Forever My Girl (20 page)

I should’ve practiced what I was going to say. I can’t look at him. I just want my son.

“I came to get Noah.”

“What do you mean you came to get him? We have plans tonight.”

“I… things change. I need to take my son home now.”

Liam steps forward, down onto the porch. He closes the door behind him. He’s standing on the brick porch barefoot in a t-shirt and jeans. He must be freezing.

“What’s going on?” he asks. I step away creating space between us, only for him to step closer. My head shakes, I can’t look at him. I won’t.

“Jojo,” he says as he reaches for me. I bat his hand away.

“Don’t call me that.”

“What the hell is wrong?” His eyes flash with rage.

“Nothing,” I answer sharply. “I want my son and I want to go home.”

“Our son,” he seethes.

I laugh at his term
our
. “Are you sure about that, Liam Page?”

The look he gives me is one of confusion and hurt. I can see the pain in his eyes when I call him by his stage name. “What the fuck are you talking about, Josie.”

I can’t take it anymore. I can’t stand here while he plays stupid. I pull the envelope from my purse. “This,” I say through tears as I slam it into his chest. “You did this after you promised me you wouldn’t. I trusted you… again and you’ve broken my heart.”

Liam pulls the envelope from my hands and tears it open. He reads the first page, then each one after. His face turns white.

When he looks up at me, I see fear.

CHAPTER 31

LIAM

Josie has only knocked once since I moved in, so when I open the door and she’s standing there I know something is wrong. I can tell she’s upset. Her stance on my porch is defiant. She’s pissed off and I don’t know what I did, but I know her anger is because of me.

Stepping out onto the porch is probably the dumbest thing I’ve done all week. It’s cold, snowing and I’m not wearing any socks or shoes. I could care less about not having a jacket on. I’m trying to be serious with her when all I want to do is run back into the warmth of my home.

There is nothing more frustrating than a woman who doesn’t tell you what’s wrong when you ask her. I want to grab her and shake the answer out of her. She stands in front of me, her shoulders hunched, refusing to look at me, to show me her beautiful eyes that I can read like an open book.

I tear open the manila envelope that she slams against my chest. My eyes read over words like custody, visitation, child support, and California resident. The last page does me in – it says I’m requesting a paternity test to determine if the child known as Noah Michael Preston is my son.

Josie crosses her arms over her mid-section like she’s been punched repeatedly. She doesn’t bother to wipe the tears that have started cascading down her beautiful face, now marred by deception with my name attached. No wonder she wants to take Noah away. I told her I’d never take him from her and these papers are telling her I am.

This is not what I want. I want us to be a family. I never even thought about this when I found out about Noah. Never in a million years did this thought ever enter my mind.

“Where did you get this?” I demand. I grip the papers, crinkling them in my hand as I shake them. She rolls her eyes and turns away from me, pissing me off even more.

“I just want to get Noah and go home.”

“Answer me.”

She shakes her head. “Just give me my son!” she yells, her hands instantly cover her face.

I can’t, I won’t. I will not hand over Noah without having the answers I want from her. I grab her arm and pull her into the house. She resists, fighting me as I drag her through the kitchen and down the stairs to my studio. It’s a soundproof room so we can yell and scream at each other and Noah won’t hear us.

I push her into the room and slam the door shut, locking it behind us.

“Who gave you these fucking papers, Josephine?” I hate saying her full name, but it gets her attention. She looks up at me, determined.

“You know, I thought we could work at this co-parenting thing, but I was wrong. I don’t want your money, Liam. I don’t need it. Noah and I have managed this whole time on our own so you don’t have to worry about me sucking you dry.”

“Josie –”

“No, let me finish.” She holds up her hand, moving away from me, as far as she can get.

“No!” I yell at her. “I will not. Tell me who gave you these god damn papers. There is no postage so I know they were hand delivered. I’m really about to lose my shit here, so just tell me already.”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because it’s fucking bullshit!” I scream. “I didn’t do this. I don’t want this. I don’t want to take Noah away from you or Beaumont.”

