Page 108 of Force a Date

My heart instantly drops into my stomach and I go frozen again, waiting for him to continue.

But it feels as though it takes forever in order for him to do it. To give me everything he’s feeling so I can adjust and apologize in a way that would make him understand why I did what I did.

“I’m listening,” I mutter, giving him the green light that he may need in order to push forward. Not that I think he needs it.

“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” His tone is cold and detached as he stares back at me and I feel extremely small and shameful under his gaze. “And how is it…that the woman I’m fucking didn’t mention it?”

“Many reasons,” I reply, but I don’t offer them right away. I wasn’t exactly ready to have this conversation just yet. Especially since I rushed over here like a maniac to make sure Rory was okay.

“Right,” Hudson mutters, his face hardened into a scowl. “Tattoo owner, Harley, twice your age?—”

“That has nothing to do with it.”

“It has everything to do with it,” he argues back with pinched brows as if I’m trying to sway what’s living and breathing in his head. “I can take it, Opie. So don’t worry about sparing my feelings. I was just confused since the woman I’ve been spending so much time with failed to mention a little girl.”

“We just started dating.”

“And look how quickly that lasted.”

I can’t help the silent gasp that slips past my lips, and I’m glad it wasn’t audible. Because then I would’ve felt more like an idiot than I already do now. But he has this all wrong and in every place where his facts don’t fit.

“Hudson, stop assuming things. No one knew about her. Not the guys at work, it’s the reason I don’t have social media?—”

“Are you ashamed of her?” he asks as if that’s more sickening than me keeping Rory a secret from him.

“There you go assuming again,” I clip back with a furrowed brow. “Does it make me a bad mom that I don’t want people in my personal life? In her life? I was constantly put to shame by my mother and sister about not marrying Rory’s father when I got pregnant in high school. I was and am the disappointment.”

“And, what…no one gets to share your daughter but you?”

I’m so confused about what he wants from me that I’m speechless. At first, it sounds like he’s pissed at me for not talking about her. Now, it sounds like he’s appalled that I hide her from people who don’t even care in the first place.

“I understand that you’re pissed off at me,” I say softly. “But you weren’t exactly entitled to that information.”

“I think it’s respectful that I know if there’s a kid involved. Because maybe I don’t want to be around one.”

My gut twists as his truths come out, and I’m starting to feel defeated at this point. That nothing is the right answer in his eyes, but they’re mine. And I have to stick by them because I believe they’re best.

“Everything…” I inhale and try to hold my voice steady. “With us happened so fast. I hustled you into coming up to my parents’ cabin for the weekend. This wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Both of ours, maybe.

Pushing my lips out, I say, “I dunno. But what I do know is that I’m cautious about who Rory meets. You can’t fault me for that.”

“I’m not,” he replies simply. His green eyes softening just a tad. “I’m just shocked that, through all the deep shit I told you, this wasn’t something you were going to tell me.”

“I never said that.”

“Then when were you gonna say something, Opie?” He throws his arms out exasperatedly at his sides. “Because I’m starting to think it’s when you had a ring on your finger. I’m not saying I had to meet her. But I deserve to know the kind of woman I let in my bed and not keep her dirty little secrets separate from what we were trying to build.”

“Build?” My whole face skews because I don’t feel as though that was ever something we did. We only spoke about being exclusive to each other but not dating like normal people do. “You don’t want to date me, Hudson. You just want to fuck me.”

“I told you the other night that I was thinking about tying you down to me so I didn’t have to worry about?—”

“You thought,” I snap. “But we’re not—” Hudson steps forward, snatching my next words out of my mouth.

“Did I need to spell it out for you, woman? Because I thought I was making myself perfectly clear. But maybe you needed something else, and that’s my fault. But it takes me a minute, Liv.”

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