leaned forward, a beseeching look in his eyes. “Alexis, please, you have to believe me. If I’d known about you, I would have—”
“What? Married her instead of Lauren? Or maybe you would have married Lauren and just sent me money and birthday cards?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I would’ve done, but I would not have just abandoned you.”
His words mattered more than they should have, which meant they hurt more than they should have. And that meant she was careening toward a dangerous waterfall, the kind where she would open her mouth and let words spill out until she slipped over the edge. But he wasn’t worth the emotional risk. Not after yesterday. She’d tested the waters—first by agreeing to meet the Vanderpools and then when she threw herself at Noah—and look at how both of those turned out.
“It doesn’t matter now,” she finally said, forcing her voice into a calm, steady cadence, the one she used with Karen. “It was a long time ago. I survived without you then, and I will survive without you again. This is a transaction. Nothing more. And once it’s over, you can go back to your life and I’ll go back to mine. Deal?”
A pained expression tightened his features. “What do I have to do to prove how sorry I am, Alexis? Just tell me, and I’ll do it.”
Alexis shook her head, tried to say the safe thing, which was nothing at all. But when she opened her mouth, a question came out. “If you found out about me three years ago, why didn’t you reach out then?”
A tall shadow darkened the doorway. “Because he didn’t need your kidney then.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Noah couldn’t believe it. What the hell was that asshole doing here?
Elliott maintained an expressionless calm and extended his hand. “Elliott Vanderpool. You are?”
“The man who is going to throw your ass out of here.”
Alexis splayed her hand in the center of his chest. “Noah, don’t.”
He looked down at her and cataloged her appearance. Puffy red eyes. Dark circles. He wanted to believe the cause of her suffering was the man sitting in her office, but Noah wasn’t stupid. He was equally responsible, and it gutted him.
Elliott slowly stood. “Is this—are you her boyfriend?”
At that, Alexis made an indecipherable noise that caused a small eruption in his heart.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. Stay away from her.”
Elliott looked at Alexis. “It’s not true. I’m not here because I need a kidney. I’m here because I am your father—”
Noah’s hands curled into fists. “You dare to call yourself that after you threw her out of your house?”
Elliott raised his hands in a truce. “I came to apologize for that.”
There was a lot of that going around today. “You need to leave.”
“Noah,” Alexis sighed, hand pressing into his chest. “Can you wait outside?”
He locked eyes with her. Beneath the naked pain was a detachment that scared him even more than when she’d driven away from him yesterday. More than the agonizing hours while he waited for her to call him back or respond to a single text. Even with her fingers against his chest, she was removed from him. Yesterday, there’d been nothing but heat in her touch. Today, it was ice-cold.
“It’s okay,” Elliott said, maybe because he was catching on to the tension between them or maybe because he was a fucking coward. “I was just leaving. I-I’ve said what I need to say.”
Alexis faced the bastard. “Wait.” She looked back at Noah. “Can you please wait outside?” This time she pointed, and the dismissal felt like a warning as much as a punishment.
Noah forced his feet to move, and she shut the door behind him. He paused to listen but then felt guilty. She didn’t want him in the conversation. He could at least respect her wishes that much. Noah trudged to a tall chair next to one of the stainless-steel counters and sat down. Behind him, the kitchen door swung open, and frantic steps approached. He turned around just in time to see Jessica.
“What’s going on?” she whispered.
“Hell if I know,” he grumbled.
“Is that really her father?”
“Looks that way.”
“Is that why she was crying this morning? Because of him?”
His head snapped up. “She was crying?”
“She tried to tell me it was just allergies. I tried to get her to tell me what’s going on, but she wouldn’t.”
Her office door opened. Noah shot to his feet, and Jessica squeaked and ran.
Alexis came out first, looked at him briefly, and then turned