with the threat of tears. “And I figured the only way to get you back was to play the game with both of you. Because you never wanted me, Quin. You only wanted us.”
“So why lie?” I ask. “I don’t get it.”
“Because if I brought her home, I’d be Number One.”
“Oh.” I laugh. “That’s amazing. You’d be Number One. And you were afraid she’d what? Fall in love with you?”
“Hey,” Bric says. “Stranger things have happened.”
“So let me get this straight. Just so everything is crystal clear. You went down to Pagosa Springs to talk Rochelle into coming back—”
“No,” Bric interrupts. “I went down there to tell her to stay away.”
“Which is an amazing coincidence,” Rochelle sneers. “Because Smith came here last week offering me two million dollars to leave town.” She shakes her head and laughs. “And when I said no, he decided to find another way to break us apart.”
I can’t speak. Everything I thought I knew has just been turned upside down.
“At least Bric changed his mind and wanted to bring me to you as a gift,” Rochelle adds.