“And you can’t talk to her again,” James pointed out. “You need to get a lawyer and make them deal with her. She needs to know you’re serious about this. This chick is crazy.”
“Chick?” Harper raised her eyebrow at him. James gave her an apologetic smile.
“Woman.”
“Thank you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Sexism apart, James is right. You need to talk to your lawyer.”
“I know. I’ll contact him first thing Monday.” Rich pressed his palm to his face. Jesus, he was tired. He wanted to climb into bed and forget that any of this happened.
“So, now that we’ve got that sorted, what are you going to do about Meghan?” Belle asked him.
Rich frowned. “What can I do? She’s talking with the father of her child. I have no place there.”
“You didn’t believe Carlyn when she said they could be together, did you?” Harper asked. “She was talking bullshit. I know for a fact that Meghan wouldn’t do that. She’s in love with you, Rich. All night she could barely take her eyes off you.”
“Yeah, I know Carlyn was lying. But this thing is between Meghan and Dylan. Isla’s their child. I’m no relation at all. They need to work this out without me interfering.”
Belle blinked. “So you’re going to go home and just leave it?”
“I’m going to go home and get some goddamned sleep.” Rich’s voice was thick. “I have a night shift tomorrow.”
“This is bullshit.” Belle shook her head. “You can’t just wait around for them to sort this out. You and Meghan are together. You’re a team. She needs you.”
James cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m on Rich’s side. When Harper was pregnant with Alyssa, if some other guy had interfered I would’ve been angry. Alyssa’s my kid, we made her between us. Nobody else had any right to her.”
“No.” Harper shook her head. “This is completely different. By the time Alyssa was born, we were back together. Neither of us know what we’d do in this situation.”
“You should at least call her,” Belle agreed. “She might need you.”
James shrugged. “I don’t agree, but you obviously do.”
“All I know is that I have no right to interfere in a father daughter relationship,” Rich said, his throat tight. “I saw how losing our parents affected you. I won’t be the guy who does that to somebody else.”
He could remember that day when the cops had come to tell him the news. That his parents had passed and his sister was in the hospital with life threatening injuries. The sheer horror when he’d discovered they’d been on the way to see him when the accident happened.
The knowledge that if he hadn’t been so goddamned selfish, they’d still be here today. And Belle would be able to walk.
The familiar feeling of panic overtook him. The same panic he’d felt when he’d looked down at his sister’s broken body and known that he was the one who’d caused her pain. The one who’d made her an orphan.
And that day he’d made her a promise even though she couldn’t hear him. That he’d always be here for her. He’d be the parents he’d stolen from her. The brother she deserved. And he’d never hurt anybody like that again.
“I need to go home,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn’t want to think about this stuff. It needed to go back to that dark place deep inside him, locked up so tight that it never came back again.
“Stay here,” Belle said. “Please.”
Harper exchanged glances with James. “Belle’s right. You should stay here. Just for tonight.”
“I need to be rested for tomorrow night.”
“You can’t work like this.” James shook his head. “Take a few days off. Be there for Meghan.”
But work was the only thing he could think of. It was the one thing he was good at. The thing he could rely on. It made him forget all those things he never wanted to confront.
“I’m going home,” he said, his voice certain. “Thank you, all. But right now I need to be alone.”
“She was tiny,” Dylan said, leaning over the scrapbook Meghan had made. It was full of photographs from Isla’s first year, starting when she was laying in her tiny heated incubator in the NICU, to sitting upright with a toothless grin as Meghan carried her first birthday cake toward her. She’d been bald for the first twelve months of her life, but you could see a smattering of soft red downy hair starting to come through as she clapped with delight. Looking at those photographs made Meghan feel wistful.
“She was so tiny I was scared I’d break her,” Meghan told him. “But then her little eyes looked up at me and I realized I was responsible for this tiny thing and needed to get over my fears. I’m her mom and she just wanted my love and attention.”