When Lightning Strikes (Whiskey Creek #1)(87)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Don’t wake him up,” Bella whispered as if she’d thought he was only going to look.

Simon ignored her. He’d anticipated this moment for too long to hold back. “Ty, it’s Daddy,” he whispered. “God, I missed you.”

Ty opened his eyes, smiled sleepily and tightened his arms around Simon’s neck. “Daddy, where did you go? Can I go with you next time?”

Simon wished, more than anything, that he could say yes. But he wasn’t sure Bella would allow him to take Ty anywhere. Not once she figured out that he didn’t intend to try again with her. “I hope you can come with me someday soon.”

“Maybe Daddy will stay here with us.” Bella looked at him as she ruffled Ty’s hair. The invitation in her eyes was clear. For whatever reason, she was ready to welcome him back into her bed, into their lives, into the family.

But Simon was no longer in love with her.

30

It’d taken two hours to get Ty back to sleep, but Simon hadn’t minded at all. He’d played army men with his son and talked to him about his missing tooth and the money the tooth fairy had brought him. He’d asked about kindergarten and listened as Ty talked about his teacher and proudly recited the alphabet. Once Ty’s eyelids began to droop, Simon had even crawled into bed, tucked his son up against his side and memorized the smell of his hair and the feel of his baby-soft skin as if he might never see him again. It wasn’t until Ty nodded off that Simon got up to find Bella, who’d grown frustrated with the lack of attention and left more than an hour earlier.

Simon wasn’t looking forward to their talk. He knew she wouldn’t like what he had to say. But he couldn’t avoid engaging her, not if he hoped to see Ty again.

He found her sitting in the living room, watching a reality show she’d recorded on her DVR. She put the program on pause when he came in and, bottom lip jutting in an exaggerated pout, turned to him. “Happy now?” she asked.

The bitterness in that question nearly set him off. How dared she think she had the right to keep his son from him? The lies she’d told to get the restraining order were bad enough. She seemed to feel she could stand behind those lies and that infuriated him. But he’d let his anger get the best of him before. He couldn’t allow himself to make that mistake again. The goal was to establish a friendly relationship, not revert to the animosity of the past. “It was great to see him. Thank you.”

She nodded, combing her fingers through her long hair as if she’d done him a huge favor instead of merely giving him what he deserved as Ty’s father. “Your dad called.”

Simon almost asked if they were still sleeping together but bit his tongue again. His father had plenty of women who were willing to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t need Bella. As a rule, Bella wasn’t attracted to men who were twice her age. Simon knew what they’d done had been all about him. Now that he and Bella weren’t together, she and Tex didn’t even like each other. “What did he want?”

“He heard you were back in town.”

“How?”

“Who knows? That prick of a business manager probably told him.”

Something was up there. Ian had told Tex where to find Simon in Whiskey Creek, too. There was a reason for that, just as there was a reason he was so excited to see Simon return to work—to make Hellion.

Simon suspected Ian had been offered a kickback of some kind. Everything in Hollywood seemed to come down to money. But he’d deal with that later.

“What did he want?” he asked.

“He told me to leave you alone.”

Instead of crossing the floor to sit down with her, Simon pulled out a bar stool from the kitchen island and turned it to face the living room. “Did he say why?”

“You can’t guess?”

“You know my father and I don’t talk.”

“He said you were finally happy. That you don’t need trash like me messing up your life again.”

When he didn’t respond to the “trash” part, didn’t defend her as she was no doubt hoping he would, her expression darkened. “As if what happened was my fault,” she added.

“I’m not the one who slept with him,” Simon pointed out.

“You slept with plenty!” she snapped, but whether she believed him or not, he hadn’t touched another woman until he’d caught the two of them. Even then it was several months later, when he’d known he couldn’t put his marriage back together, that he wound up in bed with a costar. After that, there didn’t seem to be any reason to hold back. There were a few times Bella had realized she was losing him and attempted to straighten up, but those periods never lasted. She couldn’t overcome the insecurities that caused her to provoke him.

But there was no use arguing. What had happened had happened. They’d both made mistakes. He just wanted to figure out how to go on. “I did,” he admitted.

Evidently satisfied that he’d taken responsibility for his behavior, she clicked her nails as she stared at him. “So…where do we go from here?”

“I’m hoping we can make some arrangements where Ty is concerned.”

“What kind of arrangements?”

“I’d like full custody.” That was the only way he could put a definitive stop to her using Ty as a weapon against him. “But if you cooperate with me I’ll settle for shared.”

“You’ll never get full custody. I don’t have to cooperate with you.”

Simon felt his muscles tense. “Why are you still being like this?”

“Because we come as a package! You can’t reject me but accept him! That’s not fair!”

This made no sense. She was talking out of the hurt and anger that’d gotten them into so much trouble to begin with.

Simon tried to counteract that by remaining as calm as possible. “Bella, please. I love Ty. I’d never let anything happen to him, and you know it. That should be what matters.”

“What about me?”

Bella acted like a child herself. “What about you?” he asked.

“What will I become? Your castoff? You think you can toss me aside and take my son to start a new family with your publicist in some boondock town hours and hours away from here? Go live happily ever after when I’m miserable?”

Simon lifted his hands. “Even if I take him to Whiskey Creek, it wouldn’t be for long. I plan on coming back to L.A. and making more movies. I’m not walking away from my career. We can work together, make sure we both have what we need.”