Broken (28 page)

Completely disregarding Cassidy’s instructions, Mrs. Palmer got busy wiping down the kitchen table. “Cassidy, you mean well, and I appreciate the sentiment, but there’s no way I can go sit and relax when there’s work to be done.”

Mr. Palmer winked at Max. “Son, that’s our cue. Let’s get out before we’re run out of the kitchen.”

Max glanced at Cassidy who appeared so helplessly frustrated, he bit back a smile, knowing it would infuriate her if she saw it. He knew this was one battle she wasn’t going to win. Max also knew it was time to flee the field before the fighting began. If that made him a coward, so be it. Turning a blind eye to the silent, pleading request Cassidy sent him to help her convince her mother to leave the cooking to her, he said, “Come on, Mr. Palmer. Maybe you can help me set up the surround sound. With two of us, it should go faster.”

Mr. Palmer tossed Zoe in the air, making her shriek with laughter as she clutched her cup tightly with both hands, before catching her and holding her close. “Lead the way,” he said and followed Max out of the kitchen.

Max walked through the living room and opened the basement door they kept closed to keep Zoe from tumbling down the stairs. After clearing the last step, he moved to the side to allow Mr. Palmer by, and then secured the child gate he’d installed to keep Zoe from playing on the stairs. His daughter had a bit of monkey in her and she loved to climb. 

Mr. Palmer whistled. “This is very nice. I always thought it was a waste that Cassidy wasn’t doing anything with this space. With her not being able to use the stairs, it was understandable, but still…a waste of space. You did a heck of a job.”

“Thanks. It’s not quite finished. There wasn’t enough time to do the bathroom, so I’m still using the one upstairs. I have a small refrigerator and microwave in the kitchen area,” he said, gesturing to the space. “Since I share most of my meals with Cassidy and Zoe, I haven’t put in a stove, but we’ve wired and made space for it.”

“You’ve expanded,” Mr. Palmer noted, going over to where the exterior door used to be.

“A bit. When we’re finished, Cassidy’s bedroom will open up onto a deck and she’ll have another way to exit the house in case of fire. I don’t like that all the doors are toward the front of the house. The sound system is over here, still in the box. The system’s wireless. I want to mount the speakers on the walls,” Max said.

“I can help with that. I’m handy with a drill,” Mr. Palmer said.

“There’s a playpen down here for Zoe, or you can just set her down and let her roam. I made sure the room was child-proofed,” Max informed him as he opened the box and pulled out the equipment.

“Where are your tools?” Mr. Palmer asked.

“In that cabinet over there,” he said, pointing to the left as he struggled with the stubborn tape. Finally, he managed to pry one edge of it up and rip it off, taking a section of the cardboard box with it. Max was setting out the pieces when his father-in-law returned.

Noticing Zoe missing from her grandfather’s arms, Max looked around and saw her exploring. She’d found the miniature dollhouse he’d purchased and appeared fascinated with all the scaled down pieces of furniture. He smiled, glad she was enjoying her new toy. The thing was almost as tall as Zoe. That should keep her occupied for a bit.

Mr. Palmer picked up the two smaller speakers. “Where do you want these?”

Max glanced around, visually measuring the distance. There weren’t a lot of walls in the basement. “I think there and there.”

Mr. Palmer studied the spots he’d indicated and nodded approvingly. “You have a ladder or a chair?”

“I have a short step ladder. I’ll go get it.” Max walked into the unfinished bathroom and retrieved the ladder from where he’d stored it. He brought it back, opened it up, and stepped aside to allow his father-in-law to mount it.

Looks like I’ve been relegated to the roll of helper.
Max took the speaker and anchor Mr. Palmer thrust in his hands as he planted one foot on the lowest rung and began to climb. He began to get an inkling of how Cassidy felt. When he’d offered to let the man help him, he’d done it to be sociable, not because he was incapable. He hadn’t expected Mr. Palmer to take over.

Mr. Palmer gave the drill trigger a test squeeze to make sure the battery was fully charged. Grunting in satisfaction, he took a pencil from behind his ear and marked off the place where he wanted to make the hole. The whirling noise caught Zoe’s attention and she came over to investigate the source. Max took her hand to keep her from getting too close. He didn’t want her getting drywall dust in her eyes.

