Page 62 of Lilith's Lawyer Daddy

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Seeing Lilith again was as wonderful as it was painful which was probably why he felt like there was a freight train barreling through his chest. Lil looked different, and he remembered Carey had told him her new job required that she lighten up on her look.

His hypocritical blood had boiled and it did again. She was still a special kind of beauty that spoke to his heart but she didn’t look fully herself. Dulled, and he despised himself anew for trying to shape her in the same way. Hadn’t been right, and he was fully prepared to show her how much he meant that.

He opened the passenger side door and he choked on relief when she let him hand her out of the van. It really was not in good shape, and once—if—this was settled with Lil, he was going to see if they couldn’t do more for Carey. Hell, even if Lil didn’t want him back, he’d see if Carey wouldn’t let him do something, for fuck’s sake.

But first, Lilith. She looked up at him warily, slipped her hand out of his and folded her arms across her chest. Protective because he’d crushed her heart and she thought he might do it again. He didn’t like it but he sure as hell deserved it.

“So what am I doing here?”

“Can’t hang up on me in person,” he joked.

Lil’s shoulder twitched. “Sure, but my sister can’t commit a hit and run over the phone.”

Those Belldonna girls were hazardous, the both of them.

“I was hoping you’d let me show you something and then we can talk. Don’t worry about Carey,” he volunteered when Lil turned back to her sister sitting in the car. “I made a reservation at the Cuban place down the street so she’s going to have a really good dinner. And if you don’t like what I have to say, you can join her and run up my tab. They have excellent mojitos.”

Lilith narrowed her eyes but didn’t tell him to fuck off, that she and Carey would just be going to enjoy some vaca frita, tostones, and a shit ton of flan. That had been a definite possibility. “Fine.”

“After you,” he said, holding the gate to the front walkway open, and had to keep himself from collapsing to his knees as he caught the scent of her as she passed. Her body chemistry had deepened the amber base as the hours went by and hell if he wasn’t half drunk as he followed her up the steps, shoving his hands in his pockets so he didn’t reach for her.

* * *

Being here with Vance without touching him was awkward and painful. He was just so close, and her little was knocking at the door of Lilith’s ribcage, stomping her foot and demanding why in the name of Cocteau Twins she couldn’t have a really good hug from her daddy. It wasn’tfair.

Hard agree, Little Lil, hard agree.

But she would be smart and cautious. Vance had somehow convinced Carey to drive her all the way down here but as she’d said, he was a lawyer. It was basically his job to convince people of things they weren’t sure they wanted to believe.

The unfortunate thing was that she really did want to get back together but for the sake of her self-respect and her sanity she had to be sure he wasn’t going to try to sell her on anything less than what she deserved.

Vance’s house looked the same, smelled the same, and she had to hold an arm across her stomach to keep herself together as she let him pass in the hall to lead the way. What exactly did he want her to see?

He headed straight toward the stairs so it wasn’t anything on the second floor. When he went up the stairs, her heart floated in her chest like it was a balloon that’d just gotten a hit of helium. Maybe…

She didn’t dare hope, though. There were any number of things it could be, and even when he rounded the banister to climb to the fourth floor, she thought perhaps he’d set out a nice dinner on the roof deck and that could still be marvelous.

But when she followed his broad back down the hall and he stopped in front of the door to the potential nursery, her balloon heart felt as though it might burst. The thing about inflated balloons though, and it was true of hearts inflated with hope, was that they were so easily popped.Please don’t take a pin to me, she wanted to beg.I can’t take it again.

When Vance opened the door all the air flushed out of her lungs.

“Are you… Did you… What the…”

“Well are you going to go inside? It gets better.”

She honestly wasn’t sure if her heart could take stepping inside the room. The room that had once been empty, the saddest shade of contractor beige, was now one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. On the other hand, if her heart burst, the blood would probably blend in with the decor.

Lilith stepped inside and yeah, the cockles of her cold dead heart almost burst into flame. The walls were a deep red with an even darker red damask skull pattern, the furniture was all black with ornate carvings all over it—where on earth did one find an adult-sized gothic changing table, exactly?

There was a bat and skull mobile hanging over the crib and…

She put out a hand, and just like she knew he would, Vance was there in a second, slipping it into his own and giving her a squeeze. As badly as she wanted to look at him she couldn’t just yet. All she could do was stare, and every time she looked around there was something else to see. Like a playpen shaped like a coffin and a silvery sliver of a moon and black bats with iridescent purple undersides of their wings hanging from the ceiling above an over-sized rocking chair. It was perfect.

“I didn’t do this by myself,” he told her softly, the rumble of his voice low and a balm to her short-circuiting brain. “I had a lot of help from a lot of people, even though they were pretty mad at me.”

“Who was mad at you?” she asked, finally able to turn and see his face, cheeks ruddy above his beard, expression sheepish.

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