"She'd have known her father already if you'd bothered to tell him that he had a daughter," he snaps testily.
Sophie casts her eyes down. "I know I should've told you sooner. I won't try to make excuses. But Cash, I was just a kid. And the way things ended between us … I just wasn't sure you'd welcome the news. I know I hurt you. I hurt you bad and … I can't tell you how much I regret that, but don't hold my mistakes against Izzy. She's just a little girl."
"Like I would do that. What kind of man do you think I am?" he growls angrily.
"I know what kind of man you used to be. I knew time and life and distance couldn't change you that much. You're too stubborn. Always have been." There's an intimate ring to her words and she smiles at him in a way that I know is meant to drag him back into yesteryear, when they were a couple. "That's why I knew I could bring her here. That you'd help. That you'd do right by your flesh and blood."
Cash surprises me by his next statement, by the blatant insinuation. But then again, he's never been one to pull punches.
"I'll always do right by my flesh and blood. As long as they are my flesh and blood."
Sophie manages to look offended, although something tells me she's not. Not really. If she knows Cash as well as she says she does, she'd know that he would want a paternity test. Cash and I haven't talked about it, but I had no doubts he'd want one. Any man with a brain would. And Cash has lots of brains. Anyone who is fooled by his muscles is just that-fooled.
"You think I'd lie about something like that?"
"I don't think anything, Sophie, but I want to know for sure. Surely you had to expect me to ask for proof."
"Look at her!" she cries in outrage, pointing toward the office where her daughter sleeps. "How could you deny it?"
"She looks just like you. How could I not question it?"
"Yes, she looks like me, only with your eyes."
"Only with dark brown eyes. Davenports don't hold the monopoly on that color. Surely that's not how you expected to convince me."
Cash's icy tone cools Sophie's indignation. "No, you're right. Lots of people have dark brown eyes. Eyes so dark they're almost black." She adds the last with heavy sarcasm. "And of course we'll submit to testing. Just as soon as the holidays are over and everything opens back up." Her voice softens and her expression turns to one of feminine sway. She's all but batting her eyelashes at him. "That's okay, isn't it? To wait until after the holidays? Surely you wouldn't make us leave right after Christmas just because the rest of the world closes their offices, would you?"
I could throw up all over her.
Cash's full lips thin into a tight, straight line. "Of course not. Don't be ridiculous."
At that, she smiles. "Yeah, that is kind of ridiculous, isn't it?"
Cash doesn't return her smile and I can do little more than just stand here and try not to baulk. I think I've had more than enough of this woman for the moment.
I clear my throat. "Well, if you'll be staying in the apartment here, I guess I'd better get our things together, right, babe?" I ask, smiling up at Cash, trying to act natural. Like my chest doesn't feel as though it's been ripped open by a dull knife.
"I'm coming. I'll help," he says, reaching out to brush his thumb over my cheekbone and give me that lopsided grin of his that I love so much.
"Olivia," Sophie says, forcing my eyes back to her and (purposely, no doubt) shattering the tiny moment Cash and I were sharing. I can't help wondering if that will be her role from here on out-disrupt at every opportunity. I turn my attention back to her, although it's considerably cooler now that I'm onto her ploy. Or at least I think I am.
"Yes?"
"Thank you. Truly. As one mother to another, I know you know how much this means to me." Ice forms across the surface of my heart and I can feel the color leave my face. "You do have children, right?"
"No. I-I don't have any children. Yet." I say the last emphatically, as if it's not even in question. I hope she can't detect the fear, the uncertainty, the panic in my heart that there's a distinct possibility that I won't be able to give my husband a child of our own.
"Oh. I just assumed … I mean, Cash wasn't really the marrying type, so I assumed you were … that he had to … "
Silence falls into the room like a thick, dark cloud until Cash's voice pierces it like an ominous crack of thunder.
"You assumed that she trapped me? That she tricked me into marrying her?"