Page 120 of Beating Heart
Motherfucking paternity? I still can’t get over the fact that she’d play that card. I was seething.
“So, we bring her in here and we play our own hand.” River leaned back in his chair. “Listen to me, brother. She is just trying to get a rise out of you. She doesn’t have the determination to follow through with any of it. She strolls into town every one to two years and stays for what… two days? Fuck no. She has no leg to stand on.”
“What if she demands a paternity test?” I asked, hating the words as I said them.
“Well, how confident are you about taking it?” he asked.
“I mean, we were together for those months, and I don’t think she was with anyone else. But who the fuck knows with this woman.” I shook my head. “I know that boy is mine. I’ve never needed a test to prove it. From the minute he was placed in my arms, he was mine.” My fucking voice shook, and it pissed me off. “I can’t fucking lose him.”
“Dude,” Kingston said as he moved from where he stood against the wall over to me, yanking me to my feet and pulling me into his arms. “Cutler is your boy. I know it in my gut. He’s our family. Has been since the day he came into this world.”
“Fucking Tara,” Hayes hissed. “She has some fucking nerve coming here and messing with you. With Cutler. How about you let me go talk to her for a little bit?”
“That’s a terrible idea.” River shook his head. “We can’t give her anything to use against us.”
Romeo grabbed some chairs from the closet, and he, Kingston, and Hayes all sat down.
“What are our options?” Romeo asked.
“We bring her in here. We tell her we’re happy to take a paternity test, because your name is on that birth certificate, and you’ve been raising that boy. There is no reason to think you aren’t the father. So, we offer to take the test, and we also present her with six years of back child support owed, as well as an agreement to future payments.”
“She’s not going to want to do that.”
“Correct. So we get her to sign over full custody to you. You’re doing it anyway. It protects you. It protects Cutler. She doesn’t get to roll into town whenever she feels like it and call the shots.”
I nodded and buried my face in my hands. “I’m so fucking tired, you guys. I’m trying to hold onto Cutler. Trying to hold onto Emerson. To this family that finally feels right. And I could lose both of them in the end.”
Kingston and Romeo were on their feet again, squatting down in front of me as a tear rolled down my cheek.
“You aren’t losing anyone,” Kingston said.
“Listen to me, Nash.” Hayes’s voice broke through the noise in my head as he moved to stand in front of me. “You are the best fucking father I’ve ever met. No one is taking that boy from you. And Emerson—that woman loves you and that little boy. So, we fight. It’s what we do.”
He reached for my hand and yanked me to my feet, pulling me against him. His arms came around me as Romeo and Kingston joined right in and wrapped their arms around us.
“Fuck me. You sappy assholes are so damn soft.” River came around and slammed into us.
I lifted my head, taking in my brothers. The four dudes who had been beside me the day my kid was born, and every day since. I looked at each of them, one at a time.
“We fight,” I said.
“We fucking fight!” Kingston shouted, and we all laughed, and I swiped at my face, embarrassed that I’d come to tears.
River moved back to his desk, and Romeo and Kingston clapped me on the shoulder before taking their seats. Hayes grabbed a tissue and handed it to me.
“Here. Clean yourself up, brother. Those seasonal allergies are a real bitch,” he said with a chuckle.
I nodded.
Everything was going to be fine.
River and I spent a few hours drawing up a contract and getting everything figured out.
Tara had called a dozen times because she wanted to see Cutler.
But she was no longer calling the shots.
I told her that Cutler and I would meet her at the Golden Goose for dinner. That was what I had to offer her. And she’d need to be in River’s office on Monday after I dropped Cutler at school, because there was going to be a new set of rules put into place. She’d have two options: sign the papers or start paying child support.
