I nodded, because I felt like he fell under the latter category. Or maybe he was just cold and insensitive. Grant had always wanted a relationship with this man—a real relationship—but he’d never gotten it.
“I just left the job site. He told me about the baby. Congratulations.”
As if she knew we were discussing her, Lila Kate cried out, reminding me that she was hungry. “Thank you. It’s lunchtime, and Lila Kate is hungry. You’re welcome to come in and meet your granddaughter if you like.”
I didn’t wait for him to give me an excuse. I turned and left him standing there with the door wide open and went to get my fussing baby girl. She saw me holding the bottle and started kicking and fussing louder. She was ready for some food. I scooped her up and turned around to see that Brett had indeed followed me inside. He was staring at Lila Kate with concern.
“She’s awfully small,” he said.
“She was eight weeks early,” I replied, cuddling her against me and giving her the bottle, which she greedily suckled. She closed her little eyes as if it was the best thing in the world. I knew for a fact that it was gross.
“Grant didn’t tell me that. Did she have to stay in the hospital long?” he asked.
Was this guy for real? He didn’t know anything? “Yes, she had to stay a little more than a week. So did I,” I replied, then nodded toward the living room. “I need to sit down so she can be comfortable. We can take this in there.”
He stepped back and let me pass.
I didn’t check to see if he was following me. I headed for my large, comfy chair so I could cross my legs in front of me and let her lie in my lap while I fed her. She liked this position best, too.
I could see him taking a seat on the sofa across from us, and I waited until she was happily suckling again before I looked up at him.
“So you made it through OK, then,” he said. I wanted to laugh. Where was he when his son was at the hospital thinking he was about to raise his daughter all by himself?
“Not exactly. I lost a lot of blood and blacked out, and then they had to put me under for emergency surgery. My heart stopped, but I was determined to live. A couple of days later, I woke up for good to a healthy baby girl and her terrified father.”
Brett’s eyes grew wide, and I could tell he hadn’t been aware that things had been so bad. “I didn’t realize. Grant left a message for me saying he was at the hospital with you and that you’d had the baby. He had told me to call him. I was busy, and I figured you two wanted time to spend with the baby and had enough visitors as it was, so I went to see him at the job site today. He wasn’t very informative. He barely looked at me.” He let out a sigh. “I guess I can understand why now. I just . . . when he said to call him, I didn’t think I had to right then. I figured it was about work, and I knew I would need to pick up his slack while he was with you and the baby.”
That was no excuse. His son had said he was at the hospital and his child had been born and asked his father to call him. He should have called. His job wasn’t more important than his son. And he had a pretty damn fantastic son. “Grant’s a wonderful man. A great man. The kind of man anyone would be proud to call theirs. I’ll be proud to call him my husband, and I know Lila Kate already adores him. She follows the sound of his voice when he’s in a room. She’ll never have a moment in her life when she won’t be proud of her father. Men don’t get any better than Grant. He’s the best. And I recognize that. I cherish it and honor it.
“But you don’t realize the gift you have. He wants a real relationship with you. I can see the hurt in his eyes when your name comes up. My crazy, wild, rock-star father was there at the hospital with us. He isn’t perfect, but he cared. He was there. He had to deal with fans and media while he was there, but he was there. You couldn’t even call your son back and ask if he was OK. If his baby was OK. I don’t understand you, Mr. Carter.”
I decided to stop. I could scold this man and tell him how awful he was all day long, but I had said all that needed to be said.
Brett Carter stood up and stuck his hands into his pockets. He was leaving. Well, good riddance. He hadn’t even stuck around to hold his granddaughter. I wondered if she would ever know this man. Or would her only grandparent be the one and only Kiro Manning?
“You’re right. About all of it,” he said as he started for the door. He stopped just outside the arched doorway. “I’m glad he found you. You’re worthy of him. He’s a lucky man.”
Then he left.
Nan
I held the invitation in my hand as I stood at the edge of the water and let the waves crash and wash over my feet. If I stood here long enough, my feet would sink in the sand to my ankles. It was an odd habit, but I did this almost every day, except in the winter when the water was just too cold.
Today I had come out here to think. I’d expected the invitation to arrive. It was happening. That much I had known even before I heard that Grant had knocked up Harlow. But seeing it was different. It was more final.
Once I had thought that Grant Carter was the one man who would see me. The me underneath. The me I was scared to show the world. The me who had been so emotionally bruised because I’d worn my heart on my sleeve as a kid. When I got older, I put that me on lockdown so tightly it made it impossible for people to hurt me.
But it made it easy for them to hate me.
There were very few people who didn’t just use me. My brother was Rush Finlay, son of the famous drummer Dean Finlay. For years, my so-called friends just wanted to get near my brother. They wanted an in. And I let them have it, because watching him screw them and throw them away was what they deserved. It was my way of taking revenge.