He stopped dead in his tracks. “I don't want to talk about that.”
I shook my head. “It's important. Audrey Lipman?”
“You know her?”
I gave a 'no duh' kind of look at him. “Of course I do. She was the queen bee of the girls that made my life a living hell in high school.”
He stared off into the distance. “Figures. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know that-”
I cut him off. “I don't care about that now. High school is over, and she's got a beautiful belly on her.”
“I know,” he said.
I waited for him to follow it up with something, anything at all. “You know? That's it.”
“Yeah, I know. What more do you want?”
My jaw dropped. “I want to know why you kicked her to the curb.”
He looked at me sideways. “I don't know what you think you know, but unless Audrey has been talking outside of her non-disclosure agreement, you don't know anything.”
I crossed my arms in front of me. “I deserve to know.”
He looked frustrated as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay. It's true, you do. Especially if she was your high school enemy. I owe you that much.”
“It's not about that,” I said. “I need to know your connection to her.”
He shrugged. “Well, whatever then. I first met Audrey when I came home in October 2013 for a conference. I took some guys out to Annie's Place and she was our waitress. She had just turned 18 and we hit it off.”
“So you are the father!” I gasped. “How could you just leave your child like that?”
Heartache rippled through me. I had guarded my heart, afraid of this, but the realization still reached into my chest and squeezed. I couldn't breathe.
Jame's jaw dropped and his eye bugged out. He turned a little pale and it looked like I really took him by surprise, almost as much as the first time I had ever told him that I wanted him. “What? No! Let me finish.”
I crossed my arms and waited. “Talk.”
“Yes, we had sex that night. Yes, we had sex again a few more times. But I always wear a condom.” He looked at me, then rolled his eyes. “Always used to wear a condom, whatever.”
I was too upset to laugh at that.
“Last April I invited her to a concert, a lot like the one that you just watched. She had a great time, but again I had to schmooze potential clients at the after party. She got way too drunk and, by the time I realized she was talking to Ryan, he had already left with her to go back to his place.”
I thought about the motorcycle ride he had offered me and shuddered.
“I drove over there, hoping to keep them apart, but they had already fucked. Ryan says she was all about it, but she seemed kind of distant. She told me that she didn't want to see me anymore. A couple months later, she called me and asked how to get in touch with Ryan.”
The ache behind my breastbone wasn't quite as painful anymore. The child wasn't his. I spoke up. “And you've been covering for him ever since.” It came out harsher than I expected.
“It's not that simple, Allie. Ryan wants to be a rock star more than anything in the world. A kid would make that pretty much impossible, especially one with someone that he wanted nothing to do with.”
“So now she's saddled with some kid-”
He cut me off. “Allie, I know you don't believe that a baby ruins your life.” His tone was harsh.
“No, of course not,” I said softly. Babies were the best thing in the world, and I couldn't wait to have one, especially one with James. “But the baby deserves to be taken care of.”
“I agree completely. Do you think that dickwad Ryan would be able to take care of a baby anywhere near as well as I can take of one? Even if he does become a famous rock star, he'll never make as much money as me. Trust me when I say that baby is going to have a silver spoon in its mouth.”