“She’s having my baby,” he states.
“She’s having my baby,” I correct him.
Theo nods knowingly. “And when it comes out looking like me? Because it will, you know. Look at both of my sons.” He gestures to the back yard. “They’re carbon copies of me, Brant, and they have more of your blood in their veins than this one will. My hair, my eyes. You and I don’t look alike, so don’t you think Bri might find it pretty fucking interesting when Alyssa’s baby comes out looking like me instead of you?”
I’ve tried my best not to think about that. None of us can change the baby’s biological makeup, no matter how much we want to, so I don’t see much point worrying about it yet. “Hopefully it’s a girl, then, and she takes after Alyssa,” I offer as I walk toward the sliding doors.
“And if not? What then, Brant? You can’t do this,” he tells me again. “You were supposed to protect Bri, not Alyssa.”
I stop just before I pull the door open, turning to look back at him. “No, Theo. You’re Bri’s husband—you’re supposed to protect her from this kind of hurt. I shouldn’t have to.”
Rather than take on guilt like a decent man would after fucking up this badly, he tends toward the childish, standing there fuming because I didn’t clean up his mess as neatly as he expected me to.
I can’t take being around him anymore, so I shake my head, then open the sliding door and head outside toward the grill.
20
Alyssa
I can feel Theo’s gaze on me.
Brant bought me a bikini to wear under my dress in case I wanted to go in the pool while we were at the cookout today, but I didn’t plan to. Then Thompson started playing with the other kids and Levi started to get grumpy without his usual playmate, and somehow, before I knew it, I was taking my dress off and grabbing Levi’s favorite pool float.
As I drag the inflatable green frog through the water, Levi grins and kicks his little legs. To entertain him, I keep pretending to slip and lose my balance. He squeals with delight and whacks the float in front of him, then leans forward and dips his fingers into the pool water, trying to splash me.
Playfully, I push some water toward him and give his arm a little splash back.
Levi grins and smacks his hands down, sending little droplets of water at me. I react theatrically as if he sent a big wave my way, and Levi leans back in his float and giggles at me.
We were the only two in the pool, so I’m startled to hear someone else slicing through the water behind me. When I look over my shoulder and see Theo wading toward me, my heart drops into my stomach.
He’s shirtless and presumably in swim trunks, but I can’t see them. He’s in the shallower part of the pool right now, and the water is sloshing around his cut abdomen.
Given our last interaction and everything that has gone down since, it takes every scrap of self-control I have not to immediately flee, uncaring of how it would look.
The water laps around his waist as he stops beside me. We’re not in the deepest part, so the water only sloshes around my breasts. As his gaze drifts over them, I wish I’d have taken Levi deeper so they’d be completely submerged under water.
“You having fun, buddy?” he asks his son, looking over at the happy baby splashing around in his pool float.
“What are you doing?” I ask lowly, keeping my gaze on Levi.
“Playing with my son,” Theo offers back innocently.
“All right. I’ll leave you to it, then,” I murmur, turning and starting to head back to the stairs to climb out of the pool.
Theo’s hand locks around my bicep. “Wait. Don’t run away—you were playing with Levi.”
“Get your hand off me,” I say, shrugging him off, my heart pounding faster. I don’t want to make a scene, but I don’t want him touching me, either.
He immediately drops his hand, and when I glance back at him, he’s frowning like I’m the one out of line for not wanting to be in the water with him. “Why are you acting like this?”
“Are you kidding me?” I snap, turning back to him so I can talk quietly. “I know what you tried to do, Theo. I know you sent someone to—” I stop, looking over at Levi. I shake my head, not even bothering to finish my sentence. I know Levi is little enough that he can’t repeat or understand any of this anyway, but I still don’t feel right accusing his father of attempted murder in front of him.
Theo hears the words I’m refraining from saying, though, and he sighs, looking down at the water. “I’m sorry, Alyssa.”