Lexi, Baby (8 page)

As soon as I got up I started wiping at my
face and clothes, while the last fifteen minutes replayed over and
over again in my head.

All of a sudden it hit me that the only
reason Landyn was here was because of Destiny, that stupid bitch. I
could only hope that karma was one too. The realization of how
Landyn ended up here royally pissed me off.

I stormed right up to Landyn while he
studied me with suspicious eyes. I started in on him without delay.
“Layla is
mine
, Landyn. I might be willing to work something
out with you, but there’s no fucking way I’ll let your little
girlfriend, or wife, or whatever the fuck she is near her. You’ll
have to kill me first.”

His eyebrows drew together and he looked
confused. “What the hell are you talking about, Lexi?”

“Don’t call me Lexi and
do not
play
the stupid jock boy act with me.”

His eyes narrowed, but he continued to look
at me like I lost my marbles. I hissed, “Destiny, Landyn. Don’t
even think about letting her near Layla.” After he let that sink in
for a minute, I watched as his expression softened; a little. Then
he had the nerve to smile at me!

“This isn’t funny!” I shrieked.

“Two days, Lexi. You’ve got two days. If you
don’t show up I’m coming for you.” Then he turned and left me
standing there alone and defeated.

Shit!

When I made it back to the apartment I
noticed right away that Trish must have picked up all the groceries
I dropped. That was nice of her. I was about to turn the knob when
the door flew open and Trish grabbed my arm pulling me inside. “I’m
so sorry, Lex,” she said quietly.

“This isn’t your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have answered the door. What
happened?” Before I could answer her, I heard Layla’s eager voice.
“Mama, did you see the giant that was here? He looked like a
football guy... I mean player. Did you see? He said he use ta be
one. Can he teach me how to play? Can you ask him? I wanna be a
football guy too.” My little girly girl was standing right in front
of me now asking me to play football; her big amber eyes shining
bright with anticipation. She always rambled when she was
excited.

God I love her!
“We’ll see baby,
okay?” I said softly forcing myself to stay strong.

“Okay,” she responded a disappointed, small
voice. She thought about something and then she quickly perked up.
“Guess what? He called me precious. He’ll say yes, I know it! Can
Jennifer come too? I want her to hear him call me precious.”

Don’t cry, don’t cry
. It broke my
heart to know that she already wanted Landyn’s attention and she
didn’t even know that he was her daddy yet.

“We’ll see, baby.” I said as I cupped her
cheek.

“Okay, I’m going to my room to practice.”
She turned and click-clacked away to her room.

I turned to Trish. “Now she wants to play
football.”

“He loves her,” was Trish’s odd
response.

“Who loves who?” I asked, puzzled.

“Landyn loves Layla. It was tattooed all
over his face when he saw her.” She ran a hand through her hair.
“This might not be so bad, Lex” she said, but she didn’t know the
half of it.

“Trish, you have no idea how bad this is.
Landyn’s possessive. He always was and he made it pretty clear to
me outside just a minute ago that he hasn’t changed. He’ll be worse
with his own flesh and blood. She’s his daughter, can you imagine?
It’s only just begun. What about Ryan? He loves Layla too and
Landyn’s going to hate his guts for that simple fact alone.”

I watched Trish bite down on her bottom lip.
“Lex, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about Ryan where Layla is
concerned.” My eyebrows drew together. “What’s that supposed to
mean?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I just think
you’ve been mistaking how he feels for you with how he feels for
her. Please don’t get mad, it’s just an outsider’s opinion.”

This was making my head hurt; more like
pound. I couldn’t find it in myself to stand still so I walked over
to the dining room table. Trish followed.

“I’m not touching that conversation right
now, T; one crisis at a time please,” I told her as I started
cleaning up Layla’s mess. “Landyn told me that I better meet him in
two days or else he was coming for me; whatever that means.”

“He gave me his card to give you. Are you
going to meet him?” Trish asked gently.

