Harmless(84)

"And … ?"

"And she wanted to know the situation with you and Seg. Apparently they've had some visitors." Cam glanced down at his coffee cup. "Reporters. She's concerned."

"About … ?" 

Cam gave him the look that said, seriously, you are not that dense. Roan pretended not to notice.

Before Cam could elaborate, Roan's cell phone rang. He prayed it was Seg, but even before he pulled his phone from his pocket, he knew he wouldn't get that lucky.

It wasn't Seg. It was his father.

Twice in such a short time meant something bad was lurking. Roan could feel it in his gut.

Cam got to his feet. "Go ahead and answer it, then we'll figure this out."

Roan grimaced. He didn't like the sound of that.

After hitting the button to answer the call, his gaze traveled to Liam. His son was grinning, and Roan's heart instantly swelled.

"Dad? What's up?"

"Roan, what's going on?"

Roan glanced at Cam. "What do you mean?"

His father's voice held a hint of frustration. "What I mean is I've got reporters camped out in my front yard asking to talk to me about my son and his  …  famous lover. When I called you last night, I thought I'd give you the benefit of the doubt. See if you'd share with me, ask for help. But you didn't. You went on as though nothing was wrong."

"Nothing is wrong," he assured him.

"Now you're lying to me again."

Son of a bitch.

"Dad-"

"Roan, I don't know what the hell you're up to, but I honestly think you need to consider what this could do to Liam. Your face is all over the news and they're talking about..."

"About … ?" Roan wanted to hear his father finish that sentence.

"Your  …  uh  …  love life."

So fucking what? There wasn't a damn thing Roan could do to change that, so what was his father all up in arms about? Or was this his way of interfering? Of trying to make Roan the bad guy?

Probably.

Then again, this sounded like something Lydia would say. Not Daniel. Was his father the bearer of bad news these days? Did they really believe Roan would do anything to harm Liam? Or put him in a harmful situation?

It was bullshit, and they both knew it. Maybe the sports stations were airing the details, but this wasn't big enough to hit national news.

He let his father continue anyway.

"Lydia wanted me to call you. She  …  uh  …  we think you should bring Liam to us. That boy has been through hell already. He doesn't need to be subjected to anymore trauma."

A sudden chill filled him, ice forming in his veins. "What?"

"It's apparent that your love life is more important than raising Liam. You promised us you weren't seeing anyone. And we believed you. You need to think about what's in his best interest, son."

What the hell did that have to do with anything?

Roan couldn't speak. A million rebuttals were on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't put voice to any of them. Shit. His father didn't know the first thing about what was going on in Roan's life. Or Liam's, for that matter. The man never bothered to call. In fact, neither his stepmother nor his father had made an attempt to see Liam in the past month. What in the hell gave them the impression that Roan wasn't raising Liam right? Why would Roan even consider allowing them to raise him?

"Look, Roan. Lydia said if you'll bring Liam to us, allow us to take care of him, that she won't make this into a big production. You can sign guardianship over-"

Roan caught the "she" in that statement. She won't make this into a big production.

Blood roared in his ears and Roan's body tightened, preparing for a fight. "What the fuck?" he growled.

"You know that's not a good situation to put Liam in, Roan," his father said, his tone one of complete authority. "He shouldn't be dealing with this. It was bad enough he had a drug addict for a mother, now this."




 

 

"Are you saying that being gay is in any way related to being a drug addict?" The man was off his fucking rocker.

"What I'm saying is that Liam would be better off in our care."

"Not. Gonna. Happen."

"Don't make this difficult, Roan. It's what's best, and you know it. Cassie's probably rolling over in her grave knowing that her son's being raised by … "

"By what, Dad? By a gay man?"

His father didn't respond.

"And actually, Cassie's the one who insisted I raise Liam should she not be able to. We discussed it at length back when I was the one taking care of my sister because you and everybody else had abandoned her." Roan tried to keep his voice level, but it was getting more difficult as the rage shifted and grew inside him.