When he paused, eyeing her expectantly, she murmured, “Okay . . . go ahead.” She couldn’t imagine what he had to say that might piss her off. Okay, sure, they had gotten married in some drunken moment of insanity, but otherwise, they didn’t even know each other well.
He ran a hand through his hair, causing the scent of his shampoo to invade her nostrils. She was so busy inhaling his masculine fragrance that she jolted slightly when he began speaking again. “That night in Vegas, you weren’t the only one drinking too much because you were upset. I’d had some bad news just a few hours before my flight and I wasn’t in the best condition either.”
Alarmed, Lydia put her hand on his arm, fearing the worst. Was he sick? “Oh no, Jake, what happened? Are you all right?”
He covered her hand with his, giving it a squeeze. Instead of removing it, though, he left his hand there as if grateful for the contact. She was stunned when he said, “I have a daughter. She’s six years old, and her name is Casey.”
“Wow, I had no idea,” she exclaimed without thinking. “Are you married?” Rolling her eyes at her own stupidity, Lydia added, “I mean, obviously you weren’t already married, or you wouldn’t have married me—right?”
Wonderful. I finally land a husband only to find that I’m part of a harem.
Jake gaped at her before he managed to stutter a response. “What? No—God no, Lydia. Chris was just a one-time thing. I’ve never been married before. Hell, I’ve never had unprotected sex either, but that didn’t stop Chris from getting pregnant. When she told me, I didn’t believe her at first. I supported her through the pregnancy and went to the appointments, but I insisted on a paternity test when Casey was born. She’s my child, and I love her more than anything in the world. I’ve always been involved in her life and have continued to provide for Casey financially as well. Chris hasn’t worked since Casey was born.”
Uneasy, Lydia glanced over her shoulder before asking, “Do they live here with you? I mean I know you said that you never married, but is this their home too?”
Shaking his head immediately, he said, “No, they’ve never lived with me. Casey spends the night as often as Chris will allow, but that’s about it.”
Confused, she asked, “Don’t you have a custody agreement or something like that in place?”
Jake pinched the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted as he admitted, “No. We’ve never had a formal agreement through the court. I’ve always paid Chris well above what a court-mandated child support payment would be, and outside of occasional difficulties, she’s mostly let me see Casey on a regular basis. In the last year, though, that’s changed. She’s been using our daughter as a bargaining chip to get what she wants, and it reached a head the day I left for Vegas.”
She felt as if she was intruding on his privacy, but since he’d brought the subject up, she felt at ease enough to ask, “What does she want from you?”
Jake chuckled, although there didn’t appear to be much actual amusement in the sound. “Oh no, nothing that simple, I’m afraid. She is demanding either an absurd amount of financial support or marriage. The whole thing has really shown me how vulnerable I am in regards to my parental rights where Casey is concerned. So I’ve filed for official joint custody. Since then, it’s been nothing but threats from her. She wants to portray me as the absent, playboy father, while she’s the devoted stay-at-home mother. She’s filed papers requesting that she be granted sole custody, which is just her way of trying to get what she wants from me.”
“Holy shit,” Lydia blurted out before she could stop herself.
“Exactly,” he agreed dryly. “I guess there is a certain irony in the fact that I have one woman demanding I marry her and I actually tied the knot with another on the day she had me served.”
Biting her lip as she mulled over his revelation, Lydia kept coming back to one thing. “If you were so against getting married—even to keep your daughter—then what could have possibly made you agree to a quickie exchange of vows with me? I know we were both drinking and not thinking clearly, but were you really so out of it that it suddenly didn’t seem so bad to be tied down?”
He swallowed audibly before getting to his feet and pacing the tiled floors. After a few passes around the area where she sat, he halted and stared right at her. “Who am I kidding? You’re not just going to be angry with me; you’re more than likely going to loathe me when I tell you this next part. I can’t believe I did something so fucking selfish and desperate. You’re right, my judgment was obviously impaired, and I’d like to think that had something to do with it, but still, I knew what I was doing for the most part and that makes me a bastard. Lydia, I—”
Dropping her head in her hands, Lydia choked out, “You married me because of Casey. You needed a stable image for the courts. And if you’ve already got a wife, then Chris can’t keep pressuring you to marry her.” His harsh inhalation told her that she’d hit the bull’s-eye. She heard him moving toward her, and seconds later, his hand was on her shoulder. She flinched away from his touch. “Don’t. Please go back to where you were so we can finish this conversation,” she snapped as she raised her head only to glare at him. He immediately backed away, putting some much-needed space between them. “I asked you earlier why you didn’t just marry Chris instead of me. At least she’s not a stranger to you. And you liked her well enough to sleep with her at some point.”
“You already think I’m an asshole,” he grimaced, “so I might as well be completely truthful. Chris was nothing more than a casual dalliance. We never had any type of relationship outside of the bedroom. She’s a good mother but, otherwise, a vile person. That’s the problem, I guess, with not knowing who you’re sleeping with. It’s actually been surprising to me that she loves Casey so much because she’s one of the most self-centered people I’ve ever known. If she and I ever got married, everyone, including Casey, would be miserable. Chris and I can barely be in the same room together for five minutes without arguing. She thrives on drama and strife, and I don’t want to expose my daughter to any more of that than she’s already seen. I’ve thought about it countless times since she started pressuring me but I keep coming to the same conclusion that it would have been insanity to agree to her demands. We literally hate each other. The only reason she wants to be my wife is for some misplaced obsession with wealth and social status. I know I’m likely overreacting and I won’t lose Casey, but I can’t stand the thought of dragging her through a court hearing and I’m afraid that Chris will go through with it just to get back at me.”