Riptide (Renegades 6)
Josh faced him. “That doesn’t matter, and you know it.”
Grace turned out of the bedroom in a hotel robe, combing her fingers through her hair. “Everything okay?”
“Sorry—” Zach started again.
“Stop. You’re always welcome.” She waved away his apology. “I’ll just let you two—”
“I wouldn’t mind a woman’s perspective, if you’re up for drama,” he told her.
She smiled. “I work with female performers. Drama extraordinaire right here.”
“Please, by all means, stay.” He closed his eyes and scraped a hand through his hair.
“You look like you could use a drink,” Josh said.
Zach shook his head. “The last three haven’t done me any good.”
“What’s this about?” Grace took Josh’s hand and pulled him to the sofa.
“Remember that woman I met at the Outrigger a couple of nights ago?”
Josh groaned. “Nothing good ever starts like that.”
Zach paced as he explained the situation. And just reiterating it all made him break out in a sweat. He felt like he’d had a load of cement dumped into his gut. But he also had the sensation of something fluttering beneath, like a trapped butterfly. And it was making him insane.
He pulled the documents from his pocket and handed them to Josh. Then he crossed his arms and faced the sliding glass doors to the lanai, staring out at the night.
After a moment, Josh asked, “Is there a chance this is really your kid?”
The butterfly in his gut got a burst of energy. “If you’re asking if we used birth control, the answer is yes. I always do.”
“But we all know it doesn’t always work,” Grace said, her voice compassionate as she reviewed the documents.
Zach chewed his bottom lip. “That’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last hour.” That and the realization he might have a daughter. A daughter. His stomach clenched. He squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his head back. “Fuck.”
“You can’t just put any guy’s name on a birth certificate, can you?” Grace asked. “Don’t you have to have their permission or something?”
“No,” Josh told her. “One of my teammates went through this. He hooked up with a girl in a bar on leave. Nine months later, out of the blue, he’s getting his paycheck garnished for court-ordered child support. He had to demand a paternity test, which came back with a mismatch for his DNA. That’s the only way you ge
t out of the legal obligations tied to a child. And it takes time. There’s a lot of red tape and lawyers. Even after he was cleared of responsibility, he couldn’t get the thousands he’d paid in child support back from the woman. She was a deadbeat.”
“Could this woman be playing you?” Grace asked Zach. “Maybe she heard about Ian leaving the show and sees you as a meal ticket. You know how crazy these groupies can be.”
“It’s definitely crossed my mind.” Zach squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head. “But her asking me to sign over parental rights doesn’t make sense.”
“What does Marshall say about all this?” Josh asked.
“He didn’t answer his phone. I left him a get-back-to-me-right-fucking-now message.”
“Well, a paternity test is a given,” Grace said. “If Tessa is legit, are you going to sign off on the girl?”
“Hell no.” The words were out of his mouth with such vehemence, his skin heated with embarrassment. This situation gnawed at the heart of him. “I would never give up on my kid. That’s one of the things that’s fucking with me—that anyone would even think to put a kid in the middle of a scam like this. If I had a kid, no one would fuck with him.”
Or her.
This iron-willed streak was nothing new for Zach. He might be generally laid-back. But he was also competitive and driven. What kept hitting him sideways was the possessiveness that overwhelmed him when he let himself even consider that this little girl might be his.
“Okay,” Grace said, her tone a little more cautious. “So, you know what you’d do if she turned out not to be your daughter. The next thing to think about would be what steps you’d take if she turns out to be yours. To get your mind around this and find solid ground, I think it would help to have a game plan in mind before you find out.”