I stalk over to her and push her up against the wall. My body is pressed against hers, as my hand cups her face gently. I want to do nothing more than to kiss her. To rip all her bulky winter layers away from her body and feel her skin against mine.

“I love our son, Josie. I love him so much. I would never do anything to hurt him and taking him away from you would do that.” I try to calm down. I know who’s behind this and for me this is the last straw.

“Her name is Sam,” she says so quietly I almost don’t hear her, but catching Sam escape from her lips is all the answer I need.

“Listen to me,” I say, pulling her chin up so she’s looking at me. “I bought this house with you in mind. I’m here because this is where my family is, you and Noah. I want to be with you.

“Sam's my manager and has clearly overstepped her boundaries. I don’t know how she knows about Noah, but I’ll find out. The last thing I want to do is to hurt you. I love you, Jojo.”

“Please don’t take him,” she begs. I hate seeing her cry. I hate the look of desperation on her face. I’m going to kill Sam for doing this to Josie… to us. We don’t need this drama in our lives.

I push a few strands of loose hair behind her ear. She leans into my touch, rubbing her cheek against my rough palm. I can’t resist. I kiss away her tears until I find her mouth. I place three kisses along her lips, the first two in the corners before testing her reaction in the middle. She’s receptive. Her hands pull me forward, closer.

I stop too soon for both of us. I want her, but not like this.

“Don’t you want me?” she whispers against my lips.

“I do, so much, but not like this. Not in my studio where Noah can see us.” I pull away from her and look into her beautiful blue eyes. “I want every part of you in my life, Jojo, when you’re ready.”

We walk back upstairs hand in hand, leaving the papers in my studio. I’ll deal with them later. The first thing I need to do is call my lawyer and have them retracted. I don’t even know what to do about Sam. Another question for my lawyer is if I can fire her? How much will it cost me to get out of this contract? She’s gone too far this time.

Noah and I start to set up the tree, centering it in front of the large picture window facing the street. Josie comes in, her face reserved. I know every expression she has and this one is hesitant, as if she’s walking on egg shells. I need to fix this and fast.

I purposely slant the tree. When she huffs, I turn my head and hide my smile. She starts to boss us around, telling us right, left and finally throws her hands up when we don’t listen to her. She leaves us men to the hard task of making our tree stand up right while she goes to the kitchen and works on making finger foods for tonight. Katelyn, the girls, Harrison and Quinn will be here shortly for our decorating party.

 The Westbury men will have none of that. Noah and I sneak up on her in the kitchen. He tackles her from one side, and I the other. When she screams we start laughing. I can’t help but kiss her. I hear Noah snicker and walk off, so I kiss her again. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help it, I love her.

I kiss her a third time briefly on the lips when the front door bursts open. Katelyn yells to the girls to be respectful. Josie pushes me away. It should hurt my feelings but it doesn’t. I know she wants to focus on Katelyn during the holidays. I make the decision to start wooing my girl. She needs to be romanced.

When Josie and I bring food into the living room, the kids, like vultures, attack right off. I leave them to answer the door. Harrison and Quinn are standing there, both holding out bouquets of flowers.

“You shouldn’t have,” I say, reaching for the flowers.

“Well, you
are
a sexy beast,” Harrison says as he bats his eye lashes. I invite them in and direct them toward the festivities. Josie and Katelyn look up and smile when we enter.

“This is my Josie and our son, Noah.” I point to Noah who looks up briefly and waves.

“Nice to meet you, Harrison. Hi Quinn,” Josie says, bending down to his level.

Quinn waves as he inches closer to his dad, but hands Josie the bouquet of flowers.

“You know she’s a florist, right?”

“Shut up, Liam. They’re beautiful! Thank you, Quinn.” Josie eyes me like I’m in some sort of trouble. I sort of wish I had taken advantage of her downstairs if she’s going to look at me like that.

“Harrison, this is our friend, Katelyn, and her daughters, Peyton and Elle.” Both girls look up and smile before they go back to sorting the ornaments.

