Damon continued to stare through that narrow gaze.
“I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me.” Nash had laid it all out there, had even offered a meager defense. Now he had to finish up and get the hell out before he started sobbing like some damn fool. “I wouldn’t blame you for cutting me out of your life. I mean, I haven’t been part of your life for very long, so you could just go back to the way things were before I ever came around. Nothing would change for you, really.”
Linda stepped into the doorway. “Damon—”
“Not now, Linda.”
She moved farther into the room until she was standing beside Damon. “Don’t make a decision you’ll regret later.”
Nash jerked his attention to the elderly woman who was gripping a kitchen towel in her hands, her knuckles white. He’d never guessed he’d have an ally in any of this, but having anybody at all on his side was a blessing he didn’t deserve.
“Linda, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Damon said between clenched teeth. “This is between me and Nash. Damn it. Jake.”
“Nash is my real middle name,” he replied, as if that made any of this easier to swallow.
Linda laid a hand on Damon’s arm. “I know you’re hurt, but if you’ll put your pride aside for two minutes, you’ll see he’s hurt, too. And, he’s still your son. That’s something he never had to reveal.”
Damon’s eyes flashed toward Nash’s. Odd, now that everyone had been calling him Nash for months, he’d come to think of himself as Nash, the groom, as opposed to Jake, the billionaire.
“I don’t want to make this harder for you,” he explained. “I wanted to get everything out and I did. I’ll go and leave the next step up to you.”
Leaving with so much hurt between them, leaving with so many questions still left unanswered would kill him. But Damon needed to come to grips with this just as Nash had. Realizing his rival was also his father had taken Nash months to digest and he couldn’t expect Damon to do so in the span of a few minutes.
Silence filled the room as Damon continued to stare at Nash in disbelief. Linda still clutched the towel as her eyes darted back and forth between the two stubborn men.
“You know how to reach me.” Nash raked a hand over his jaw, the beard he’d become so familiar with bristling beneath his palm. “I won’t contact you again.”
Damon said nothing as Nash headed toward the foyer, but there was one last thing his father needed to know. One last bit of his heart he’d lay on the line, even though he would surely damn himself later for being so open and vulnerable.
Gripping the door frame, Nash turned to look at his father for what would probably be the last time. “For what it’s worth, I enjoyed the past several months. I’d wondered about my father my entire life and even though I was shocked that it turned out to be you, I wouldn’t trade my time here with you and the girls for anything.”
Those threatening emotions choked him as Nash headed out the door, leaving Stony Ridge and his father behind.
That part was over, and as hellish and gut-wrenching as it had been, Nash knew what had transpired between his father and himself was absolutely nothing compared to the hurt and the anguish that awaited him when Lily returned. The thought of causing her pain was killing him.
She deserved to know the truth once and for all. And he deserved nothing less than watching her walk away. Now he had to figure out a way to keep the inevitable from happening.
Sixteen
Being away from Nash for a week had been harder than she’d thought. She’d loved seeing her mother again, but she truly missed the man she’d fallen in love with. Lily found herself missing the Barringtons, as well.
In the two weeks she’d been gone her little belly had pooched out just enough to have her smiling and gliding her hand over the swollen area. Not a drastic change to anyone looking at her, but she noticed and she had no doubt Nash would notice. That man knew her body better than she did.
She’d been careful not to wear anything tight, plus she donned sunglasses and a hat when traveling through the airport. The last thing she wanted was anyone finding out about the baby before she could make an announcement.
Nash’s idea of her dropping the bomb before the media could speculate was brilliant. With the Barrington film getting buzz already months before release, Ian already booked her a one-on-one interview with a popular TV anchor. And perhaps by then she’d have some other news to share...maybe even a ring on her finger. Dare she hope that Nash was ready to follow her confession with one of his own?