“I’m going to kill the bastard,” Dylan said, his hands curling into fists.
“Well, get in line, because when I find him, he’s going to wish he’d never been born.” Though Scott appreciated Dylan backing Meg, when it came to protecting her, he wanted that job and didn’t mind letting the other man know it.
Olivia studied him, eyes narrowed, and Scott swallowed a curse.
“I don’t want anyone confronting Mike for me. He’s dangerous,” Meg said. “But I’m meeting with his parents on Wednesday.”
“We’re meeting with his parents,” Scott reminded her.
Meg raised an eyebrow. “I was going to discuss that with you in the morning. I think it’s better if I go alone. Rick will keep an eye on me.”
Scott tensed, clenching his jaw and wondering when things had spiraled out of his control. “We’ll talk about it when we’re alone,” he said, well aware of Dylan’s and Olivia’s intense stares, taking in every word and action that Meg and Scott made.
“Well, regardless, I’m not worried about meeting with them anymore. Luke said the background check turned up all good things. Lydia and Walter seem to be rational, decent people. They support children’s charities and—”
“What the hell do you know about what Luke found?” Scott asked her. Everything about Meg’s case was supposed to be his domain. Luke had no right to jump in with answers Scott had planned to give her, and he’d intended to have this conversation in the morning before the lunch meeting.
Meg merely shrugged, ignoring his sharp tone. “Luke called. He filled me in.”
“I was going to tell you everything. There just hasn’t been time.”
Dylan braced his arms on the table. “Meggie, I can’t imagine one good thing about the people who raised that asshole,” he said skeptically.
At the old nickname Dylan called her, Scott’s jaw locked in place.
“Actually, it’s not what you think,” Meg said to Dylan. “The Ashtons adopted Mike when he was a baby. I didn’t know that. He also had fetal alcohol syndrome, so there’s that component too. I suppose I can’t necessarily blame them for how Mike turned out. There’s definitely something to genetics.”
She trembled as she spoke, and Scott could guess where her mind had gone. His anger fled in the face of her obvious fears. He knew for sure what she was thinking.
“Don’t think that way.” He settled his hand over hers, hoping to comfort her. “Your baby will be fine, even with that bastard’s genes. He has you.” And a deep-seated longing arose inside him, because he wanted to claim that position in the baby’s life too.
Shit. He was in so much trouble.
“Meg, are you okay?” Olivia asked softly.
Scott glanced her way.
Her eyes looked suspiciously damp. “Actually, I’m going to go to the ladies’ room. Excuse me.”
Scott rose as she stood and headed for the other side of the restaurant.
He lowered himself back into his seat.
“Scott, what the hell is going on?” Olivia asked.
“I’d like an answer to that too,” Dylan said.
Emilio walked over with food in his hands, and Olivia waved him away. “A few minutes, please?”
The older man nodded.
“Talk fast, big brother,” she muttered.
“Shit. Everything was fine until I told her about Leah.”
Olivia glanced at Dylan. “His ex-wife. I told you about her,” she said.
Dylan nodded. “What about her?” he asked, his tone chilly.
“It’s not about her, it’s about what she did. Before her, I didn’t want kids. When she got pregnant, I got excited. Invested. I really wanted to be a father. But she never came around, and instead of talking about it with me, she had an abortion. Just like that, everything I’d dreamed about was gone.” He snapped his fingers in the air. “Telling Meg reminded me of the pain, and I said something stupid.”
Dylan narrowed his gaze.
In for a penny, Scott thought. “I said, the whole family thing is for suckers, and happily ever after only happens in fairy tales.” He ducked his head and groaned. “I pretty much put the last nail in the coffin of whatever was happening between us.”
“So explain that you don’t feel that way anymore!” Olivia glanced over her shoulder, but there was no sign of Meg yet.
“What if I do?”
“Excuse me?” his sister asked, sounding appalled.
“Look, Liv,” he said, ignoring Dylan because he really couldn’t deal with the other man at the moment. “I love her, okay? What if I let myself get involved with her and the baby, and then we wrap things up with her stalker ex and she doesn’t need me anymore? She can pick up and move out, and that’s it. Everything gone again. Except this time, I don’t know if I’d get over it.”
His sister’s jaw had gone slack. “You love her?”
Scott couldn’t believe he’d said it out loud either. Hell, he hadn’t admitted it to himself before now. But what else was this driving need to be with her, to protect her, to get so involved in her life that she wouldn’t want to leave?
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then man up,” Dylan said.
Scott clenched his hands beneath the table. “What the fuck do you know about me or my life?” he asked the other man. “Just because you are or were Meg’s best friend doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do.”
Dylan’s hand came down on the table hard. Olivia jumped, then wrapped her fingers around his hand. “Stop it, and listen. Both of you.”
She turned to Scott. “I, of all people, know how hard it is to get over the pain in your past.”
His sister had lost a baby when she was young, been betrayed by both that baby’s father and their own parent. So yes, Olivia understood better than most.
“But the risk is so worth it,” she said, glancing at her husband, her eyes shining with love. “Dylan stuck by me. He never gave up on me. On us. And because of that, I was able to come around and believe that I deserved a future that included kids . . . and a good man,” she
