Without a Hitch(104)

“Will you play nursemaid?”

Someone near us chuckles, and the room around us comes into stark focus. It’s so easy to get lost in the vortex of Lochlan Blaine that I’d completely forgotten we had an audience.

“For as long as you’ll have me.” I reach up on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek before stepping aside and allowing him into the swarm of people congratulating him and patting his back as he passes.

With all the attention back on the man of the hour, I relax. I’m able to fade into the background and observe. He’s like a magnet, drawing all eyes to him. All eyes except for the two that are glaring with poison-filled daggers and headed straight for me.





C HAPTE R 40

TILLY

A blond woman waddles toward me with one hand under her enormous belly like she’s holding it up and considering using it as a weapon. Her pale blue eyes scream murder as she uses her free hand to propel herself forward like a speed walker at the mall.

Her chest heaves with the effort, and when she gets within a few feet, it’s like someone flipped a switch. Gone is the nasty troll ready to behead me, and in her place is an almost contrite, friendly expression.

I immediately know two things about this girl. One, she’s Lochlan’s ex. And two? She’s a narcissistic loony bird who can be trusted as far as a fart flies.

“Hi,” she says with sickeningly sweet undertones. “I’m Chrissy. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

I begrudgingly hold out my hand to shake hers. “Tilly.”

Lochlan’s voice rings out over the speakers, and I turn to find his face red as a tomato and his voice a choked staccato. Christine seems to realize her time is limited because she pushes on.

“Listen, I’m sure you’ve heard all the terrible things about me, but I’m certain you’re smart enough to realize there are always two sides to every story.”

I stand ramrod straight, suddenly pissed off that I don’t know anything about this demon hoe except that she is, in fact, a demon hoe. I can feel it in my bones. “What can I do for you, Christine?”

Her name has a bit more venom in it than I’d intended, but it does the trick. Her walls go up, and I watch as she changes masks yet again.

“Listen, Tilly, I’m not here to fight with you or Lochlan. He’s a great guy, and I hope you two will be very happy together. I just felt the need to warn you. We lost our marriage long before we lost our baby.” All the air in the room gets sucked into a vacuum inside my lungs. “It was a terrible loss, and we all felt it.” She rubs her belly. “It hasn’t been that long. I know we both wanted this baby.” She places both hands under her stomach to emphasize her point.

How long? Is this Lochlan’s child? My head snaps to his, and I see him struggling, but Christine gets louder, and some of the audience’s attention turns to us.

“I blamed him for the loss. I know that wasn’t fair, but when we lost our little boy, we were in the middle of a very loud argument. He’d lost control, he was shouting. I was emotional. I begged him to stop, but he just kept going, and then the cramping began.”

I don’t believe her for a second. I might have, right up until she said he lost control. People like Lochlan don’t lose control. They walk away. They gather information. They address things head-on, sure, but never in the way she’s making it sound.

“What does this have to do with me?” My gaze strays to her stomach again, and I feel her smirk.

She knows I’m questioning whose baby it is.

Where the hell is Nova?

“I want to warn you, woman to woman. It isn’t fair of him to string you along when there will be so many changes in the future. I’ve been the rebound girl before. I don’t want that for you.”

“You don’t even know me,” I hiss, attempting to keep my voice low.

Christine just gets louder. “I know he bought the winery to punish me. To try and force my hand to come back to him. But he’s abusive, Tilly. Verbally and emotionally. He’s a master at manipulation. I can’t have that for me or our child.”

Our child. There it is again, but there’s something in the way she says it that won’t allow me to believe her. Or is that wishful thinking on my part?

We have a small crowd around us now. Everyone’s turned to listen to her tale, but I know in my heart of hearts it’s just that—fiction. A story meant to hurt and punish. I’ve dealt with mean girls like her before, but now she’s going after Lochlan, and I see red.

“He’s going to force us to sell. We’ll lose everything, and our child and I will be forced to depend on him and his trust fund. Lochlan is out to hurt me, Tilly, and he’s using you to do it. Don’t you see?”

She has tears in her eyes, but I can’t stop staring at the hitch in her lip. Like she’s enjoying this too much not to smile.

I don’t notice that the room is silent until I’m shoved forward when Lochlan stumbles into me. He sways at my side. “That is a bloody fucking lie, you raging lunatic.”

He reaches me at the same time as his parents do, and we create a wall facing batshit crazy in human form.

“Tilly, none of that is true. Her husband wouldn’t let me through,” Nova hisses.

Her husband? What the fuck is going on? I pull out of Lochlan’s grasp, not because I don’t trust him, but because I don’t have all the details and I can’t think.