Page 42 of Love At Close Range

“Okay, what did you want to talk about?” I asked as I folded my arms and stared at him.

Lennox dragged his hand across his hair before resting both hands against the edge of the island. “I figured out what happened with that message,” he started.

“Okay… and?” I asked.

“It was Kree,” he confirmed, and my blood pressure shot through the roof.

“What the fuck does Kree have to do with this?” I asked.

“A lot more than either one of us knew,” Lennox replied as he exhaled through his nose. “She saw the message and responded like it was me. She must’ve deleted everything afterward because I never saw any traces of it,” he explained.

“So, you’re saying Kree saw me tell you I was pregnant, but you never saw it?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Ree,” he agreed with a nod.

The microwave beeped behind me, but neither one of us moved. I knew where this conversation was going, even though I didn’t want to believe it. I pushed myself away from the counter as my blood started to boil. I remembered exactly where I had been when I sent that message. I had sat on the edge of my bed staring at my phone for almost an hour before I finally forced myself to type the words. I had been hurt, angry, scared, and still trying to wrap my mind around being pregnant, but regardless of what had happened between Lennox and me, I knew he deserved to know. Then that response came back so cold that I had read it over and over because I couldn’t believe the man I loved could say something like that to me.

“Do you know how many years I hated you for that shit? Even after I got over us and accepted that whatever we had was done, I couldn’t get past you knowing about your child and choosing not to give a fuck,” I croaked out.

“I know,” Lennox said, but his expression told me he understood that knowing it now wasn’t the same as living with it all those years.

“No, you don’t,” I shot back. “You don’t know shit, Lennox! Every birthday… every first day of school… every time Rhyse asked why his fucking father didn’t want him, I had to figure out how to answer without making him feel like something was wrong with him, I thought you had made that choice.”

“You told him I didn’t want him?” He frowned.

“What else was I supposed to say? At the time, that was the truth. I wasn’t about to lie to him to preserve his outlook on you. You already did that,” I spat.

“But I didn’t!” He yelled before closing his eyes. “Ree, I didn’t know that shit, man. You should’ve known I’d never say no shit like that.”

I looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity in them. I did believe it, but I was also hurt, so I said fuck it. The truth didn’t magically erase the moments he had missed with his son. It didn’t erase the years I spent doing everything without him because I thought that was what he wanted. All because Kree had decided she had the right to make a decision for both of us.

“Why the fuck would she even do something like that?” I asked.

“Because she didn’t want you back in my life,” Lennox answered. “She claimed that you knew she wanted me first, and you still got with me,” he stated.

I couldn’t do shit but laugh to keep from getting in my truck and driving to Cannon Hills and breaking my foot off in her ass.

“So because she didn’t want me around, she decided your child didn’t deserve his father?” I asked as I shook my head. “What the fuck was wrong with her?”

“A lot… apparently,” Lennox replied.

“She was supposed to be my friend. She looked me in my fucking face after that, Lennox. She knew I was pregnant and still looked me in my face like she hadn’t done shit.” I was getting pissed all over again. I leaned back against the counter and studied him for a moment. “So what happens now?”

“With Kree?” Lennox asked, and when I nodded, he answered without hesitation. “Nothing changes with Lennyn. That’s my daughter, and whatever issue I have with her mama has nothing to do with her.”

That was the answer I expected, and honestly, I would’ve thought less of him if he had said anything different. I nodded slowly before asking, “And between you and Kree?”

“There ain’t shit between us outside of raising Lennyn,” Lennox said firmly. “I made that shit clear to her.”

“And you really think she’s just going to accept that without making shit difficult?” I raised my brow at him.

“I really don’t care what the fuck she accepts. She caused all this shit, so now she has to deal with the consequences of the selfish ass choices she made,” Lennox replied.

“You can’t guarantee that,” I told him as I crossed my arms again.

“Yeah, I can,” Lennox replied without blinking. “Whatever Kree did in the past has already cost me enough. She’s not about to cost me anything else. She’s not coming between me and my son, and I’on give a fuck how she feels about me being here or what she thinks about you. Rhyse is mine… I’m his father, and that shit ain’t changing,” he said with finality.

“What about Lennyn? She’s five, Lennox. She’s not going to understand any of this shit, and I’on want her caught in the middle either,” I said honestly. Just like Rhyse, she was innocent in all of this.