“Trey.”
“Why is he here?” Debbie hissed from the stairwell behind me.
“I don’t know,” I shout-whispered back.
“Let me in and I’ll tell you why,” he said before chuckling.
The look of death I threw up at Debbie earned me a sheepish shrug before she slipped back inside my apartment. Coward.
Just as I unlocked my door, I threw it open and announced, “You can’t keep dropping by without notice.”
“I called.”
“No, you didn’t,” I snipped while folding my arms.
“Okay, I meant to,” he argued with a grin. “But I’m here now, so can I come in?”
This was setting a bad precedent, one that could confuse matters further. But from what I’d already learned when it came to Trey, giving him an attitude caused a good dose of his own arrogance to hit me in return. The last thing I wanted was to piss him off, because I worried my mama bear brawn couldn’t compete with his bank account.
My delay had the grin on his face widening. And along with him wearing another pair of well-worn jeans, a midnight-blue T-shirt, black laced boots, and those black sunglasses, I tried my damnedest not to ogle him.
Misinterpreting my silence, he smirked. “Take your time running through all the evil scenarios you can imagine. I’ve got nowhere to be,” he said before plopping down the giant Hello Kitty toy and leaning against the door jamb.
The man was too cocky for his own good, and I silently prayed Alivia didn’t inherit that character trait. It was one thing to be confident, another entirely to be pompous and egotistical.
“Ugh.” With an exaggerated wave of my arm, I motioned him in.
“Thanks,” he said, slipping off his shades while leaning in to place a soft kiss on my cheek.
Instantly my face flushed red and my breath hitched. If he noticed, he didn’t let on that he had, and he lifted the toy to stroll past me without a care in the world. I supposed he didn’t. Meanwhile, my world wobbled on its axis with each encounter we had.
Watching his perfect ass climbing the steps before me, I quickly averted my gaze as Debbie greeted us at the top. Before I could properly introduce him, she thrust her hand forward. “Debbie Whitfield… best friend, godmother, and voice of reason.”
“Trey Taylor… but you already know that.” Trey smirked in that way he always did and slipped his hand into hers. Every move this man made seemed like a seductive dance, a tease, and the way that he slowly pumped my friend’s arm made the act of a simple handshake practically erotic.
Debbie blushed. She actually blushed, before removing her hand from his and having me wonder how long it would take for her to fall under his charm. But when she noticed my glower, she snapped back into protective mode and met his smirk with a coy smile. “Bribe?” she asked, pointing to the huge box beside him.
“Sure,” he admitted on a shrug. He was so cavalier over being called out I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well, thank you,” I said while tugging on his tattooed arm, pulling him toward the stairs. “She’ll love it.”
Trey twisted in a way that placed his hand firmly in mine. “I’m sure she will. I can’t wait to give it to her.” With that, he squeezed and released me while sauntering over to my couch and plopping down in the center of it. That left one chair and a sliver of space on either side of him to fight over with Debbie. No surprise she took the chair, and I decided to stand in the most threatening way possible. Obviously, my attempt at authority did nothing to intimidate him, because he relaxed back and spread his arms along the back of the couch.
My eyes followed the colorful artwork displayed, starting from the hemmed sleeve of his T-shirt and dancing over his flesh down to his wrists. There weren’t any markings on his hands except for the name Tara in bold uppercase letters on his ring finger.
The reminder of the love that he had lost felt like a bucket of ice water over my head and snapped me back to my predicament. The man had lost his heart not long ago, and maybe this was his attempt to replace that loss with an adorable little girl that was half him.
A scenario where Trey eventually slipped back into his old ways by jumping from one meaningless relationship to another could nourish his libido… but having Alivia in his life would be sure to nourish his broken heart.
“What are your true intentions, Trey,” Debbie asked, vocalizing what I had been trying to figure out.
He raised his brows before countering, “Isn’t that obvious?”
“Not really.”
Trey glanced up at where I still stood defensively and grinned. “Well, I want to get to know my daughter, I want her to know I’m her dad, and I want to have a relationship with her.” He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “Like I said, obvious.”
Unfazed, Debbie shrugged before plowing on. “Regardless, have you ever seen a child projectile vomit?” That was random. My focus cut to Trey, who flinched ever so slightly before schooling his features. “It is quite a thing to see,” Debbie went on. “Like something out of The Exorcist, truly supernatural.”
Trey’s eyes crinkled in the corners while he tried to fight his grin. “No, I can’t say I have. You have children who projectile often?”
At his comment, Debbie’s cocky expression subtly changed to sadness. My friend had been trying to get pregnant for a few years now without luck. Needing to spare her the deluge of thoughts that always pricked at her self-worth whenever fertility came up, I blurted out, “As long as you’re staying, do you want something to drink?”
Trey’s eyes darted between Debbie and me before he caught my gaze and held it for a few long moments. “Yeah. A water would be great.”
Just before I took the few steps toward my refrigerator, I glanced at Debbie, whose features had already smoothed out and recalibrated.
Hoping he wouldn’t say anything insensitive, I quickly grabbed him a bottle of water as Debbie asked, “Trey, would you like to come to dinner this Sunday?”
“What?” he and I both blurted out at the same time.
“I’d like you to meet my husband,” she said nonchalantly. “As long as you’ll be in Livi’s life, you may as well meet her godfather.”
For the first time since arriving, Trey appeared uncomfortable. The forgotten bottle of water in my hand, he gripped the back of his neck, swallowed audibly, and frowned while Debbie stared him down with no mercy.
And then, like a switch had been flipped inside his brain, he schooled his features and grinned. “Yeah, I’d love to,” he finally said. “I’ll bring the wine… for you folks. I don’t drink.”
Chapter 9
Trey
The two pairs of eyes drilled through me as I kept my cool. A deluge of dread consumed me, but they had no idea as I sat, arrogantly appearing like I hadn’t a care in the world.
But, shit… dinner?
All I wanted was to spend time with my daughter. I had no desire to double-date my way into her life.
Taking the bait, Debbie smiled at my offer. “Sounds good. Bring white. I’ll make my specialty, poached salmon.”
Great… steamed fish.