Page 26 of Faking with the Bad Boy Billionaire

"I thought I saw something happen, and it wasn't even what I thought it was. It was all a complete screw-up on my end. I slowed down talking to him. I cut him out. I pushed him to be with someone else, and in the end, I pushed him away from his son." Josephine felt the final straw of withheld emotion give way. She was sobbing.

Her sobbing sent Lucas into a fit. He was in tears and reaching for Josephine, but when she did not move, Lana got up. "Hey, my little buddy. Do you want Auntie Lana to get you some milk for naptime?" She moved around to heat up his bottle and took him out of the room. Josephine sat still in tears when Lana walked back into the kitchen and held her hands out for Josephine to take.

"Thank you." Josephine stood up and brushed herself off.

"Anytime, but you know that this is now the reality where he will want to see his kid."

"My kid."

"No. His kid and your kid." Lana was always a realist, and it drove Josephine crazy. She never wanted to admit when Lana was right about the big things, but she usually was.

"Well, OUR child has never known him. I have shown him pictures, but I don't think he understands who his dad really is." Josephine was still trying to find ways to push Steven out.

"And now is the chance for that to change. You either work with him, or he decides to go to court for it. He does not seem like a man willing to just give up and walk away." Lana took another muffin from the box. She started picking at it, and Josephine's stomach growled. "Just eat one. They are not going to kill you."

"You never know." Josephine's words halted Lana's movement, and her friend shrugged before shoveling a large bite into her mouth.

"If this is how I go, I am totally okay with it." Lana chuckled and shoved her mouth completely full.

"I cannot argue with that." Josephine finally relented and took a large bite. The chocolate practically melted in her mouth within the muffin. She groaned out a happy groan, and her stomach grumbled in a satisfied reply.

"So, what are your next steps with him?" Lana was trying to get her to think about things she was not ready for, but she knew it would have to happen.

"I have no clue, but I know I am going to have to work through all of this crap with him. I do not want to put Lucas or myself through court. I am just not ready. He needs to wait until I am." Josephine was being a bit selfish, and she knew it. She did not want to risk giving up Lucas for any time. He was her baby. Not theirs. Not yet, anyway.

"You know that he won't wait. He has been out of his life since he was conceived, and now that he is nine months old, almost ten, he won't want to miss anymore. He is clearly determined to get you back in his life."

"No, he isn't. He is determined to do what he has always done, Lana: win. He wants to win this- by this, I mean me and our son. He wants to pretend none of it happened and that we can just pick up where we left off. He wants to win by claiming me and our son as his. He wants to win by being the one who does the right thing."

"So, you do the right thing first, Jo! Do not give him the chance to best you and win- if that is what he is trying to do." Lana was getting fed up with Josephine's pity party. She was about to tell Josephine what needed to be said, and she was not ready to hear Lana say it.

"Don't."

"You know better than to try to stand in the way of your child's happiness. You never have before, so why would you start now." Lana said what Josephine had feared. She was standing in the way of her son's happiness. She knew she could not bend to Steven quickly, but she would have to be flexible before things went too far.

Josephine was eating the muffin slowly when the doorbell rang. She was rooted to her spot, hoping it was not Steven again, and she got her wish. What was on the other side of the door made her heart skip a beat.

Chapter sixteen

Steven

Josiekeptthinkingshecould get farther and farther away from Steven, but he knew his strides had him walking at a normal pace while she rushed. He kept up behind her but did not want to risk being slapped, which meant keeping a distance slightly more than arm's length away. Steven realized he was not paying enough attention when the large door slammed in his face. He walked to his car feeling mildly defeated and then realized his keys were still inside her place. A warm and winning feeling fell over him.

He strode back to the door and knocked hard, "Josie. I kind of can't leave. You have my keys." Steven felt like he had won when the door whipped open. The next thing he knew, his keys were tossed up high in the air just a bit behind him. He reached for them and caught them as he saw the door close again and heard a lock click. He debated trying to get her to open the door again, but he realized the conversation was a lost cause for the day.

There were a few ways he always won Josie back after a fight while they were growing up. He would buy her chocolates. He would take her shopping for her favorite clothes. He would take her to the movies. He would then watch those movies with her. He enjoyed watching her face contort with cheesy or horrific scenes, and he was always taken aback when she cried during the sad moments, mostly the dogs, kids, and old people. Something so simple about being with her seemed to make their fights melt away. The problem with that thought process was that she wanted nothing to do with him.

He spent time digging through his mind and decided to do what he did after their post-prom fight. He bought her three dozen red, yellow, and pink roses and had them delivered to her. He wanted to put the exact words from prom on there, knowing it would spark that memory for her too, so he asked the florist to write out a note that said, "Roses are red, violets are blue, you stole my heart, let me steal yours too." Granted, in high school, he wrote it to try to steal back her attention more than her heart. She had been so mad that she started spending time with other guy friends and people in general, and it got under his skin. He always told her she was the only one who truly knew his heart, so she was the only one who could steal it.

Now, he wanted to steal hers back.

The thought behind it made sense to him. He knew what the message was intended to do: to bring back every memory they made together, to get back all of the smiles and good moments. He knew that they both made terrible choices surrounding their son, but he was going to do whatever it took to rectify his mistakes.

Once he paid the florist, all that was left to do was sit and wait for her to get them. He had hoped she would contact him right away, crying her happy tears, but he also realized she might still be pissed enough to just toss them and the message in the trash.

Steven started busying himself with projects around the new location. He began by wanting to change some of the colors behind the bar. He liked the mirrored wall, but he wanted the lights above to be something other than red. He played with the settings until he settled on light green. He rearranged some things when Stacey walked up behind him and tilted her head at the changes.

"Why are we doing busy work and changing everything I worked so hard on?" She was anything but thrilled with his changes. He watched her run her hand over the bar, touching every little thing. When she started running her hand across the shining bottles, Steven knew she was about to move them all back to where they were.

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