Stacked Up: Worth the Fight Series (8 page)

He rubbed the dream catcher tattoo on his shoulder. He’d always had dreams but had never thought they’d come true. Mostly he’d dreamed of traveling, eating nice meals, wearing fancy clothes, and owning his own home one day. Perhaps his dreams seemed superficial, but when you grew up scouring the dumpsters for food and the local Goodwill for clothes, the idea of wearing fancy things was as farfetched an idea as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. He’d thought that he’d always be struggling through life, but then this television show had happened, followed by a big deposit in his bank account, and suddenly it seemed as though things he’d never even thought were possible might now be within his reach.

You’ll never amount to anything.

Loser.

Those were the words that stung most. Words that should never come from a mother’s mouth. Later on he’d come to realize she was sick. Addiction was a real illness. But back then he hadn’t known any better, and those words had wrapped around his soul and strangled it. He’d dropped out of school at seventeen and gotten his GED. Why aim big when this was his life?

As he’d told Penny, he didn’t want a wife or kids because he wanted to be able to do what he wanted when he wanted, without anyone tying him down. And he didn’t want to fuck up a kid by being unable to take care of him or her the way kids were supposed to be taken care of. He wasn’t cut out for family life; this was part of the reality he accepted for himself. And instead of being angry about it, he’d plastered a smile on his face and worked hard at whatever he did, which was mostly odd jobs here and there, all fitted in around his training schedule. People saw only the smile, and thought he was a free-spirited, happy guy—a perception he did nothing to dispel.

When the money had come in a few months ago, he’d bought the big house—not that he used it much, since he was always at the Academy. But buying that home had been his big fuck-you to his mother, who’d never believed in him. It had felt liberating…for about three minutes. Then he was back at the Academy thinking of nothing else but Vegas and the bout.

By nine o’clock that night, Travis was dead on his feet. He’d been at the Academy since early that morning. He’d stopped for about an hour for lunch, but that was the only real break he’d gotten. He needed to bulk up, otherwise he wouldn’t make weight.

Once he was home, he opened up one of the big containers of protein powder. When he’d moved into the house, he hired a personal shopper to outfit his kitchen, but he could count the number of times in the last four months he’d actually used it. The only thing on the counter was the blender, which he quickly used to prepare an enormous protein shake. Afterward he sat in front of his monster-sized television, which he had watched only once before, and drank his dinner.

He washed his glass and the blender and put them away, then decided to do some laundry and tidy up his house. When he had nothing else left to do, he took a shower and lay down on his bed, but he tossed and turned for a while, unable to sleep. He got up and sent Enzo a text asking if he wanted to meet him at the Pier. Going to the bar to check up on Penny had been his evening ritual, but now that she wasn’t there, he didn’t feel the need to go. He paced around his four-thousand-square-foot house waiting for a reply.

It’s midnight! We have newborns! What is wrong with you? Go to sleep,
Enzo texted back.

Travis exhaled and muttered, “Fuck it.” He threw on some gym shorts, put on his sneakers, and went out for a run until his legs shook. When he walked into his house, he was so tired that as soon as he collapsed onto the couch, drenched in sweat from the impromptu run, his mind was finally quiet enough that he could sleep.

He was just about to pass out when his phone rang, startling him. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Jack. It was never a good thing when your cop friend called you at that hour.

“What’s going on, man?” Travis said.

“Just left Penny’s house,” Jack said, and Travis leaped up. “Before you have a fuckin’ attack, it’s all good. Just thought you should know that some guy was there. Her neighbor was worried because apparently the guy was knocking loudly and it was late and Penny doesn’t normally have any visitors.”

“Who was it?”

“Some man named Lawrence. She didn’t tell me who he was, but if it makes you feel better, she kicked him out.”

Travis sat back down. “That’s her kid’s father.”

“Oh. Well, none of my business, but you’re a friend, and I thought you’d want to know.”

“Was…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Was she okay?”

“She was fine. Get some sleep, Texas,” Jack said, then hung up.

He threw his phone aside and lay back down. What if Lawrence was trying to win her back? What if this had something to do with her stepfather? His mind began to reel, and it wasn’t until the sun shone through his window that he was able to get an hour of sleep.

Early the next morning, as Penny was making breakfast, her phone beeped. She was surprised, since she had the phone mostly for emergencies and only a handful of people had the number.

She looked at the flip phone’s tiny screen. It was a text from Travis:
Can I see you?

Typing on that phone was like pulling teeth. Laboriously she wrote back,
When?

I have to go see JL and babies now. Noon okay?

Okay. I’m home.

See you later.

Unsure what he could possibly want to say to her, she tidied up, then dressed and decided she had enough time before he arrived to go to the park with Belle.

