Page 34 of Almost Christmas in Paradise

“You can tell me. You can talk to Ray. You can unload on your wife. Hell, you can even talk tomywife. We’re your family now, and—”

As I wait to hear the rest, the side door of the house next door opens, and Jelani fucking Harris walks out with another pie. As he lets himself through the gate, I hope he drops the pie and falls head-first into it.

“Merry Christmas,” he says, his cheery voice grating on my last nerve. I don’t bother to smile or return his greeting.

“Jay,” Nathanial says. “You joining us? We cooked a feast.”

I tense and wait for Jelani to take him up on his offer. I imagine him finding a chair and squeezing himself in at the table.

“I can’t, but I’ll see if Ray wants to have a drink after I drop off this pie. It’s apple.” He finally gets to the deck and smiles as if delivering a pie is some feat.

“My favorite,” Nathanial says. “Go on in.” He walks inside, and lucky for him, he doesn’t say a word to me. We stand there in the freezing cold temperature while I gather my thoughts.

“Remember when I was here at Thanksgiving, and you asked me why I blackmailed Nia?” He nods. “I’ll tell you why. Two words. Jelani Harris.”

He turns and faces me fully. His brows furrow while he digests my words.

“What? What the hell does Jelani have to do with anything?” He waves his hand in dismissal. “He has nothing to do with you and Nia.”

“He had everything to do with it,” I say, my voice now hard.

“How?”

“I showed up here the Friday night before we got married, and she was all dressed up to go out withhim.” I can’t even say his name. Just the memory of her dressed, ready and willing to go out with him still angers me all these years later. “I was here when he came to pick her up, and I didn’t like it. Imagine looking at the man who was primed and ready to take your family?” I ask.

He runs a hand over his face and says, “Jelani was no threat. As far as I know, they only went out that one time.”

“She was so angry at me. She would have fallen in love with him just to spite me.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he says.

“Imagine if you lost Shirley through no fault of your own, and when you find her again, she had your son. You realize you still love her, and then there’s another man in the picture who can take everything?” He stands up straighter, and I think he might finally get my point. “And you’re right. They only went out once because a few days later, she became my wife. I made sure of it.”

“Son, couldn’t you have just talked to her? And let’s not forget you still had a fiancée when you married Nia. She didn’t blackmail you because you had someone else.” She wouldn’tneed to blackmail me. If she had so much as smiled at me the day I confronted her about Carter, I would have pledged my undying love and devotion and begged her to take me back.

“That was over the minute I saw Nia in the arcade. Even if there was no Carter, it would have been over, and I would have ended up with Nia. And she didn’t believe me. She was so angry and called me all kinds of names.” My mind travels back in time to when I discovered Nia had my son. All the fights we had, which I admit now, were my fault. “She wasn’t going to listen to anything I had to say. And then she flaunted that clown in my face—”

“Flaunted? She was at home,” he says in his daughter’s defense. “She was single and had every right to date, especially since you—”

“I told you that was over,” I say, cutting him off. The last thing I want to hear is how my wife should have dated someone else. “My plan was to break up with Scarlett and ask Nia for another chance, but that blew up in my face. Scarlett was on a work trip, and when I flew there to talk to her, she refused to see me. I was going to wait until she got home to break it off, but when I went to go see Carter, he wasn’t there, and Nia was waiting for her date. I felt like I had no other choice. I had already hit rock bottom when it came to her, but I knew if I had time and proximity, I could make her see reason. I took that chance, and I don’t regret marrying her. I loved her on our wedding day. I’ve always loved her. But I do regret how I went about it.”

“So, you wish you had blackmailed her better?”

“No! I wish he was never in the picture. I wish none of this had happened, and I wish my father wasn’t a bigot.” I sigh and look away from him. He’ll never understand, and I know he’sonly defending his daughter. If someone had done this to Priya, I would not be as gracious as Nathanial is to me.

“It’s not just that,” Mr. Nash says. “And honestly, I don’t give a shit about you threatening me to get Nia to do what you want.” I gambled that if I threatened to have her father fired and sued for assault, she’d do what I want, and I was right. But I remain quiet. “You served her with a custody lawsuit.”

“I wouldn’t have done it.” There’s no scenario on this planet where I would take my kids from their mother. That would only hurt them. The lawsuit was only a tool to get me what I wanted.

“She didn’t know that, did she?” he asks. “You had no right to threaten her that way. Not after she went through a pregnancy alone and became a single mother. Then you come along years later and say you’re going to take him away? Do you have any idea how much she loves that boy? How much she went through dealing with your bully of a father and his thug lawyer? Do you know that for the first year of Carter’s life, she was worried about that same scenario? She had nightmares about you coming with your merry band of lawyers and taking him away. She was traumatized by what they did, and you came along and used her fears against her. No one deserves that. How would you feel if someone did that to Priya?”

I hang my head in shame. There’s not a thing I can say to refute his words. He’s right, and I knew all of that before I made the threat. I convinced myself it was okay since I would offer her an alternative to the custody suit immediately.

“The only thing I can say is that I wanted my family with me, and that was the only way that guaranteed that. She’s forgiven me, Mr. Nash.” He’s the only one still holding on to that baggage. His wife and I have a very good relationship. Sometimes she calls me just to say hello. The first time she did, I thought something had happened, but she said she wascalling to say hi. We talked for a full fifteen minutes. She calls me every Wednesday at the same time, and I make sure I’m always available to talk. And she never calls to talk about Nia or the kids. She wants to hear and talk about me. I look forward to our chats now.

“She went to Ray first. He’s the first person she told about the pregnancy. Afterwards, she came to me and her mother. She was adamant that she wanted to keep it. Once she said that, I told her that we would support her no matter what.” I’ve never been told this version of Nia’s pregnancy, and I remain quiet, eager to hear more. “When she told us about you, and if my wife hadn’t talked me down, I would have stormed that building and—” He doesn’t finish. He flares his nostrils and looks away. “Anyway, after she showed us the text exchanges and the letter from that scumbag lawyer, I told her we didn’t need you. She had me, her mother and brother.”

His words shouldn’t make me angry, but they do. I’ll forever be grateful that Nia had such a strong support system, but I should have been there. I wish he had gone to the office and made a scene. Maybe word would have gotten back to me, and I would have been able to be there for her during her pregnancy. Maybe I wouldn’t have missed the first three years of my son’s life.

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