Tagged & Ashed(52)

“Hey, Tag,” Alaina, one of my many conquests, gushes as she walks over.

Who the hell invited her?

“Hey,” I lightly offer while cradling Trip closer to me.

“I cannot believe you’re a father. You were always so careful. Are you and the mother-”

“We’re living together, if that’s what you’re asking,” I misleadingly interject.

I’m not telling this crazy bitch I’m still single, especially since I’m in love with my son’s mother. I just don’t know if I can ever trust her again.

“Well, that’s a shame. The world is going to be full of sad, crying women.”

“I’m sure they’ll move on as though I never existed,” I murmur as I head away from her.

I look back over to see a guy approaching Ash, his eyes hungry, wanting, and he smirks as he watches her from afar. He’s tall, not short like her attacker, but he’s a threat of a whole different kind.

Wren and Kade walk up, and my head motions in the direction of the wolf stalking my lamb.

“Who’s he?”

“The guy with the blond hair?” Wren asks.

“Yeah. The one who can’t tear his eyes away from Ash.”

Kade stifles a knowing grin, and Wren shrugs.

“He said he works for Mom. I spoke to him earlier when I saw him hanging around but not really talking to anyone. You jealous?”

“Not yet. If he touches her, then we’ll talk.”

Kade lets a bit of a laugh free, considering there was once I time I called him an idiot for going after Lyle Hughes simply because Raya was playing pool with him. I get it now. Completely.

“If you want her, then why don’t you just take her? I think it’s rather obvious she’s in love with you and only you," Kade says, shrugging as he looks around the party for the girl who never leaves his side for long.

“She’s not in love. She’s just confused… like me.”

“Let me see that boy while you open this,” Wren says while handing me an envelope and pulling Trip free from my grasp.

“What’s this?” I muse while staring at the large, manila envelope.

He's interrupted when Raya comes swishing in, a little tipsy, and crashes into the waiting arms of Kade. A pang of envy strikes me when he loses control over his hellacious grin, and he pulls her to him. They forget the rest of the world even exists as they suddenly start devouring one another.

“Open it,” Wren says with a shit-eating grin, shaking his head at the two showy lovers.

I force a smile as I pull out a piece of paper. But my smile is banished by my shock, and my breath gets lost on its way to my lungs. My whole world changes as I stare down at the birth certificate someone had redone.

Trip Tagland Masters is the name.

“I thought his middle name was James,” I almost whisper.

“Well, at the time, she couldn’t tell people what she really named him. She hired a lawyer to get the surname changed. She had the paternity tests done in secrecy, and now the birth certificate is fixed. I told her I knew a guy who could rush the process, and she hired him without question. In case you were wondering about the possibility he wasn’t really yours, now you know for sure he is.”

My still evades my lungs, and it’s all I can do to stay upright. I’ve been an asshole with no real, legal rights, and yet she goes and has this done. Not to mention, she named him after me to begin with, she just didn’t give him my surname in the beginning.

“I never questioned if he was mine once I found out. I should have questioned if he was mine the second I found out she was pregnant. She’s not the type to screw around like that.”

“She screwed around with you,” he laughs. “How could you have known?”

“It’s different with me. She always knew me better than any other girl I’ve ever been with, and she only knew me for three days before she got pregnant.”

“Dude, hang it up. You’re in love. You haven’t even been with another girl since you met her. Just drop bullshit and be with her.”

I smile a little as I stare at Trip’s scrunched face as his dreams carry him far and away from reality.

Thinking about what Ash said outside makes me a little sick. She feels replaceable, expendable even, and she’s not - not to Trip, not to me. There’s no one in this world more perfect for me, and somehow I’ve got to get over what she did.

Staring at the birth certificate she had redone, I know I’m getting closer to being over it.



***

Ashiara



A tall blond guy has been staring at me for far too long, and now I’m starting to feel uncomfortable. I’m worried I’ve got something stuck to my face. Of course, I’m rather drunk, so it’s possible I’m making some ridiculous expression.