Page 2 of Luke

She watched as he looked through her things, not saying a word. As he turned to face her, she ducked her head.

“Don’t be prideful. You can hate me forever, but don’t hurt yourself over pride. I will send some groceries to you through a service. Please send me what I need to know for formula and diapers and all that.” He couldn’t be here for long, he knew that, but he wasn’t going to leave them here with nothing. If it were up to him, he would take them with him, but it wasn’t right now.

Paisley swallowed and he watched her hand come up to twirl her long brown hair. “Okay.”

Luke nodded, happy that much wasn’t going to be a fight. “Anything that you need, send it to me. That includes for you, Paisley. You want some bubble bath? Tell me. I will make sure you get it.”

He closed the distance between them again.

“Don’t,” she started.

“I’m not sure what you think I’d do.” He backed up. “I was just going to promise you again that I will fix all of this,” he told her.

“You don’t have to do anything, you know? I wasn’t going to sue you or sell a story or anything,” she told him.

He sighed. “I didn’t accuse you of it. I’m sorry for everything.”

Luke turned and walked away. He didn’t think he could stay much longer without someone getting suspicious of why he was here. He could have taken the tracker his friends had planted in his jacket out, but he wanted the clue to be planted about Paisley in case anything happened to him.

As he left her rundown building and called a personal shopper to start an order for her, he made himself a vow that he would get them both out of here soon. It wasn’t safe for them to be here.

Luke needed to settle issues with his father before he could protect them. Right now, his father was threatening him, his sister, and his half sister, who didn’t even know about him. It was messy and he didn’t want Paisley or Garrett to get hurt by it.

He had a plan to get his father off his back, and then he was going to tell his friend group that he was actually related to two of them and all the things he’d done to help his father sabotage them.

At first, he’d believed that his father cared about him. He thought that Cade was just greedy and had stolen his father’s business from under him. Truth be told, he was too busy praying to see what was right there in front of his eyes the whole time.

Then, his father had gotten upset that Cade, his half brother, was looking to date a barista at the coffee shop he frequented. He’d told Luke to make sure that Cade wasn’t interested anymore. That plan had backfired.

He’d slept with Paisley, the barista, and had carried on a relationship with her for two months before he’d broken it off. It was after this that he realized things weren’t as they seemed. His father had threatened him if he continued with her, and he’d immediately dropped her.

A few days ago, someone had reached out anonymously to let him know that she’d had his child. He had discreetly looked into it and the math made sense. Before he’d come here, he’d paid her medical bills and rent.

Leaving her was hard the first time, damn near impossible this time, but he wouldn’t let her get pulled down because of him. He was done ruining people’s lives for his father or watching it happen while doing nothing.

Chapter Two

Paisley

Present

Paisley rocked Garrett in her rocking chair as she stared out at the rain coming down. She was grateful they didn’t have any leaks in this crappy apartment. As it was, the drafts didn’t help the cold that she was trying to deny she had.

Today was Thursday, which meant that groceries would show up, and she hoped to get Garrett down to sleep before they did. Every Thursday since the day Luke had shown up at her doorstep, he had sent more than she could use for her and Garrett.

Once a month, someone would contact her from the delivery company and ask if anything had changed or if she needed anything else. Luke had even sent her new clothes and bedding. She had been tempted to toss them out, but she wasn’t in a position to do that.

Not once had she heard from Luke, though, and it was strange. She’d gotten a notice in the mail that her medical bills for having Garrett had been paid. Then, when her rent hadn’t auto debited from her account, she’d learned that Luke had paid her up for a year.

“Sleep, little one,” she whispered to Garrett and bit back a cough.

Garrett stirred and then settled back down. He was getting bigger every day, almost four months old now, and her heart broke when she’d found the favorite outfit she had for him didn’t fit.

Knocking on her door interrupted her musing, and she laid Garrett down, hoping he stayed asleep before answering the door. The delivery person always waited for her to carry everything over the threshold and lock the door before he left.

It was weird but she was comforted by the fact that someone cared even though this guy was probably being paid to. As soon as she bent over to grab the first bags, the cough she’d been fighting bubbled over.

The fit lasted several seconds and had the delivery guy reaching in one of the bags and giving her a bottle of juice that he’d brought.