Half an hour later, Penny was sitting on a bench watching Belle play with her teddy bear on the grass instead of in the sandbox with the other kids.

“There’s something you should know.”

Startled by the voice, she looked around to see Lawrence walking up to her from behind.

“What are you doing here, Lawrence? I told you to leave us alone.”

“I didn’t want to do this, Penny.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s my daughter too. I have a right to see her. You can’t keep her from me. Not legally.”

“What?” She stood up abruptly. “You didn’t want anything to do with her. You gave me money. You told me to leave you alone. I did that. You can’t come back now and tell me you want to see my daughter.”

“
Our
daughter,” he corrected. “I can and I will. And as far as I’m concerned, I never said any of that. You just disappeared with my kid and five thousand dollars of mine.”

“What?” she shrieked again. “No! No way. You can’t do that, Lawrence!”

“Then just come home with me.”

She stomped over to Belle and scooped her up. “Just go!” she yelled at Lawrence as she hastily strode away.

“That’s her? That’s my daughter?” he asked, following her.

Penny tried to shield her daughter with her body as best she could, but Lawrence just stood there looking at his daughter with misty eyes. “She’s beautiful.”

“She’s mine,” Penny practically snarled.

“Penny, be reasonable. You’ll lose in the long run. Don’t you want our daughter—”

“
My
daughter!”

He shook his head. “Don’t you want her to have a good life? Come back home with me. You were in love with me once. We can try again.”

“You don’t want me, Lawrence. You want Kip’s money.” She headed out of the park.

“Your stepfather will be here in a few days. Make it easier for everyone involved and just come home with me today.”

“No.” She pulled out her phone. “If you don’t turn around and walk away from me, I’m calling the police.”

“Dumb move, Penelope.”

Travis sat on a rocking chair in the nursery in JL and Enzo’s massive home, rocking Heather in his arms as JL changed Trip’s diaper. “How tired are you?” he asked his sister.

“Exhausted.”

“Is it all worth it?”

“What? The babies?”

“Yeah. Are they worth all the sleepless nights?” he asked as he looked down at his niece.

“I don’t know, Uncle Trav. You tell me.” He looked up to see his tiny pink-haired sister, with talcum powder on her cheek and her son in her arms, looking at Travis as if he’d grown a second head.

“Fine. They’re cute. I’ll give you that. I guess it is worth it.”

“Yes. Just because they’re cute,” she said, rolling her eyes and setting Trip down in the crib. “I didn’t know what it was to love until they were born.”

“Oh, calm down. You just met them,” Travis said with a snort.

“I’m not being dramatic, Travis. They came out of my body. I feel like they are part of me. Literally. Like you are holding a piece of me. The thought of them ever being hurt…well, it hurts me physically. It’s that intense.”

Travis let out a breath. “Always knew you’d be a good mom, sis.”

JL’s eyes watered. “Don’t make me cry.”

“Every time I see you now, you’re crying.”

“And eating. It’s the hormones. I feel like I always have either a burger or tissues in my hand. The tears are like a faucet that won’t turn off.”

“Maybe you got that depression shit you get when you have kids.”

“It’s called postpartum depression, and I don’t think so. I’m just a little emotional, is all.” She paused and gave him a speculative look. “So, what’s new with you?”

He knew that singsong tone. The woman wanted to ask him something but was beating around the bush. “Just spit it out, JL.”

“What happened with Penny?”

“Well, as you obviously know and hid from me, she has a kid,” he said, adjusting Heather’s pacifier. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. You’re my sister. Fucking traitor.”

“Don’t curse, asshole. It wasn’t my story to tell. Honestly, I only knew that Belle existed—I didn’t know about the big secret with her family. And the poor girl needed someone to confide in. If I blabbed, she had no one else.”

“Well, I don’t want to drop everything to play house now.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t want kids. I haven’t been secretive about it. Now what the hell am I supposed to do? I like her.”

“Sarabelle’s a great kid, Travis. What’s the big deal? I don’t think Penny’s proposing or anything.”

“She’s not, but if I get more entangled…”

“What, you think you’ll fall in love and then you’ll be forced into fatherhood? You think she’ll
make
you be her kid’s dad? She’s not Mom—she wouldn’t do a shitty thing like that to her kid. She’s not trying to trap you, you big doofus. Her kid is her priority. And anyway, if you fell in love, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

“I know that. I think Penny’s the kind of girl I can fall in love with,” he admitted, looking down at Heather. “I can’t believe I said that out loud. I’m getting soft, little niece.”

JL tossed a cushion toward him. “I wasn’t talking about Penny. I was talking about Belle. I don’t think you falling in love with that little girl would be the end of the world.”

“I don’t want to be tied down. You can’t ride two horses with one ass, right? Someone’ll end up hurt.”

