Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(40)

“So I can’t do anything right now?” I ask in stunned disbelief, my eyes darting to Pepper. She pushes up off the couch, prompted by the alarm in my voice. “She can just come back onto my property whenever she wants?”

Jim lowers his voice in an attempt to soothe me. It doesn’t work. “The next time she comes on your property, you ask her to leave and you tell her affirmatively that she’s not allowed to come back. If she refuses to leave, call the police and we can do something about it. I’m sorry but that’s the way it is.”

    “Well, that’s just fucking not helpful,” I growl at my attorney.

He’s not perturbed by my profanity. “I’m going to reach out to her attorney and request she stay away. I’ll also find out if she’s hired him to move forward with legal proceedings to challenge your custody or request visitation. Let’s see if we can figure out where her mind is.”

“It’s in fucking la-la land, apparently,” I mutter and that causes Jim to chuckle. I’m forced to smile a bit. “Listen…reach out to her attorney and see if you can figure out what the hell she wants. I might be willing to agree to some supervised visitation but custody is off the table. I don’t give a fuck what her psychiatric condition is or was, but she abandoned our kid and she can’t be trusted. You stand firm on that and if she wants to fight, we’ll fight it out in court.”

“Understood,” Jim says gravely. “I’m putting my full attention on this now.”

“Thank you, Jim.”

We end the call and I place my phone on one of the end tables. Pepper is standing right in front of me, and it feels only natural to draw her into my warms. She hugs me and it’s needed. While we hold each other, I tell her everything that Jim just relayed to me.

Finally, I pull away from her and head over to check on Charlie. I bend down and watch the swaying rotation of the mamaRoo. Charlie’s little face is relaxed and peaceful. She’s oblivious to the ugliness going on today, and I hope to always keep that away from her.

With a sigh, I plop down on the floor beside the Roo machine and stretch out my legs. Pepper comes over and sits cross-legged across from me with Charlie in between us. We both just stare at her for a while.

    “Have you noticed how she’s starting to get excited when she sees the bottle coming toward her mouth?” I ask Pepper.

She grins. “Yeah. Her little arms start waving wildly. I half expect her to snatch it out of my hands.”

“Yeah,” I agree softly and we go back to just watching her.

Finally, I look across at Pepper. “I don’t know what to do. I’m terrified to leave her and it’s not fair to Lucy to be in this situation, wondering if Lida will show up again. We have a home game tomorrow and I’m seriously thinking of not going, which is going to get me in some hot water.”

Pepper nibbles on her lower lip as she listens to me. When I finish, she says, “You can’t stop your life, Legend. I know your instinct is to protect Charlie at all costs, but you need to figure a way to do that without interfering with your job.”

“I know,” I say with a sigh.

Fuck…I know that.

“I’ll stay over here tomorrow with Lucy when you’re gone to the game, and if it makes you feel even better, we’ll go to my parents’ house. You can come pick us up over there after the game. Lida won’t even be a factor for you to worry about.”

I give a shake of my head, a small smile forming on my lips. “Why me?” I ask her.

Pepper tilts her head and her eyebrows draw inward. “Why you what?”

    “Why would you ever attach yourself to me? I’ve been an ass to you repeatedly and I’m so busy with work and a new baby, I can’t really take you out on dates, and now all this drama with the baby mama. Why me?”

Pepper shrugs and gives me an impish grin. “You give good orgasms.”

I cock an eyebrow at her, indicating that is not a sufficient answer.

She shrugs again, this time her eyes turning serious. “I told you I liked you.”

Yes, she had said that in Winnipeg. Hearing her say it again causes palpable relief which tells me that I was seriously doubting why someone as amazing as Pepper would get involved with someone who seems to be in constant turmoil.

I smile at her. “I like you too.”

“Well, good. That’s all settled.” She shifts her position and brings her knees up, wrapping her arms around her shins. Her face is pensive. “Are you going to tell your parents about what’s going on?”

“Shit,” I say as I slap my palm to my forehead. I totally forgot my parents were flying in day after tomorrow and would be here to visit with Charlie. I shake my head. “I don’t think I’ll tell them. I’ve never been one to lay my problems on my parents’ doorstep. One of the benefits of my dad’s military style upbringing, I was taught to deal with my shit.”

“Nothing wrong with getting support from people,” she tells me.

“I know,” I agree as I look down to Charlie. “And I will let them support me being a single dad in the ways that they can. But no sense in adding worry to them right now until we figure out what’s going on.”

    “That sounds like a good plan,” Pepper agrees with me.