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“You sound like an ass,” Dad cuts me off. “And if this is how you’re going to talk to your new in-laws, they have my sympathy. You’ll bomb.”
After a few more words of encouragement, as well as some advice, he sends me off. I know he’s trying to get rid of me, that nurse he’s seeing must be something special.
I get in the car and look at the envelope I had left hooked in the sun visor. I wonder how good of an idea this actually is. It came to me before Hunter told me what she did, and I wanted to use it as leverage before. Now I want to just do it to make her feel better, give her time to breathe and not worry about anything.
I start the car, and not before long, I am pulling into the Montgomeries’ driveway. I recognize Ridge’s car parked there, and almost change my mind and leave.
“Man the fuck up, dude,” I murmur to myself, then pop the door open.
I go up the couple of stairs that take me to Hunter’s parents’ front door, and lift my hand to knock. No sooner I do that, and the door flies open, Ridge Montgomery looking at me with murder in his eyes. I guess he knows we’re brothers now. The grin that escapes me is not intentional, but so perfect given the situation.
“Dude, I would beat the shit out of you if I didn’t have the baby strapped to me right now,” Ridge growls at me. Holding back the laughter that threatens to take over my body is physically painful. His son is sleeping on his chest, strapped in this weird contraption that doesn’t make any sense, while Ridge would take a gun to my head if he could.
“Ridge, who’s here?” A female’s voice calls from what seems to be the back of the house. That’s got to be my new mother-in-law.
“Do they know?” I look Ridge straight in the eyes when I ask him that, and the growl he responds with tells me that he knows exactly what I’m asking.
“Not yet.” He decides to also communicate with words.
“This should be fun then,” I snicker. “May I come in, or are we doing this outside? What’s the protocol? I’ve never met in-laws before.”
I know I am being a smartass, talking shit just to get Ridge all riled up, but I can’t help it. This is funny in a way, depending on how you look at it.
He steps to the side to allow me to enter. “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you, just you wait,” he says low enough where I can only hear him.
“Ridge, what’s going on?” his mom calls again, her voice closer this time. “You took off with Levi before I even got a chance to see his face. Give me that baby,” she commands.
Had I not had history with these people, I would’ve thought this was a really cute situation, how Eva Montgomery is so anxious to see her grandbaby. Due to the current circumstances, I am bitter as I witness all this. Mine and Hunter’s baby would’ve been her first grandchild. Would she have loved him or her the same?
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she is startled when she realizes that her son let a stranger into her house. “I didn’t realize someone was here. Are you a friend of Ridge’s?”
I am taken aback by how much Hunter looks like her mother. It’s like I am looking in a strange mirror where I see Hunter in twenty years or so. My tongue is tied, and when I don’t say anything, Ridge kicks me in the leg, hard enough to buckle.
“What the fuck,” I turn to look at him.
“No, you, motherfucker,” he gets into my face, putting his hands protectively over his son’s head to cover his little ears. “You iswhat the fuck it is!”
“Ridge,” his mom’s appalled tone doesn’t do anything to calm him down. He is ready to rip my head off. “Jack, come down here quick,” she halfway turns toward the stairway and calls for her husband. “I’m so sorry about this,” she looks at me apologetically. “Who are you?”
We all hear Jack Montgomery’s rushed steps as her hurries down the stairs, following his wife’s call of distress.
“What the hell is going on?” He eyes both his wife and son, almost like he is assessing if they’re physically okay. Once that’s done, his eyes meet mine. “Who the hell are you?”
“Jack,” Eva Montgomery chastises her husband, but she never moves her eyes from mine.
“Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery,” I nod at them, preparing to introduce myself. “My name is Zach Cavanaugh…”
“Oh my God,” Eva’s face goes ashen, her hands clasped over her chest like she is about to have a heart attack.
So, she knows who I am, or at least she knows my name. I wonder what else she knows. Time to find out, and now is as good as any.
“Hunter’s husband.”
CHAPTER 30
Sleep
Hunter