I looked at her. “I don’t really have a
choice, do I? I mean, you heard Layla, maybe this is what she
needs.” I said unselfishly before continuing. “I know Layla is used
to Ryan and Ryan’s good to her, but maybe she needs some realy
fatherly bonding. You know she’s more than just a girly girl. She
would love Landyn showing her how to get dirty like the boys.”

Trish didn’t respond so I kept on venting.
“I’m not saying you’re right about Ryan, but he’s just so busy all
the time. It would be different if we lived together and Layla was
around Ryan all the time... I honestly don’t know what to do. I
think I’m just going with the flow on this one. Planning never
seems to work out for me anyway.” I finished on a submissive
note.

Dealing with Landyn... I’d rather have a
root canal!

Trish cut off my internal rant. “Do you
still have love him?”

I whirled around and gasped out loud. “What?
Why would you even ask me that? You know I don’t! He might still be
hot, or hotter, but he’s still an asshole!” I answered
heatedly.

Trish stared questioningly into my eyes for
a second before she nodded; I narrowed my eyes at her. “I don’t,” I
said in my serious, firm, “Don’t piss me off” voice then turned to
the kitchen.

It was mid-day when Ryan showed up. Trish
had taken Layla to run errands with her so I could have privacy
when I explained my little situation; okay, huge situation. When I
answered the door Ryan greeted me with the standard “Hey
sweetheart” and light kiss. He walked inside like usual. He sat
down on the couch, but when I didn’t sit next to him and took a
seat on the chair across, he frowned. “Lex, what’s wrong?” I looked
down at my lap where I was rubbing my sweaty palms together.

“Landyn came here,” I said softly, not
looking in his eyes. When he didn’t respond I looked up.

His face was blank so I couldn’t read his
emotions. I continued. “Trish answered the door and Layla, being
Layla, introduced herself. Landyn knew right away that she was his
just by looking at her. He wants to start seeing her.”

Ryan still didn’t speak and his silence was
a little eerie. My voice softened more. “I’m supposed to meet him
on Sunday to discuss some kind of visitation.”

Finally, Ryan spoke. “Have you decided to
meet him?” he asked in an alarmingly unusual tone. I couldn’t get a
handle on his mood.

“I have to meet him, Ry. There’s really not
much else I can do other than wait for him to take me to court. I
can’t do that to Layla and I can’t afford it.”

Suddenly, he scooted to the edge of the
couch and placed his elbows on his knees. His face was filled with
irritation now. “I’ll pay,” he said through his teeth. “You won’t
have to see him. Give me his number and I’ll tell him you’ll see
him in court. He can see Layla when the court orders it, but I
don’t want you having anything to do with him.”

“Ryan, thank you, but I can’t let you pay my
court costs. Landyn doesn’t want anything to do with me; he just
wants to see his daughter. I’ll talk about arrangements with him on
Sunday so fighting won’t be necessary.”

“No!” he shouted so violently at me I sank
back into my chair. This was a scary Ryan I didn’t know. “I don’t
want him near you, Lex! You put on this act like you have
everything under control when really you’re still just as childlike
and inexperienced as you were when you got pregnant! Hell, even
when I met you!”

Ouch! That hurt. Did he really just say
that
?

I closed my eyes. I knew he wouldn’t like
the situation, but I didn’t expect him to be so mad, or so
irate.

When I opened my eyes I said quietly, “That
was a mean thing to say to me Ryan. The least I can do is meet with
Landyn since I’ve kept his daughter from him. If you saw how hurt
he was, you’d understand that Layla should get to know him.”

“You’re not seeing him, end of discussion.
If you do, we’re done,” Ryan stated, finality punctuated every
word. He stood up without a backward glance and before I knew it,
he was gone.

What the hell just happened
? I asked
myself, dumbfounded.

That evening passed with no more drama, but
Saturday seemed to drag on forever. Ryan hadn’t called once so when
night came, I decided to call him. “Hello,” he answered sounding
like he wanted nothing to do with me. “Ryan, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. You were so
hung up on this Landyn guy during the whole first part of our
relationship that I had to work at it harder than I should have. I
don’t want you seeing him.”

