Page 5 of Reckless Curves
“I thought you already knew and had decided you didn’t want us.”
He ground his teeth. If Kendra had been a man, he’d have punched her for implying he’d treat any woman, let alone a child that way. Did she even know him at all? How could she? He’d never let her get that close. “I didn’t know.”
Kendra folded her arms. “Really?”
Tom’s expression tightened. The hits kept coming. “I can prove it to you.” Striding around behind the counter, he went to the computer. “Come here.”
* * *
Kendra followed him and stopped by his side. She watched him bring up his email account and log in. His hands were greasy, but that didn’t dim her sudden desire to feel them on her body. She’d loved the way his calloused palms had satisfyingly scraped along her thighs, while he’d held her down so he could pleasure her with his tongue.
Tom was right, he’d been in LA awhile now and she should have told him he was Connor’s father, but she’d hoped he would’ve come to her by now. That he wanted to come to her. Not that she expected him to be a dad, but he could pay his fair share.
Connor deserved to be protected and financially secure. She knew Marcus would always look out for Connor, but her son deserved to have one living parent in his life.
She jerked back to the present when he turned the computer monitor and pointed at an email folder with her name on it. “See that? I put all of your emails in here, but never opened them.” He clicked on the folder, and a list of over twenty emails lined the screen. Every single one of them was still in bold, and they were in chronological order.
Kendra looked at all the unopened emails and then into Tom’s eyes. She couldn’t hold his gaze for long, though, because she didn’t want him to see the tears that threatened.He hadn’t known!
Sheshouldhave confronted him sooner, but pride had gotten in her way. She would not beg to have him in their lives. But today when Marianne, a fellow cancer survivor, had shared her terrible news, Kendra’s world became very black and white. Marianne’s cancer was back, and it was terminal. Marianne had been in remission as long as Kendra. What would happen to Connor if her cancer came back? Her little boy deserved to know and love, at least one living parent.
Lowering her eyes, Kendra said, “Let’s go somewhere and talk about this.”
She walked to the door. Relief sparked when she heard Tom following her. Anxiety gnawed at her insides as she led him over to her powder blue Honda Odyssey van.
“I can’t believe that Marcus is letting you drive this piece of shit,” Tom remarked.
Kendra’s chin rose. “Marcus has always been there for me. I won’t let him buy me something else. I depend on him too much as it is. It’s hard to make a car payment on what I make, but I manage… most of the time.”
She’d dropped out of law school as soon as she knew she was pregnant. When her father refused to support her unless she named the father, she’d turned to teaching music and doing backup vocals, mainly for new singers wanting demo tapes. She got by; proud she could do it on her own—mostly on her own. Marcus helped when she couldn’t make ends meet, but Tom didn’t need to know that.
Guilt and anger flitted across Tom’s chiseled face as she watched him look down at her, and Kendra’s lungs refused to expand for a few moments. He’d been downright sexy when they’d been younger, but he’d matured, he’d become even more devastating.
She’d liked when he wore his hair long, but the close-cropped, almost military style cut he now sported made him look edgy and even more dangerous. The black, Bad Boy Autos T-shirt molded his well-defined, muscular body. A tattoo peeked out from under the left sleeve, but she couldn’t make out what it was in the dark. It must be new, because she’d memorized every tattoo on his body that one night.
“You want to explain to me what’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked.
The unsure, perplexed look on his face softened her heart a bit. “You really didn’t know, did you?”
“No. And I sure as hell would have helped if I’d known. I’ve even met Connor. He looks nothing like me.” He stood looking down at her.
“You haven’t looked hard enough then, or spent enough time with him.”
“Why did you wait so long to confront me then? Is it because you’re not sure he’s mine? Weren’t you seeing a guy in your father’s law firm at the time? Marcus is sure he’s the father. He even let all the tires down on the dick’s Audi one night and refused to work on his car once too.”
“When you meet Connor, you’ll know.”
“Now. I want to meet my son now!”
“He’s asleep. Let’s go somewhere and talk about this situation.”
He gave a curt nod before looking across at Catherine. “We’ll go to my place. No one will bug us there. Just give me a minute while I let Zip know I’m leaving.”
Kendra swallowed the panic at the thought of being alone with Tom at his house, but they couldn’t talk at her place since her neighbor was watching Connor there. “Okay. I’ll follow you.”
He nodded again and walked back into the office. She watched him have a quick chat with Catherine, and then he disappeared into the work area.
In her head, Kendra went over the sum she’d come to for child support. It was fair, and it was an amount Tom could easily afford. He’d had a very successful career on the racing circuit.
She wasn’t greedy. She just needed enough money to ensure care of Connor. What she really wanted was for Tom to want to know his son, especially if the worst should happen to her. Her health—touch wood—at this point was good, although she had to be realistic. That could change in the blink of an eye. Like it had for Marianne.
About five minutes later a whistle pierced the air signaling he was ready to go, and she watched as Tom strode over to a red Mustang while she got in her van. She started it and tried to get her racing heartbeat under control. Tom had never lied to her. Even if he’d known something would hurt her feelings, he’d always been honest with her. She believed his story of not opening the emails.
A horn beeped, and Kendra saw Tom’s car now faced the road. She put the van in gear and trailed after him as he pulled out and sped away. As she followed him, she pondered the fact that all her emails to him were still unopened, and she wondered why he hadn’t bothered to read them.
Why did she wait so long? It just never occurred to her he’d never even looked at the communication she’d sent him.
Had he just not considered them important enough? No, that couldn’t be right. You didn’t keep emails unless they meant something to you. You deleted them and forgot about them. But Tom hadn’t just kept them; he’d put them in a special folder. Why would he do that?
Had she been more than just a quick lay to him? Kendra squashed the tiny seed of hope that tried to sprout in her heart.No way I’m going down that road again,she thought as she kept Tom’s taillights in sight.
