Riggs

R iggs had been thinking, well, overthinking what Phoenix had said to him the first night that they slept together. He couldn’t help it—it consumed his every waking and sleeping thoughts over the past month and a half that she had practically been living with him. Every time he brought up Lydia’s father, she changed the subject, making him even more suspicious.

She had told him that she was only with one man—Lydia’s biological father. All she would tell him was that he wasn’t a good guy and that she worked with him. He tried pushing for more information and she accused him of not trusting her. That was when he dropped the questioning, letting her change the topic, but a part of wondered if she’d ever come clean with him about her past and if he should even keep on asking.

She and Lydia had practically moved in with him after their first night together. Making her his at Savage Hell seemed to be a recurring theme. Most of the time, they got away with it, but a couple of times, the guys and even the Harlots had walked in on them. As much as she denied it, Phoenix seemed to like getting caught having sex with him around the club. She even initiated the sex in places where she knew that they would get caught, even in his truck. For a woman who had very little experience, she sure did like the kinky stuff that he was into. That worked for him because he planned on keeping her long-term, he just needed to figure out a way to tell her that. He wanted to make Lydia his daughter, officially, but not knowing if the biological father would object was holding him up.

He was determined to find out if the father was even listed on the birth certificate because if he was, was going to pay him a visit and explain that he wanted to adopt Lydia. The guy obviously didn’t want to be her father. hadn’t seen him around since Phoenix pulled into town. The only person who might have been able to help him was Mrs. Aggie, but he worried that she might not share anything about Lydia’s father to protect Phoenix. He had to give it a try though.

waited for Phoenix to go down to Savage Hell before he texted Mrs. Aggie. He knew that if he claimed to need help with Lydia, she’d be over in a flash. Within minutes she was at his back door, drenched from the storm that had blown in, waving at him like a loon.

He opened the door, letting her in out of the rain. “Is everything all right?” she asked.

He shot her his guilty look, and she crossed her arms over her chest as though waiting for him to explain himself. “I kind of fibbed,” he admitted. “I don’t need help with Lydia. She’s playing in the family room and is just fine.”

She sat down at the table and nodded to the chair across from her. “Why did you call me over here then, Tommy?” she asked. He felt like a little kid every time Mrs. Aggie called him by his given name.

“I need some help with Phoenix,” he admitted.

“What kind of help?” she asked.

“I want to ask her to marry me, and I want to adopt Lydia,” he said.

“Well, that’s wonderful,” she insisted. Mrs. Aggie looked about ready to jump out of her seat and start planning the wedding.

“Before you get too excited,” he said. “She’s not been very forthcoming about her past, and I was hoping that you’d be able to help me fill in some blanks. I need to know who Lydia’s father is so that I can ask to adopt her legally. Without that information, I can’t file the paperwork.” He had already contacted a lawyer and was ready to go once he had the information that he needed.

“I see,” she breathed. “I’d like to help you, Tommy, but you probably know as much as I do about the past four years of Phoenix’s life. She hasn’t told me anything about Lydia’s father and I haven’t asked. I figured if she wanted me to know, she would have told me.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for her to share her story—not if he wanted to start a life with her.

“Have you at least seen Lydia’s birth certificate?” he asked. “If the father isn’t listed, my lawyer says that I have a fighting chance—well, at least if Phoenix agrees to all of this.”

“I know that Phoenix loves you, Tommy, I can see it in her eyes every time she talks about you. But she’s stubborn and for some reason, she’s afraid to share what happened to her once she left here. She just needs some time,” Mrs. Aggie said.

That wasn’t exactly what he wanted to hear. He didn’t want to take his time with Phoenix. Since meeting her, things had been moving at warp speed. He wanted to marry her and, with Lydia, become a family, but waiting her out for answers wouldn’t allow that to happen any time soon.

“I know it’s hard to wait. When I met Phoenix’s grandfather, I couldn’t wait to start our lives together. My father didn’t approve of him, but I didn’t care. I knew that I wanted Jack, and there was nothing he could do about it. I ended up getting pregnant, with Phoenix’s mother, Raven, and I knew that telling my father would only end up getting me sent away, so didn’t tell him. I told Jack and he insisted that we elope, and that’s what we did. We were happy for many years before he died, and I don’t regret one single decision that I made during that time. I’d do it all again. But you have to understand that Phoenix has regrets from the past four years, and she might not share them easily with either of us. You might not ever find out who Lydia’s father is, and you need to decide if you’re okay with that.”

“I won’t be able to adopt her if we can’t find out who her father is,” he admitted.

“Are you willing to just be her father without the legal paperwork?” Mrs. Aggie asked.

“I haven’t really thought about that,” he admitted. heard the floorboard squeak in the hallway to the back door and looked to see if Lydia was playing out there. Instead, he saw Phoenix standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He could tell by the look on her face that she had overheard part of their conversation, and she didn’t like one bit of it.

“We didn’t hear you come in, honey,” Mrs. Aggie said.

“What is going on here?” Phoenix shouted.

“Why aren’t you at work?” challenged. He thought that he’d have until midnight before she’d be home. Instead, she was back within an hour of leaving.

“Savage didn’t need me tonight. Things were slow because of this crazy storm, and he sent me home before it got worse,” she said. They were catching the tail end of a hurricane that was dumping a ton of rain on Huntsville. He was glad that Savage had sent her home to be safe, but hearing his conversation with her grandmother was going to cause him a lot of trouble.

“I overheard you talking about Lydia,” she admitted. “Is there something wrong?”

“No,” her grandmother said.

“Well then, how about one of you tell me what’s going on here?” she insisted.

“I think that I should be heading home,” Mrs. Aggie said. He wanted to tell her to stay—to have his back, but he didn’t. She was in favor of him marrying Phoenix and adopting Lydia and that was all that was important. Phoenix was the only person who could fill him in about her past, and he was going to just have to ask her about it and let the chips fall where they may.

He waited for Mrs. Aggie to kiss them both goodbye and leave before asking Phoenix about her past, but then, he just seemed to blurt out his question. He could tell that he had taken her by surprise, but he hoped that this time, she’d finally tell him what happened.

“Your grandmother was here because I needed answers,” he insisted.

“Answers about what?” Phoenix asked. He could tell by the look on her face that she already had a good idea about what they were talking about.

“I asked her if she knew who Lydia’s father is,” he admitted. She looked mad enough to spit nails and he should have given her a second to calm down, but he didn’t.

“She doesn’t have a father,” Phoenix insisted.

“Bullshit,” he spat, “she has a father, you just don’t want him in her life, right?” he asked. Phoenix looked like a caged animal, pacing his kitchen, and he knew that he should have given her some space, but doing so would never get him the answers that he was after.

One thing that he had learned about Phoenix was that she could fight with the best of them. He just hoped like hell that she wouldn’t give him too much fight because he didn’t know how far he’d be able to push her before he’d break down and give up. He was sure of one thing though—she was worth whatever fight she was about to give him.