Katelyn shakes Harrison’s hand and in slow motion he hands her the bouquet. She accepts the flowers, bringing them in so she can inhale their scent. Her eyes look up at him, his hand still holding the bouquet.

“Hi,” he says as if he’s just run five miles.

“Shit,” I say, shaking my head. Josie looks from them to me, her eyes going wide.

I pat Harrison on the shoulder and laugh. He lurches forward before catching himself, never taking his eyes off of Katelyn. Christmas just
officially became interesting.

CHAPTER 32

JOSIE

The smell of coffee wakes me. I bury my face into my pillow. The lingering scent of Burberry after shave weaves its way through my senses. Liam kissing me in his studio and again in the kitchen replays in my mind. I reach for him. I just need to feel him, to have his touch burning my skin knowing he’s the only one who can extinguish the fire.

His side is empty and cold. I sit up suddenly. The bed covers are straight, untouched. His pillow is missing. I flop back onto mine and cover my face. I can’t believe the simple smell of him can bring back such vivid memories.

“Are you sure we won’t get into trouble?” I’m whispering even though he’s assured me his parents are gone. Not just at work or the grocery store, but on a plane, heading for a cruise. How he convinced them to leave him home, I’ll never understand, but I don’t care because I get Liam all to myself.

He opens the door from the garage to the house. We stop in the kitchen briefly while he takes out two water bottles from the refrigerator. We climb the stairs hand in hand, until we reach his room. He hands me the water and pulls my silk scarf from my neck. Coming behind me, he places kisses along my neck before tying the scarf over my eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Trust me,” he says against my skin.

I do trust him. With my life.

He opens his bedroom door, his hands under my shirt, his fingers guiding me forward. His door slams shut causing me to jump. With my eye sight hindered my other senses are heightened.

Liam stands behind me, his breathing labored. When he moves away I want to follow him. Something clicks and the smell of cinnamon and something sweet, like cookies, permeates though the air.

He takes the bottles out of my hand and pulls me toward him. I stumble into him, my hands gripping his arms so I don’t fall.

“I’ll never let you fall, Jojo.”

He brings me into the middle of his room, and into his arms. He caresses my cheek.

“I love it when you blush,” he says huskily. His lips find mine, urgent with need, as he pulls the scarf loose. “Merry Christmas, my girl,” he says as goose bumps spread across my skin. He picks me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as my hands tug at his clothes. He lays me gently on his bed, pulling away. I reach for him, causing him to laugh.

I look around the room. He’s decorated it with Christmas lights and a small tree with a few presents underneath it.

“Which do you want to open first?” he asks.

“You,” I say as I pull him down on top of me.

“Merry Christmas!” The door swings open and I’m greeted with the most beautiful sight in the world, my son and the man I am desperately trying not to love. I scoot up and attempt to straighten the rat’s nest that has developed overnight.

Noah jumps up on the bed, with a small box in his hand. Liam follows, carrying a mug of coffee. He bends down as I reach for the cup and whispers 'Merry Christmas' into my ear. I want to pull him to me, just like the last time we were together at Christmas, but I refrain.

“This is for you,” Noah shoves the small box toward me. I take a sip of my coffee before putting it down on the night stand. I don’t know how I didn’t notice the picture before, but there’s Noah and I framed staring back at me. I don’t know when Liam took the picture but it warms me knowing we're the first and last people he sees before going to sleep.

I smile at Liam who looks a little embarrassed. I’ll be sure to ask him about it later. I take the gift out of Noah’s hand and untie the large silky white bow. Noah scoots up next me while Liam sits just out of my reach.

I lift the lid on the black box. Nestled inside is a diamond heart-shaped pendant resting against crushed velvet.

“Look inside,” Noah says giddily. Setting the box down, I slide my nail in between the ridge. It pops open easily and staring back at me is Noah and his toothless grin.

“You’re supposed to be happy, not cry, Mom.”

“I’m very happy, Noah. Thank you so much. I love it.”

He reaches over and gives Liam a high-five. “You were right, Dad.”