More Than Lies (More Than #1)(120)
“Nine days.”
“What?! You can’t be serious. They only gave you a little over a week to pack and move across the country?” This is too soon. He can’t leave. I want to be selfish and tell him he can continue to freelance and do great. I won’t, though. Fact is, I’m not selfish like that. No matter how much I want to stomp my feet and be.
“They gave me forty-five days, actually.” I’m going to kill him. The bastard can leave tomorrow.
“You’ve known for—” I don’t get to finish my sentence because there is a knock on the front door. Matt is saved by the knock, so to speak, because I tell you I was seconds away from smacking him a few times. Instead, I pivot and walk the short distance from the living room to the front door in the foyer.
When I open it, a very pregnant brunette is standing in front of me.
“Can I help you?” I ask in a polite manner, even though moments ago I was feeling anything but polite.
“Is Shawn home?” Something about the way she says his name has an alarm going off inside my head. I don’t like her. I’ve only ever experienced an instant feeling like this once, with one person, and that was Holly. “His truck is in the driveway, so I figured he was home.” She smiles a little, but it looks forced.
“He is.” I tell her. “He’s in the shower at the moment. Would you like to come inside and wait for him?”
“Yes, please.” Her reply is too excited, but I take a step back, bringing the door fully open to allow her to enter.
“You can go through that entrance and wait.” I point to the living room where Matt and Mason are. I can see their faces from where I’m standing. They both look alarmed too. “He should be down shortly.”
I close the door and follow her, stopping at the entrance. I prop my body against the frame as she walks to the couch and takes a seat on the opposite side of Mason.
“Who are you?” It’s Mason that asks her the question. He’s never one to wait for answers. If he wants to know something, he asks.
“Tiffany.” Sounds like a stripper name if you ask me.
That was so judgmental and not like me at all. Still, there is a vibe I’m getting from this woman that I don’t like.
“How do you know Shawn?” Again, Mason with his twenty questions. I hope she’s prepared to talk until Shawn makes an appearance. Mason doesn’t shut up.
“We met a few months back. I work at Vivid Theatre.” Stripper she is then. Maybe I wasn’t so judgmental after all since I called it straight out. That doesn’t explain what she wants with my man. Yes, my man! Shawn just became a possession to me. He’s mine. I’m his. We’ve been through a lot of crap to get to where we are.
“And you’re here to see him why?” Mason’s tone turns hard. He’s protective of me. Loyal to Shawn no doubt, but I know exactly where I fit in Mason’s heart.
“Well, I should really tell him, but it’s going to get out eventually.” She turns to look me directly in the eyes. “I’m carrying his baby. He should know after all, and I want my baby’s daddy in his life.” Oh if this bitch weren’t pregnant I would have jumped on top of her.
I don’t react, though. The cat claws stay sheathed. For now! She obviously wanted a reaction out of me, that’s the reason she looked at me the way she did.
“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but that baby isn’t his.” I’d like to say that was me that made that blunt statement, but it wasn’t. Again, it was Mason taking up for his best friend, his brother from another mother so to speak.
“I have no reason to lie, and I’m very willing to do a paternity test to prove he is.” Again the cunt turns to direct her words at me. Shawn’s language has been having more of an effect on me lately than I’d like to admit. The “c” word, Taralynn? At least I didn’t verbalize it. Thinking it is bad enough.
“Taralynn.” Mason says my name with caution. I still haven’t spoken a word since she sat down and I don’t intend to. I know exactly what I need to do and I’m not about to waste time because Shawn is liable to make an appearance at any moment.
I turn away from my two friends and the trash I let walk into my home minutes ago, grab my keys hanging next to the door, and then I walk out.
“Taralynn, wait,” is the last thing I hear, coming from Matt, before the door shuts and I race to my car with a plan forming in my mind.
SHAWN BRADEN
When I come out of the bathroom I’m half hoping Tara will be naked in our bed, but that dream dies when I see she isn’t even in the room. The bed is perfectly made the same way it was fifteen minutes ago.
I quickly throw on a pair of jeans, one of my company T-shirts that I once again had redesigned recently, and a pair of socks, followed by my boots. If she wanted to be sexed, then she should have gotten her sweet, beautiful ass back up here; too bad for her. Now she will have to wait, because I plan on having a few hours of fun outside of the house with my friends today.
Matt is leaving in less than two weeks. Tara is going to need a distraction because my woman deals with shit too much as it is, so the four of us are going to play disc golf at a local park. It’ll be fun. We haven’t played in forever, and it’ll give her and Matt some time together for memories to pile up.