My jaw dropped. Was that a thing? “What the heck for?” I demanded.
“Well,” he began.
The lady behind him stepped forward, elbowing him out of the way. Though she was small in stature, her stacked, blonde, call-the-manager haircut easily added another four inches to her height. “Because I will not allow my granddaughter to be a pawn in your charade any longer.”
She pronounced “charade” in a put-on British way, despite the rest of her accent being pure East Tennessee, which predisposed me to not like her before my brain processed the rest of what she’d said.
Her granddaughter? Oh, crap. These were the Kensingtons? Here and now? While all three of us were half-dressed and Marigold was drowning in her own saliva?
I clutched the baby more firmly in my arm and held the doorknob with the opposite hand. “Diesel?” I called, slightly panicked. “Babe?”
Diesel came immediately and stood behind me, slinging a dish towel over his shoulder. “Hunt? Brenda? What’s this about?” His deep, rumbling voice was as unwelcoming as I’d ever heard it.
I also finally understood how Brenda the pecky chicken had gotten her name.
Terry cleared his throat. “Mr. Church, it appears new information has come to light about your, ah… home situation.”
“My home situation hasn’t changed since the last time you were here,” Diesel said. I felt him shift his weight behind me, and his arm wrapped around my waist. “And I was under the impression you didn’t find any issues then.”
“Well, no, that’s true—” Terry began.
“So?” Diesel demanded.
“So that was before we found out that your boyfriend is a con man!” Brenda accused.
I felt the weight of four distinct gazes.
“Con man? Me?” I squeaked. “What?”
Diesel exhaled sharply. “You’d best watch your tongue, Ms. Kensington.”
“I think you’d best watch yours, Mr. Church,” the older gentleman said coldly. “My wife speaks the truth.”
He stepped aside, and my jaw dropped at the literal, actual nightmare who appeared behind him.
“Long time, no see, Parrish.”
“Payne?” I whispered, horrified. “What the…” I looked down at Marigold, who was watching me with wide eyes. “What the flippity dippity are you doing here?”
“Is that any way to greet your long-lost fiancé, baby?” Payne smiled his toothpaste-white smile and brushed a hand down his baby pink polo.
Diesel’s hand tightened on my hip. “Parrish is not your fiancé,” he growled possessively. “Or your baby.”
Payne ignored him, the way he often ignored the truth. “You never responded to my Facebook message, Parrish. I have to admit, I was hurt.”
“That was not a message,” I whispered angrily. “It was a manifesto.” I ran a soothing hand over Marigold’s back and tried to control my temper. “Not sure how you expected me to respond to you spewing thousands of words about how I cost you custody of your sons when that wasn’t true in the slightest.”
“You don’t think so?” His smile was oily and didn’t reach his eyes. “I do. You manipulated me into an engagement, then withdrew your character reference when I got cold feet—”
“Me?” I squawked in protest at this bald-faced lie. “No way! You were the one who pushed for us to get engaged because you said it would help your chances of gaining custody! I just went along with it to help you.”
It wasn’t until a thick, tense silence fell, during which Terry winced and Payne grinned maliciously, that I realized what I’d inadvertently suggested.
“You see?” Brenda demanded. “A con man! A crook! A fiancé for hire!”
“No! Gah. That’s not what I meant. I meant, I agreed to the engagement with Payne because I thought I was in love with him,” I explained to Terry a little desperately. My breakfast oatmeal congealed in the center of my stomach at an alarming rate. “It wasn’t fake, it was just… too fast. And ultimately wrong. But I was prepared to stick with it for the boys’ sake, until he cheated on me.”
Payne shook his head sadly. “I told you, Brenda, you can’t believe a word he says! That’s why I was so glad when you and Hunt came to see me and explained what was going on here. It seems Parrish is making a habit of interfering in good folks’ custody arrangements.”
I’d never been accused of anything so malicious and patently false in all my life, and where I usually couldn’t keep quiet, I now found myself completely struck speechless. I stared at Payne and gaped like a fish.
I couldn’t believe I’d ever found him good-looking. I couldn’t believe I’d ever deluded myself into thinking I was in love with him or, even crazier, that he was in love with me. Most of all, I couldn’t believe I’d wasted a single minute moping about the end of this relationship when I should have been celebrating. It was so obvious now that everything Payne did was to bolster his image—devoted single dad, loving boyfriend, savvy attorney—but there was nothing real beneath the surface. He’d only ever been selfish. He’d only ever wanted to take from me and give me nothing in return.