Precious Consequences(66)

“Because I didn’t want you to treat her the same way you treated me, Kyle. You would’ve denied that she was yours, the same way you denied that it was you in that video and let me take the fall.”

“But I deserved to know!” he snaps. “Don’t you think I had the right to know I fathered a child?”

“No,” I reply harshly. “You didn’t. You lost that right the minute you’re turned against me, knowing how humiliated and ashamed I was after that video came out. You turned your back on me when I asked you for help, and I will be damned if I’d let you do that to my child too.”

He sticks his fingers through his hair harshly, tugging it. “Hayley,” he hesitates for a beat. “I was young, and stupid, and you deserved so much better than how I treated you. I’m sorry for that, really, I am, but I’m not ready for this.”

My eyes fixate on Kyle’s face, and for the first time I feel something akin to hatred towards another human being. The irony that it’s towards the father of my child doesn’t escape me.

I fold my arms across my chest and lift my chin. “I haven’t asked you for anything Kyle, and I have no intention of starting now.”

Incredulity flashes across his face. “So, you’re not expecting me to stick around?”

His expression is hopeful and a small part of me crumbles inside, the part that thought there was a tiny chance he’d want to know Ari. But I know better. Kyle was never the type of person to think of anyone but himself and I’m naive to think otherwise. Can I blame him when I’ve kept Ari from him for so long? I don’t know, but even now that he knows about her, he still wants to run. Which is the reason I never told him in the first place.

I brace myself, already feeling the hurt of the words I’m about to say out loud. “No, I don’t. I never expected you to, but I thought maybe you’d changed, and that you were no longer the selfish jerk you always were.”

“Hayley - ”

My hand comes up and Kyle’s mouth shuts. “You don’t deserve to know her,” I say. “I’m not even sure I deserve her, but for some reason God chose me, Ari chose me, and until a man worthy enough comes along to be there for every moment in her life, I will love her enough for both of us. We don’t need you, Kyle. We never have.”

I open the door and wait for Kyle to leave. He stops in front of me. “For what it’s worth, I really am sorry, Hayley, and you’re twice the person I will ever be.”

I close the door, and slide down until I’m on the floor. A few tears escape, but I wipe them away quickly before I have to walk into the kitchen. The last twelve hours swirl around in my head, and press down on my chest. Squeezing my eyes closed, I take a deep, calming breath.

I’ve been let down by the people closest to me more times than I can count, but I won’t be one of those people on Ari’s list.



Chapter 20

~ Cameron ~

I stop my truck next to the curb outside Hayley’s grandmother’s house and cut the ignition. I sit there for a good ten minutes, thinking about what it is that I want to say to Hayley. I know I need to apologize because I treated her poorly after my father died, but I’m still reeling after what happened at the diner last night. I can’t even imagine how she must be feeling. I woke up this morning and made the decision to drive over here, whether she wanted to see me or not, so that we could talk. I have no idea where to go from here, or if we even have a place to go, but if I don’t at least try talk to her, I will never know what could be. The truth is, Hayley has consumed me, and thinking about her has helped me through the last few weeks, helping me cope and deal with not only my father’s death but with my guilt, too. I thought I was doing the right thing by pushing her away, because she makes me feel and after losing my father, feeling was the last thing I wanted to do. But I see now that pushing her away, hurting her, wasn’t the right thing at all. Which is why I’m here. To talk. To clear things up, and to hopefully try again if she’ll let me. She needs to know how I feel about her, and Ari too, for that matter.

I climb from my truck and walk around the front just as the front door opens. It’s Kyle, and he looks happy about something. My stomach drops like an anvil. Are they getting back together? Not on my watch. Hayley and Ari are mine.

Kyle sees me, and the smug smile on his face falters.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. I don’t like this f*cker one bit, and it has nothing to do with the fact that him and his bitch of a girlfriend gatecrashed my birthday dinner last night. However, it may have everything to do with the conversation I overheard when I walked back into the diner after Hayley left. Just thinking about what they put Hayley through makes me want to f*ck him up seven ways from Sunday and not think twice about it.

“Taking care of business,” he replies, puffing out his chest a little. Really? “Why do you care? I thought you and Hayley were over?”

“You don’t know anything about me and Hayley, dickwad, so why don’t you get in your car and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.” I sneer, making my disdain for this * known.

His hands lift up in mock defeat and he takes a step back. “Hey man, chill out. Hayley and the kid are both yours. I don’t want anything to do with them. I’m sure you can understand that at our age one * just isn’t enough.”