The sheer irony wasn’t lost on me. If I had given people the bare description of Cal and Leo, they probably would think Leo was the good guy here. Older man sleeps with a barely legal woman, the daughter of his best friend? Yeah, we all knew how that story usually went. The epidemic of older men dating barely legal women, women still in college, women young enough to be their daughter or granddaughter, was sickening. And Leo was the poster boy—on paper—for the romantic lead. He was the next-door neighbor who was cute, making me smile, and was always there to lend a hand.
But this wasn’t on paper. This was real life, my life, and in my life the person who had respected me the entire time was Cal, not Leo. Cal had hurt me when we’d slept together but out of respect for his best friend, and their relationship, and out of fear that he had taken advantage of me. Fear that we were making a mistake that would hurt us both. His intentions had been in the right place.
Leo, on the other hand, had always made me want to put a little distance between us. I hadn’t expected something like this. I had trusted that he was a good person. But I’d always known that there was an attempt to date me. I had always sensed that he was interested in me sexually, romantically, and it had tinged all of our interactions. Maybe I should’ve been more on my guard. Maybe I should have expected this—planned for the worst. But who wants to do that? Who wants to assume that the people around them, who are doing good things, have ulterior motives?
I had known there was something, though. Even if I’d underestimated how far Leo would go to get what he wanted.
“I’m going to get what I’m owed,” Leo growled, and the look in his eyes was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. I’d thought that telling my parents about Cal and me was the height of fear and it was still a close second but this—I had never feared like this before. I had never felt so sick and trembling, had never been so goddamn horrified, praying silently for my life and my personal autonomy, for my child.
“You’re going to stay the fuck away from me,” I snapped back, a hysterical edge to my voice. I wanted to scream—but I wasn’t sure who would hear me, and I didn’t want to wake up Fern. That was the last thing that I wanted. What if I screamed, and woke her up, and the only thing that led to was her witnessing what was happening?
No, I couldn’t risk it.
Leo took another step forward. “You’re welcome to try and stop me,” he said, mildly. It was the soft, casual tone of his voice that scared me the most.
I had to find a way out of this. I wasn’t going to let this end the way Leo wanted it to.
I wouldn’t let him.
27
Cal
I would’ve thought I’d be a bit too tired after the driving to work on a lot of art that day, but I found myself full of creative energy when I got back to my house. I grabbed my paints and went immediately to Fern’s room, getting to work on the mural. I was so excited for her to see it. I didn’t know when, exactly. Maggie and I had to work out the details of how to tell her. But I knew it would be soon.
Unlike with Mark and Violet, I wasn’t at all nervous for Fern to know the truth. I was just excited. Fern liked me and I adored her, and the sooner that we told her the truth about my being her father, the sooner she could get used to it and we could all be a proper family.
To help with that, I decided I’d invite Maggie and Fern over in the morning to take a look. Maybe I could even convince Maggie to move herself and Fern in with me this week. It was Sunday, so plenty of time to decide… and maybe, sure, it was soon, but I knew that I didn’t have any hesitations about this. Why wait it out when you were certain? We had already wasted so much time. I didn’t want to waste any more. Not even a day.
Perhaps I could sweeten the pot by letting her refurnish the house. I honestly didn’t care about whatever furniture was currently in it. Maggie could do it up however she wanted and I’d be fine with it. Despite being an artist, home décor was never my strong suit. Violet had actually helped me with picking out all the furniture in my house back in Cincinnati.
I stepped back to survey the mural. It was just about finished. Glancing at the time, I could see that Maggie would probably be putting Fern to bed by now. It made me a little sad to think that I wouldn’t get to read Fern a bedtime story, but it was all right. I’d be able to do so every night from now on, I’d make sure of it. Hopefully, I’d do it with Fern in her new bedroom.