Ryan sure knew how to throw blows and that
was a direct hit. “I know I made it hard on you in the beginning,
Ry, but I was hurt pretty bad and had a baby by the same person who
hurt me. I just didn’t want go through that again. You know all
this and I’ve apologized for it.”

“I don’t want you seeing him,” was his only
response.

“Ryan, please. I really need to meet him for
Layla’s sake. My only concern is my daughter, please just
understand that,” I said softly hoping it would seep through his
hard head. “Layla will be fine Lex. I’m not worried about her one
bit. It’s you I’m worried about.” Then he hung up.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and
frowned at it. What did he mean he wasn’t worried about Layla? How
could he not be? I understand that Ryan wasn’t her biological
father, but he’s been around her for nearly two years.
He should
care
!

Maybe Trish was right. My heart was breaking
all over again. I had to see Landyn tomorrow. There was no way
around it. I couldn’t let Landyn drag me through court because it
would only hurt Layla.

When Sunday finally came I was a disaster. I
kept myself busy; I cleaned, I played with Layla, I made a huge
lunch, but when the clock finally hit two o’clock, I knew I had to
call Landyn before he sent the cavalry. “Hello,” Landyn’s deep
voice answered. The background was really noisy.

“If this is a bad time, I can call back
later.” I said, praying he would say okay.

“Lexi, baby, get your ass here.” Then he
hung up.

Fuck!
I’m sick of people hanging up
on me!

I grabbed my purse and headed for the door.
“Baby, come give Mama some sugar!” I shouted while I waited at the
front door. She turned the corner running and slammed into me just
as I bent down to open my arms. I gave her a big smack on the mouth
and ended up with strawberry flavored gloss all over my lips.

“I have to run some errands so be good for
Aunt T while I’m gone.”

“I’m always good,” she responded in an
overly dramatic, shocked tone. I couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re right, I love you.”

“Love you too Mama, bye!” she yelled and
took off running.

An hour later, I was sitting in my truck
outside a bar called BOQ Tavern. This was the address on the card
Landyn gave Trish, but I had no idea why he wanted to meet here.
The place was located in Clear Lake, right on the water and not far
from where I grew up.

I was getting nervous. In the back of my
mind I started to wonder if maybe Ryan was right; maybe I was
making the wrong decision meeting Landyn.

I got so nervous I was about to put the
truck in reverse when the driver’s side door flew open. “Turn the
truck off and get out, Lexi.”

I turned to glare at Landyn and quickly took
inventory. He wore a solid black, semi-tight t-shirt that read BOQ
Tavern over his front left peck in white letters. He had on faded
jeans and black motorcycle boots.
Ugh
! Why did he have to be
so damn hot?!

I sighed loudly, turned away, pulled the key
out of the ignition and grabbed my purse. When I got out Landyn
slammed my door shut and wrapped an arm around my shoulders to
guide me forward and he wasn’t being easy about it. I knew he was
silently telling me he wasn’t messing around. He held me so snug
against his side that I had to put my arm around his back, bend at
the elbow and rest my hand between his shoulder blades because I
had nowhere else to put it. I refused to wrap my arm around his
waist.

“You don’t have to manhandle me, you know?”
I said trying to shake him off.

“This is nowhere near what I really want to
do to you,” he countered harshly. I rolled my eyes.

We walked through the front door and I
noticed right away the place had class. The view of the lake and
fishing decor gave it a laid-back feel, but everything looked very
upscale. It was also jam packed with customers. I bet the employees
made a killing. He kept directing me forward and down a couple
halls, until we came to an office door that he pushed me through. I
quickly took in my surroundings and noticed newspaper clippings and
pictures of Landyn in a military uniform hanging on the walls.

Interesting
.

I was just about to start reading a framed
article when he said irritably. “Sit down Lexi. You’ve kept me
waiting long enough.”

Shit!

I took a seat in a visitor’s chair and he
sat behind the desk, placed his elbows on top and folded his hands
together under his chin. He didn’t say anything else, he just
watched me.

“Are you a manager here?” I asked nervously.
He didn’t answer right away.