“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Richard. Wouldn’t he be excited to have a grandchild by you? So would your mother, I’m sure.”
“My father will be upset about having a love child. He still believes I'm waiting until marriage for sex.”
Gavin spat some of his scotch out laughing. “If he only knew about your life.”
I laughed a little bit with him, realizing my father was out of touch with reality.
Gavin softened his tone, calming a bit. “Regardless about you having sex before marriage, it’s not like you knew and kept it from him.”
“I don’t think he’d believe me,” I replied. “He’d think that I kept it from him because Heather and I weren’t married. It’d spill over into my work life, too. Which couldn’t come at a worse time, now that I’m working on a farmland purchase.”
“Plus, you’re dating Annie.”
I put my drink down and let out a huge sigh. “That’s another problem right now.”
“I thought you two were getting along, though.”
I stood up and looked out my office window, down at the skyline of River Valley. “Exactly. Annie is the perfect woman, Gavin. I love everything about her. The way she dresses, the smell of her soft hair, that velvet voice of hers, and even the way she eats. She’s opposite from me, and that’s what draws me to her. I’ve never felt this way about anyone, especially Heather.”
“You’re smitten with her, man. That’s wonderful. So what’s the problem?”
I turned around to face him. “I can’t do this right now, Gavin. I’m working well over twelve hours a day, and my spare time is spent trying to see Addison and working with my lawyer. It’s not fair to Annie. She deserves to be with someone who can wine and dine her, not a man who has to rush her out the door before heading to a court hearing about his love child.”
I sat down and downed the rest of my drink.
“You’ve waited a long time to get Annie to go out with you,” Gavin said. “Are you sure you want to break it off?”
“Do I want to? No. But I also don’t think that Annie is ready to be a stepmother, Gavin. She’s much younger than me, is starting a lifestyle brand, owns a yoga studio, and also has very little personal time. How can I ask her to be a mother figure, too? Because that’s what will end up happening. But there’s no way in hell that I’m not going to have Addison in my life.”
Gavin nodded, realizing how passionate I was about my daughter. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t realize everything was so hard right now.”
“That’s alright. It’ll all work out. Let’s talk about you for a while. I need to get my mind off of everything.”
Gavin took some time to tell me about his family back home and what they had been doing lately. He had grown up in Massachusetts with his mom and dad. We went to college together and were very competitive, but I was no match for him when it came to grades. He graduated high school at only fifteen-years-old and earned a college degree in record time so he was actually several years younger than me.
After college, Gavin thought about moving back to Massachusetts, but his parents had a hard time understanding him. He told me they just struggled because he was so smart. They were very simple, loving people. He had visited River Valley a time or two during our college holiday breaks and decided to move here, just like me, and joined my father’s company a year or so after I did. He worked hard and loved our hometown, but he also traveled a lot. Last year alone, he visited the Galapagos Islands, England, went back home to Massachusetts three times, and even found time for a two-week cruise.
I often envied his free lifestyle.
“My parents are selling their house and can’t decide where to move to, but they want to be where it’s warm all year long. Naturally, I suggested coming to River Valley, but my dad seems more interested in Florida. He's just struggling because he doesn't want to sell his shop.”
“Tell him that Florida is too muggy,” I said with a grin. “It’s hot here in California, but where we live, it’s more of a dry heat.”
Gavin nodded while nursing his scotch some more. “My sister, Caroline, just broke up with her boyfriend. She walked in on him, cheating on her.”
I winced, thinking about his sister having to witness such betrayal. She and I had chatted a few times, back when she was in River Valley.
“Where is she living nowadays?”
“Beverly Hills,” Gavin said. “She has a modeling job.
One of my clients was there to see me, so Gavin excused himself and went back to work. As I waited for the client to come into my office, a part of my heart begin to sink as I kept wondering what I would do about Annie.
15
Annie
The hot, steamy shower felt good against my skin. I’d just gotten back from the hair salon, where my stylist did a last-minute touch-up of my roots. As soon as Richard mentioned having dinner at his place that night, my first concern was getting my hair fixed. I didn’t think he knew that I dyed it black, and I wanted to keep that a secret.