Mr. Palmer anchored the speaker and tugged on it to make sure it was secured. Satisfied, he descended the ladder and turning to Max, casually said, “So, you’re sleeping with my daughter?”

The verbal jab was delivered so smoothly, it slipped seamlessly under Max’s guard. Certain he’d misheard, he glanced up sharply. Meeting those cool brown eyes, Max knew he’d heard exactly right. Keeping his voice even, he said, “With all due respect, Sir, my relationship with Cassidy is
our
business.”

Max held the older man’s predator gaze, alpha to alpha, aware he was walking a fine line. Cassidy loved her father and was a classic daddy’s girl. Offending the man was not an option, but neither could he let the man simply run over him.

 “That may be true, but as a father yourself…” Mr. Palmer flicked a glance at Zoe, “…I’d think you’d understand.”

Well, hell
, Max thought. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Cassidy had specifically requested he allow her to handle her parents and she’d, naively in his opinion, assumed they would continue to be blind to the truth of Zoe’s parentage until she chose to tell them differently.

“My wife doesn’t, but I know who you are, Maximillan Desalvo. My daughter told me all about you—”

“I know,” Max inserted quickly, trying to take control of this runaway train before it derailed all Cassidy’s plans. “Look, Mr. Palmer, I understand your concern. In your position, I’d feel the same.” Max laid a hand on Zoe’s head and looked down at her. Her small blue eyes met his and the love he felt for her rose up and squeezed his heart anew. Damn. He scrubbed his face with his hand and sighed.

“Mr. Palmer, I love your daughter more than words can say. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make her happy. That being said, I made Cassidy certain promises. Anything more you want to know about our current relationship will have to come from her.”

Again their gazes clashed, each taking the other’s measure.

After a long silence, Cassidy’s father said, “I can respect that. However, since you
say
you love my daughter so much, maybe you wouldn’t mind telling me where you were when both my daughter and yours were fighting for their lives,” he continued in a hard voice before Max could sigh in relief.

Each word cut like a knife. Max closed his eyes as a soul-destroying wave of agonizing guilt washed over him.

“My daughter was almost killed because of that worthless piece of shit the law called her husband. How do I know you aren’t cut from the same mold? You two were best friends. For a man that professes to love my child, I find it strange you were nowhere around when she was lying on her deathbed.”

“I didn’t know,” he admitted quietly.

“How could you not? The accident and resulting lawsuit were all over the Philly news.”

Zoe patted his leg. “I go play.”

Max released her and she immediately scampered over to the play area. She grabbed the handle of the plastic wagon and began rolling it. Watching her, he thought again of all the time he’d missed out on with his child and felt a surge of rage. This was a hell of a time to give up alcohol, but his reliance on the bottle is one of the reasons he was in this mess.

“I never wanted her to go back to him,” he said in a low, strained voice as he fought to contain the violence of his anger. Gaze still glued to Zoe, he continued. “I argued, reasoned, hell, I might have even begged. Nothing I said or did swayed Cassidy. She had something to prove, a point to make. I understood. I didn’t agree, but I could see it was important to her.”

He shoved a frustrated hand through his hair. “Hell, I don’t know. In a way, maybe it was necessary. She would have never believed I wasn’t on the rebound from Amber otherwise, and maybe, just maybe part of me was waiting, wondering if Phillip would eventually woo her to his side. Any way you looked at it, it was a bad situation all around.”

Max sighed heavily, an attempt to exhale the tension in his chest. “So, Cassidy made that asinine agreement with Phillip, and I, because I loved her, agreed to abide by the terms.” He met his father-in-law’s steady gaze. “One year, no contact. Those were the terms. Only, I broke. Jealousy…it was like cancer, eating away at me.” Shaking his head, he dropped his gaze, unable to maintain eye contact. “I never knew how ugly that emotion turns a man. I stopped sleeping, couldn’t eat…couldn’t cope. So I turned to alcohol— the hard stuff—became anti-social, surly, and difficult to get along with when I did come around. My family blamed Cassidy. If I hadn’t got involved with a married woman…”

Abruptly, Max turned and walked to the kitchen area, opening the fridge. “You want something to drink? There’s soda, bottled water, and some of Zoe’s juice. No beer. I’m abstaining.”

“I’m good,” Mr. Palmer said calmly.

