Page 93 of Get Me to the Starting Line
There’s something familiar about him I can’t quite place. The man’s dark brown hair is coiffed in perfectly styled waves—too perfect. He reminds me a little of Caleb. His brown eyes are sharp, assessing us standing together.
His tan, clean-shaven cheeks redden at whatever he sees when he reaches us—maybe it’s Leah’s cold expression or my protective stance. He’s tall, maybe 6’0”, but I tower over him. He looks like a prick.
His eyes flick to me and back to Leah, face hardening.
“Leah.” He says her name in a familiar way, as if he’s said it a thousand times before. He knows her.
“Ian.”
Ian Diaz. Levi’s father.
I see it in the shape of his eyes and nose. I always thought Levi looked like Leah, but seeing the other half, this man is there too.
Except he’s not, because this fucker ditched his family. That tells me everything I need to know about him.
“What are you doing here?” Leah asks. I’ve never seen her like this. Even when she’s guarded around me, she’s not this cold, this shut down.
Ian glances at me before addressing Leah. “Can we talk privately?”
“No.” Maybe I shouldn’t have answered for her, but right now, I don’t care. I’m not leaving.
Ian narrows his eyes. “What are you, her bodyguard?”
“No.”
He bristles at my one-word answers. Truth is, I have no idea what we are and I’m not going to get into it with him.
“What do you want, Ian?” Leah asks, impatience written all over her, in her tone, body language, and expression.
He goes to take a step closer but at my glare, he stops. At least he has some brain cells.
“I made a huge mistake,” he says. There’s something off about this guy. The words sound sincere enough, but the back of my neck prickles in warning. I do not trust him.
Leah snorts. “I’ve heard that before.”
“It’s true. Leah, honey–”
“Don’t ‘honey’ me.”
“Sorry, habit.”
I scoff. It’s been almost three years since they were together—there’s no way that was anything but an attempt at manipulation. Luckily, my woman is stronger than that.
“Get to the point. You didn’t make the trip from Salt Lake just to tell me you made a mistake.” Her voice is all hard lines with no inflection. I thought I knew how she spoke when she was angry after I pissed her off to no end when we first met.
But this is different. She hates him. Which means she loved him enough he had the power to hurt her this much.
Fuck him.
“I want to be a part of Levi’s life.” Except when he says Levi’s name, he uses a distinct accent, changing the way it’s pronounced to sound likelay-vee. “Of your life,” he adds, his shifty eyes pleading.
“It’s pronounced Levi and you know it. If you were actually his father you could have spoken about him, to him, in Spanish, but you signed away your rights. You’re no one to him.”
“Leah—”
“No, Ian, you can’t show up here unannounced and expect me to fall all over you.”
His eyes narrow at me assuming it’s my fault she’s acting this way and not because he’s given her all the valid reasons in the world to hate him.
