Dallas turned the full force of her smile on me and I felt my heart lift with the love shining back at me in those blue depths. Dallas was my sister, not just my best friend. “Harper came into my life when I felt like I had no one. No one should ever feel that alone, but I didn’t know that until the day I met the gaze of a violet-eyed beauty. She is the most loving, giving, forgiving, and beautiful inside and out person I have ever had the good fortune to meet. I hope that Shane realizes what a treasure he has been handed today, and that he respects and cherishes it for the rest of his life… Because if he doesn’t I have a ball bat with his name engraved on it.” The room filled with laughter, most of them not suspecting that Dallas was completely serious.

I snickered, but lifted my champagne flute to my lips as Dallas finished her toast.

Chapter 8

Layla

That freaking cake was calling my very pregnant name!

I glared at the twelve-tiered thing, my mouth watering at just the sight. I had been with Harper and Emmie when they did taste tests for the perfect flavors. Some kind of lemon crème was what Harper had finally decided on for the entire thing. It shouldn’t have surprised me. If you walked into Shane and Harper’s house right now all you would smell was lemon. Candles, hand soap, dishwashing detergent. They were freaks for lemon.

And the two beasts in my stomach were wanting to dive into sweet dessert.

I rubbed a hand over my very distended stomach, silently begging them to behave. Beside me Jesse was people watching. Or rather, boy watching. One in particular. Harris Cutter was dancing with Lucy, who seemed a little star struck by the fourteen-year-old. I thought it was adorable. But Big Daddy wasn’t having the same thoughts as I was.

I nudged his arm with my elbow, trying to draw his attention to me and not the kids dancing less than fifteen feet away. “Hey.”

Jesse barely spared me a glance. “Yeah, baby?”

“He’s just dancing with her, Jess.”

“Who’s dancing with who?”

My eyes narrowed and I realized that maybe his eyes weren’t narrowed on Devlin’s son but only on Lucy. “What’s with you?”

He shook his head, then seemed to force his gaze from our daughter to me. “Sorry, was I spacing?”

“Big time. Is something wrong? You really haven’t been acting like yourself all day.” Actually he had been spacing on and off since the ceremony. I had put it down to concern after I had told him that Emmie was pregnant and initially hadn’t taken the news well.

“It’s nothing. I’m just tired. Couldn’t sleep worth shit last night without you beside me, baby.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek, but moments later his eyes were back on Lucy. His gaze was zeroed in on her for the next hour, following her every move as she went around the room talking with all the people that she knew, which was nearly everyone present.

While he watched Lucy I watched him. His jaw was tense, his skin on the pale side. My usual happy-go-lucky husband was scaring the fuck out of me. I wanted to grab hold of him and demand he tell me what the hell was going on.

“Did Lucy do something I should know about? Is she in trouble?” I finally demanded, knowing that if that were the case, Jesse would have already told me about it. Damn it, Lucy would have already told me about it. We were all open and honest in our little family. It was our house rule!

“No.”

Okay, now I was starting to get upset. “Then why can’t she take two steps without you nearly freaking out? Why the fuck did you just follow her to the bathroom!”

Lucy had been standing talking with Jenna, Harris, and Harper’s boss’s daughter. When the three girls had left the reception hall to use the bathroom Jesse had gone even tenser and followed after them. When they had returned he had come back and sat down beside me. I grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn his gaze from Lucy who was now dancing with Shane.

If I had been freaking out before, the sight of his eyes sent me over the edge. Those ever-changing dark eyes that I fell in love with before I had even guessed I loved the man, were the darkest I had ever seen them. Whatever was going on was bad. Really, really bad.

“You’d better start talking or I’m going to start screaming,” I told him as calmly as possible considering my heart was about to pound out of my chest.

Jesse swallowed hard, running his free hand over his shaved head. “I don’t want you to worry about this, okay? I’m going to handle it first thing in the morning. I swear to gods I’m going to fix this. Okay?”

“What needs fixed?”

“When I went home yesterday to water your plants and get the mail… There was a guy sitting in the driveway. He said he had been waiting for a few days. He wanted to talk to either me or you. It didn’t matter who…” Jesse blew out a frustrated breath, his gaze going back to Lucy almost unconsciously. “He served me with legal papers, Layla.”

“Legal papers? What for? Are we being sued or something?” I was even more confused but the sudden butterflies in my stomach had nothing to do with the twins and everything to do with a nameless fear.

Jesse shook his head. “Not for money. For custody. Lucy’s real father wants her.”

If I hadn’t been sitting down I was sure I would have fallen. All the blood drained from my head so suddenly that I felt faint and I clutched at his arm as I sucked in several deep breaths. Like his gaze, my eyes went straight for Lucy and became glued there. “I don’t even know who he is,” I whispered.

Adopting Lucy had been fairly easy. My mother hadn’t listed her father’s name. But the lawyer we had dealt with had warned us. Just because a father hadn’t been named didn’t mean the biological father didn’t have rights. If one should one day step forward he could nullify our adoption if he wanted to. I hadn’t even worried about it. The men my mother had surrounded herself with, the men who had fathered both Lana and myself were men who were not exactly happy playing daddy dearest. I assumed that whoever Lucy’s sperm donor was had left Lydia without a backwards glance just as Tommy and Cole had done.

“His name is Vince Grady.” His fingers wrapped around my shaking hand, entwining with mine. Lending me strength because I suddenly had absolutely none left. “That’s the name on the papers that douchebag gave me. I Googled his name… Two names came up within the state of California. Some average Joe with a receding hairline and a potbelly and… some guy who has a prison record for possession of crack and aggravated assault. He has Lucy’s eyes.”