“What? Oh my god, BLAKE! Oh fuck!” I’m starting to panic, clutching the phone in my hand when Knox walks in.
“You alright darling?” he asks, coming up next to me and kissing me on the forehead. I hear Blake growl down the phone, “Vicky, that better be one of your fucking brothers.” His accusations make my panicking stop as I walk out of the room.
“Well, no it’s not. His name is Knox and he’s the hired help for a few weeks.” I don’t care; what can he do from all the way from New Zealand? And he has made it very clear that we can see other people. The line goes deathly quiet for a second. “Are you fucking him?”
I look at the phone in my hand with a disgusted look. “Pardon? No, as a matter of fact I’m not,” I smile at myself briefly before continuing, “But when I do ‘fuck him’, it will be none of your business, because remember Blake? You were the one that set down the ‘open relationship’ rules, but know this; I have kissed him a couple times, good fucking thing I’m not in a relationship, huh.” Shit, I didn’t really mean to tell him about the kisses. The voice that comes down the phone chills me to the bone. “I will fucking kill him Vicky, so I hope that kiss was worth it,” then the line goes dead. I hang up the phone, walk back into the kitchen and look over to Knox.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay; just some drama back home is all.” He nods his head before going back outside to finish what he was doing. I run out to follow him. “Can I speak to you quickly?”
He turns around, the sun beaming directly behind him.
“What’s on your mind?” he asks. I start to fidget with my fingers; I have never cared about how I might hurt people’s feelings before, because those people were not Knox Bowden.
“I can’t do this to you, it’s not fair. I’m in love with the father of my baby, and it wouldn’t be fair to you if I strung you along. You deserve so much better.” I slump down onto the steps on the porch; he walks over, sitting down beside me.
“I can wait for you, Vicky. I will wait for you.”
I shake my head. “Please don’t, please don’t wait for me. Blake is my happily ever after, even if I’m not his.” A tear drops from my eye; I wipe it away quickly and he pulls me in under his arm, kissing my head.
“You’re so fucking special, Vicky. I’m sure he knows that, you would have to be a fucking imbecile not to.”
I laugh at his comment. “Thank you Knox, for everything; for showing me that there are still decent people out in this world.” He kisses my head again, before standing and going back to work. When I walk back into the kitchen, my Dad walks in too, pulling open the fridge and getting a bottled water out. He looks towards me.
“Vick, try to be nice to Beverly. I know you don’t like her, but she rides my ass if you don’t play nice.” I scrunch up my face at my dad’s choice of words.
“Ew Dad, that’s gross. I need to talk to you, preferably with Mom, Dominic and Jake in the room, too?” After taking a swig of his water, he nods his head. “Ok, we can set them up on the speaker in my office. Everything okay?” Holy fuck, this man has no idea how not okay I am right now. I smile, “Yes, perfect. I’ll meet you in there in fifteen.” Forgetting that it is probably some ungodly time in Paris, where my Mom currently lives.
Fifteen minutes later, I walk into my Dad’s office and sit on the seat next to Dominic. I can’t stop jiggling my legs, I am that nervous. I look over to Dom, and see that he’s sitting there scratching his hand over his mouth, with a serious look on his face. I know he will be worried about how this is going to go down; and just as I begin to second-guess my support system, he wraps his arm around my back, pulling me under his arm. Thank god for brothers. My Dad looks between Dominic and me, before settling on Dom.
“You already know?” he asks, and Dominic nods his head. My dad picks up his phone and dials my Mom and my brother Jake, both picking up at the same time.
“Sup Pops, what can I do for you?” You can hear girls in the background. I roll my eyes because that has never changed; the man uses his good looks as a weapon. Dad sighs.
“Jacob? Dominic and Vicky are here too; and your mother is also on the line, so get yourself somewhere that is far away from your flavour of the week.” I hear Jake open and close a door, before my mom speak.
“Jefferson? What is going on? Put my daughter on the phone.”
“I’m right here Mom, everything is fine.”
She breathes out loudly, “Oh good, how are you darling? Why are you at the ranch? How is everything back there?” I laugh, because my mother has an opinion on almost everything.