“You don’t even know how to ride a damn horse, you dummy.” She laughed. “You’re presuming that you’ll get hurt.”

“Or that Penny and Belle will get hurt,” he said quietly.

“No one’s going to get hurt,” she said in a huff. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I? I know I want to have fun. I know that Mom was a bitch. I know that Dad left us. I know that I don’t want to do that to a kid.”

“So don’t.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Because it is. Do you think I’m going to be a shitty mother? Do you think I’m going to just leave?”

“What? No! You’re the most caring person I know.”

“Well, what makes you any different? We’re twins. By your logic, if you’re destined to be a crappy father, then I’m destined to be a crappy mother. And I am not going to be a crappy mother.”

He shifted the baby in his arm. “Aren’t you scared?”

“Of course I am, Travis. I’m terrified. But not because I think I’ll leave. Not because I think I’ll treat my kids like Mom and Dad treated us. I’m scared because these kids are terrifying. I just met Heather and Trip, and I’m scared I’ll screw up. That they’ll get a diaper rash because I didn’t put enough cream on, or that I didn’t burp them correctly and they’ll get an ache. Or when they’re older that they’ll hang out with the wrong crowd, or fail math. Shit like that.”

“Nah, they won’t fail math. Their uncle’s a genius.”

JL burst out laughing, and at the sudden sound Heather began to cry. Not knowing what to do, he quickly handed her to JL like a sack of potatoes.

JL chuckled and started to unbutton her shirt.

“What are you doing?” Travis asked, alarmed. He stood up and held his hands out. “Do
not
pull out your boob.”

“Travis, I need to feed her,” she said incredulously.

“No, no. I don’t need to see my sister’s boob in my niece’s mouth. That shit can’t be unseen.” He walked out of the nursery, yelling over his shoulder, “I’ll be in the living room having a beer, maybe bleaching my eyes.”

Travis sat down, his feet on the coffee table, a beer in his hand and the remote in his other hand. He’d promised Enzo he’d stay with JL for an hour or so while he went to the gym. Apparently the sleepless nights were affecting both of them: Enzo had been desperate to get out and work up a sweat, and JL had been desperate to get Enzo out of the house for a few hours.

Travis wasn’t even sure what he was going to say to Penny when he saw her later that day. He wanted to see if she was okay. See what Lawrence wanted. Just…see her. And really, that was the bottom line. He wanted to see her. One night hadn’t been enough, especially combined with the 365 previous nights of harmless flirting and chatter while she worked. He just needed to see her face, and once he saw it, he’d figure things out one way or another.

Travis clicked on the television, but nothing appealed to him. Either way, he wasn’t the type to sit and watch TV or, well, just sit. He wasn’t accustomed to doing nothing.

“Travis!” He jumped off the couch when he heard his sister’s voice. Sprinting, he rushed to the twins’ room, almost crashing into the door.

“What?” He looked around. Heather was tucked underneath a blanket on JL’s chest, presumably still eating. Trip was fast asleep, having slept through JL’s yell. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you just stop talking to Penny? Like completely?”

He put his hand over his heart. “Jesus Christ, Jamie Lynn! You almost gave me a fuckin’ heart attack.” He leaned an arm against the wall and let his head fall forward. “You yelled like that to chat about Penny? These poor kids—how are they not crying?”

“Answer the question,” she insisted, her phone in her hand.

“I’m going to see her later today. What’s going on? I thought we just had this conversation like two seconds ago.”

She tapped on her phone, and when the screen lit up, she tossed it to him. Barely catching it, he looked at the screen.

“Oh, shit!”

“You dickhead. You’d better go find her.”

He handed her back her phone. “You okay here?”

“Yes. Go! Go!”

Penny’s heart raced. This was worse than she thought. It went a lot further than bad-mouthing her to the media. Lawrence wanted contact with Belle. Could he make her move back to Oklahoma? She was shaking by the time she got off the bus, Belle on her hip. As she rounded the corner to her apartment complex, she saw them.

At first she thought there was an emergency somewhere, but when the vans with the satellites on top began to speed by her she realized it wasn’t the coincidence she was hoping for. Three news vans were parked a few feet from the entrance to her apartment, but no one had noticed her yet. There were photographers getting out of their cars and setting up tripods. Her heart began to pound loudly. Trying not to make a scene, she slowly turned around and walked the opposite way.

Her phone began to ring. She took it out of her pocket and saw it was Travis, who was likely on his way to her apartment.

“Hello?” she said.

“Where are you?”

“I’m walking home,” she said breathlessly.

“Stop where you are and I’ll go get you.”

“You know?”

“Yes. Saw it online. Where are you, exactly?”

“You know the big blue house at the corner of Miller and Ninth?”

“Yeah. Stay put. I’m a minute out.”