Max reached in and pulled out a can of Mountain Dew, popped the top, and chugged half the contents. He stifled a small belch as the carbonation rose and then stood staring off at nothing. “My brother, Nicco, the sibling I’m closest to, knew how much Cassidy meant to me. He agreed to play go-between, be a conduit while Cassidy played her game with Phillip. Only Cassidy and I were the ones who were played. He waited what he felt was a reasonable length of time and then told me Cassidy couldn’t afford to send any more messages because Phillip was suspicious. He told Cassidy I said I’d made a mistake, hadn’t given myself enough time to get over Amber and moved too fast, and now regretted my relationship with her. I didn’t want to hurt her but…”

There was the sound of crunching metal. Max looked down and saw yellowish-green fluid bubbling out of the opening to drip on the floor. He hadn’t realized he’d crushed the can. Making a sound of disgust, he tossed the aluminum into the trashcan and reached for the roll of paper towels to clean up the mess. When he finished, Max turned to face his father-in-law squarely, hooking his thumbs on his jean’s front pockets.

“Sounds like he played on both your fears,” Mr. Palmer said.

Max shrugged, displaying a nonchalance he was far from feeling. “Yeah. He’s a children’s behavior therapist, so he’s an expert in mental games. Needless to say, I believed him. I knew I couldn’t remain in the same city with the two of them and remain sane, so I left and stayed gone until a few months ago.”

“I take it your family didn’t mention anything?” Mr. Palmer said wryly.

The muscles in his face tightened as his features hardened. “No. If I hadn’t run into Cassidy at a charity event a few months ago, I still wouldn’t know about any of it—the accident, Phillip’s death, Zoe…” Again he fought the urge to pound his fist into something as he thought about all of the time with Zoe and Cassidy he’d lost, thanks to his
loving
family. “I asked Cassidy to marry me,” he blurted. Cassidy would be pissed, but he wanted her father, at least, to know he meant business.

One of Mr. Palmer’s eyebrows rose in an arch over his left eye as he absorbed the news. After a long pause, in which Max felt his heart beating heavy in his chest, his father-in-law said, “Let’s finish putting up those speakers. The game will be on soon.”

Silently, Max followed his father-in-law into the seating area and together they mounted the remaining speakers on the wall. The football game was in the first quarter before his father-in-law spoke again. “Because of Zoe?”

Instantly understanding Mr. Palmer’s train of thought, Max said, “Yes…no…not really, although Zoe’s a part of it. I loved her even when I thought she was Phillip’s child. Now that I know she’s mine, there’s no way I’m not going to claim her. Mostly, though, because I love Cassidy and feel we’ve wasted enough time. Had things gone differently, we’d have already been married,” he finished, forgetting momentarily that he and Cassidy
were
married.

Deciding to lay all his cards on the table, Max continued, “Words can’t describe how furious I was when I discovered Zoe was mine and Cassidy had made no effort to contact me. Worse, she’d named Phillip the father despite her knowledge to the contrary.”

“Cassidy was in no condition to name the father. If you want someone to blame, that’s on me and my wife,” Mr. Palmer inserted.

Football game forgotten, Max shifted on the couch to face his father-in-law. “That may have been true at the outset, but Cassidy could have changed the birth certificate once she was physically able to do so. All it would have taken was a letter explaining the circumstances of Zoe’s birth and who the actual father was. She knows it and I know it.”

His father-in-law eyed him narrowly.  “You sound like you’re still angry with my daughter.”

Max hesitated before responding, taking a minute to do some inner soul-searching. There was something there, but he wouldn’t classify it as anger. Finally, he shook his head. “No, I’m not angry with Cassidy. She tried her best to contact me, and my
family
,” he spat the word, “stonewalled her, and when Cassidy wouldn’t be put off, my mother told her I was married.” There was no hiding the bitter resentment in his heart this time.

“Sounds like you two have had a rough go of it.”

“We’re still working out some issues. I love Cassidy and believe she loves me. My family’s actions hurt both of us, and as a result, your daughter hasn’t completely forgiven me for abandoning her when she needed me most,” Max admitted.

Those all-seeing eyes of Mr. Palmer drilled into Max’s. “And you, have you forgiven Cassidy for setting this whole chain of events in motion with her decision to return to Phillip?”