“He’ll just turn out like you!”Olivia had shouted at Ghost, all those years ago, when they’d thought Aidan wasn’t listening.“I don’t need that kind of poison in my life.”
“This is for the best,” Tonya said. “If you’re smart, you won’t fight me on it.”
He –
“Oh my God!” a female voice erupted beside their table, jerking him out of the moment. “Oh my God, thank God! You!” A girl put her hands on the table, leaning toward him. She was blonde, pretty in the way that made other girls jealous, and dressed like a rockstar groupie. Her black-lined blue eyes landed on him and she took a deep, gasping breath. She couldn’t be eighteen, had to be school-age.
“Oh look, another of your mistakes,” Tonya quipped.
“You’re one of those bikers my sister hangs out with, right?” the blonde asked him, expression frantic. She’d been crying, cheeks shiny with tear tracks. “Right? The Dogs, or whatever?”
“Uh…” His brain wasn’t working right.
“Sam. Samantha Walton? She’s my sister.”
“Sam. Right.” He shook off some of his fog and looked at her more closely: black tights ripped at the knees under Daisy Dukes; white tank top that showed her purple bra; glitter in what was left of her makeup; crazy teased hair. He frowned. “You’re her sister?” It didn’t seem possible this chick was related to quiet, thoughtful, glasses-wearing Samantha.
Sam. Her named echoed in his head and his chest ached. Before Tonya dropped the bomb on him last night, he’d been starting to think about Ava’s blonde professor friend differently. He was starting to see her, really see her, and he –
Well, that didn’t matter now, did it?
“Yeah,” the sister said. She sniffled hard and wiped at her face, lip quivering. “I just…like…I need some help. My boyfriend broke up with me, and I don’t have a ride, and my cellphone’s dead…”
Aidan sighed. “Hold on. Take a pill. Do you need a ride?”
She nodded, unable to speak as tears filled her eyes.
Another sigh, this one deep, exhausting. “Alright, I’ll take you home.”
Tonya took that as her cue to leave, sliding out of the booth. “Don’t worry about what we talked about,” she said as she stood. “It isn’t your problem.”
Problem.
His child wasn’t his problem.
Sam’s sister plopped down into the spot Tonya had abandoned and burst into noisy tears, preventing any retort on his part.
Tonya walked like there was a broom handle shoved up her ass as she left the café, sliding her sunglasses into place, superior, wealthy, and untouchable.
“Wait here,” he told the girl. “I’ll be right back.” He dropped his cell on the table as he stood. “Call your sister, tell her we’re on the way.”
He caught up with Tonya on the sidewalk out front, and he gripped her arm tighter than he’d intended, spun her to face him.
Her sunglasses slipped down her nose, exposed eyes that had gone wide with surprise. Maybe a little fear.
“Not my problem?” His voice was a growl, and that surprised him. “Do you honest to God think you can dump this on me and then walk away? Say it’s notmy problem?”
“I think,” she said through her teeth, “that I can count on you to be a no-account, blue collar biker, and forget about responsibility. Don’t tell me you want this child, Aidan. I know you don’t.”
“I have the right to figure that out.”
“No.” She wrenched her arm out of his grasp. “You don’t. And if you touch me like that again, I’ll call the cops and tell them you threatened me.”
This time when she stalked off, he let her go.
~*~
“He’s got dark hair. And it’s curly,”Erin had said over the phone, and Sam had immediately known which biker her sister had sought help from in Stella’s.