She was so busy fidgeting with her pearls and thinking about what her next move would be that she didn’t notice Travis’s truck speed by.

It screeched to a stop, then reversed quickly, causing pebbles to fly all over the place.

He leaned over and pushed the passenger door open from inside. “Get in!”

She glanced back. More cars were starting to gather by her apartment complex. “Hurry up, Penelope.”

She jumped inside the truck. “Buckle up and crouch down,” he ordered as he made a quick U-turn.

A few minutes later the truck stopped, and her heart began to beat a little slower. Travis looked around, then at Penny. “You’re good. There’s no one here.” She sat up, Belle on her lap. She looked at the park. It was the one she had just come from, the one by the beach. She got out of the truck and put Belle in the sandbox, which was empty now.

“What exactly is going on, Travis? What did you see online?”

“I was with JL, and she saw someone post something on Facebook about you being some famous person. Then she started looking things up, and you were all over the news and there was all sorts of stuff about you on the Web and some of it was footage of your apartment complex. Couldn’t read it all because I hurried right over.”

She covered her face with her hands.

He wrapped his hands around her wrists. “Talk to me.”

“Kip will be here soon.” She took a deep breath.

“Calm down. Tell me everything. No more half-truths, no more omissions. Tell me.”

“Why? I’m not your problem, Travis. And I mean that in the nicest of ways. You thought it was bad when I had a kid? Well, it’s worse now. My baggage now consists of not only a child, but also two men who want me back in Oklahoma immediately.”

“I didn’t know what I was going to say when I saw you later today,” he admitted, his hands still around her wrists. “I want you. I’ve had you, and it wasn’t enough. I need more of it. But I also don’t think I can do the family thing.”

“I understand that, Travis. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do.”

“But I also can’t turn off the attraction I feel toward you. Nor can I pretend I’m not concerned about you.”

“So what then?”

“I don’t know. We take it one day at a time, I guess. But you have to start by telling me everything.”

“Lawrence, Belle’s father, came to see me last night.”

“I know.”

“Jack told you, of course.”

“Nothing in this town stays a secret long.”

“Really? Did you know he came to see me again before you showed up just now? Right here in this same park?”

Travis let go of her hands and looked around. “What?”

“Yes. I think he followed us. He wants me to go back to Oklahoma. My father is giving him money in exchange for me returning quietly.”

“What the fuck?” Travis said. “You said no, right?”

“Of course I did,” she snapped, pacing around. “Except that he came back today and threatened us. Said that he never authorized me to take his daughter nor did he give me money to leave him alone. He’s going to use that to get us to go back.”

“Son of a bitch!” Travis yelled. “He can’t do that.”

“He can. I’m an idiot. I’m so stupid!” she wailed, tears filling her eyes. “I can’t believe I didn’t have him sign something. I just…”

“You were eighteen years old, pregnant, and in a home for unwed mothers. This ain’t on you, sugar.”

“It
is
on me. I have to stop being so naive. I didn’t think he would ever show his face. But really, this is all Kip’s doing. Lawrence is Kip’s puppet. Yesterday I was tough and strong. I thought, I’m an adult. I have a child, a life. It doesn’t matter what people say about me. Nothing matters other than Sarabelle’s happiness. And she’ll be happy in this town, so I’m staying. They can be jerks—I’ll just deal with it.”

God, he was proud of her, he thought.

She dropped her face in her hands again. “But now…now I don’t know what to do. I’m not strong, Travis. Lawrence is going to say I took his daughter, and try to get custody. And Kip will start telling everyone all the ways I’ve failed as a person and now as a mother. And the morality clause in that television contract—I’m going to get sued. And…where’s Belle?” She looked toward the sandbox. “I have to—”

“Stop!” He turned her toward him, his hands on her shoulders. “I need you to breathe, Penny. Belle’s fine. She’s right there playing in the sand.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, as he’d done that night at the Pier, he opened his arms. She looked at him for a moment, then walked into them, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

“You’re wrong, Penny, darlin’. You’re strong. You’re a fighter. I don’t know how you did it all alone for a year. You can get through this. You have friends, and now you have me.” She looked up at him. “I don’t know exactly what I can promise you, Penny. But I can’t stop thinking about you. I don’t want to end things before they even begin.”

“I can’t do that to you. We’ll swallow you up with problems, and that’s not something you need in your life, Travis.”

“Every man needs swallowing in his life, darlin’.” He winked, making her snort out a watery laugh. “Prefer that smile to those tears.”

She wiped her face and took a deep breath. “Can I see your phone, please?”

“No.”

“No?” She put her hand out. “Why not? Is it that bad?”

“Yes.”

He felt terrible. It wasn’t his fault. Not completely. But she had been very clear about not wanting to be on camera, and not only had she been caught on camera, she’d been caught in a very compromising position.