Slow Burn(60)

    Great.

    Griffin tugged me forward. “This is Leigh. She’s Frank’s daughter.”

    I offered Beth my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

    Beth blinked at my hand for several seconds. Then she shook it, smiling tightly. “Likewise.” She dropped my hand and turned to Griffin. “So you’re looking out for her. That’s why you’re on the run?”

    “Yeah,” he said.

    “Because you still think you owe Frank,” she said, and I could tell that she didn’t think Griffin owed anyone.

    I clasped my hands in front of myself. I wanted to disappear. This woman did not want me here. At all. I’d just lost my best friend, left everything I owned behind, driven across the country, and now this woman hated me on sight. Could things get worse?

    From within the apartment, I heard the sound of a baby crying.

    Oh, yeah. Worse.

* * *

    Griffin was sitting at the kitchen table, holding the baby, who was gurgling in his arms, grabbing for his fingers as Griffin tickled her tummy. The baby didn’t have blonde hair like her mother. Instead, she had dark curls wreathing her face. Dark curls the color of the stubble on Griffin’s head.

    I stood in the corner of the room, my hands in my pockets, just watching. I was at a complete loss. That baby couldn’t be...

    Did she look like Griffin?

    Dear God, she kind of did.

    But he would have told me, wouldn’t he? Wouldn’t he?

    “Are you hungry, Griff?” said Beth. Her kitchen was small, but there was just enough room around the round table where Griffin sat that she could open the refrigerator.

    Griff, huh? He had a nickname. But that didn’t mean that he and Beth had... what? Been in a relationship? Had a baby together? I couldn’t... He would have told me, wouldn’t he?

    I was hungry, but I didn’t dare say anything.

    “Don’t go to any trouble, doll,” said Griffin, making silly faces at the baby.

    “No trouble,” she said. “I’ve got leftover mac and cheese.” She laughed a little. “Sorry. That’s about as gourmet as I get these days. Little Dixie runs me ragged.”

    Ugh. She’d named her baby Dixie? What kind of name was Dixie?

    “She sure is beautiful,” said Griffin. “You’re doing an amazing job.” He touched Dixie’s nose. “You’re getting huge, aren’t you? I keep missing everything. I’m very, very bad, yes I am.”

    He was talking in that tiny little voice people use to talk to babies. He was... I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream.

    No. I wanted to kill him.

    I needed to talk to him. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Maybe I wasn’t in an apartment with Griffin’s ex and their child. Maybe there was an explanation.

    But why did he say he was bad?

    “Well,” said Beth, “we’re glad you’re here now. We would love to see more of you.”

    Was she even his ex? She wanted to see more of him? What the hell was going on?

    He sighed, standing up and shifting the baby. “I really am sorry. But Frank—”

    “It’s always Frank,” she said. She laughed a little, like it was a joke, but I could tell she was annoyed.

    I would be too. Who did he think he was? How dare he leave this woman here with this baby? How dare he share my bed for the past week? How dare he make me think that he—

    I was going to cry. I sucked in my breath and forced myself to stop thinking about it. He’d explain everything. I had to give him a chance.

    Beth got a casserole dish out of the refrigerator. “I’ll heat up some macaroni for you.”

    “You don’t have to do that.”

    “I insist.” She opened a cabinet and took out a bowl.

    “Uh, maybe Leigh wants some too.”

    Griffin and Beth both turned to look at me.

    I opened my mouth to speak, but I knew suddenly, that if I did, I would lose it. I nodded.

    “Sure,” said Beth briskly. She got out another bowl.

    Griffin beckoned to me. “Why don’t you come sit down at the table, doll?”