Page 152 of Everything After
“They, who? My wife and Cody Vickers? You saw something between them when I wasn’t there, with your own eyes?” Alfie asked.
“No, on stage… in front of fans,” she admitted.
“So, you mean you saw them perform? You sawTitanic, the movie, right? You think Leonardo DiCaprio really died… that Kate Winslet let him drown?”
“Of course not,” Sienna muttered, scowling.
“Then what you saw was Cody and Lily performing on stage. Now, I’ll admit that I hated him touching my wife all the time when I couldn’t. That was the conversation you overheard. I warned him off, not to do that anymore, especially since Lily was pregnant with our child.”
Alfie’s explanation wasn’t strictly true, but he’d never have talked about Cody’s obsession toward me.
“How is Lily?” the reporter asked.
“Good.” Alfie’s one word answer gave them nothing else.
“Hopefully we’ll be hearing some good news in the coming days then,” the reporter said, moving away from the topic of the interview.
“Thanks,” Alfie said before turning to Sienna again. “So, as we’re clear, the rumor that you started about Lily Parnell and Cody Vickers was a figment of your imagination?”
“Yeah, it isn’t true.” Sienna hung her head low, and she mumbled into her chest.
“Look at the camera and be clear,” Alfie ordered.
“There’s no truth to the rumor I started. Cody Vickers and Lily Parnell did not have an affair,” she ground out while she stared straight ahead toward the camera.
“Who’s the baby’s daddy?”
“You are.” Tears pricked at Sienna’s eyes, and she dabbed them with a tissue.
Alfie slapped his hands on his knees and stood up. “Right, gentlemen. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my wife.”
The video ended there, and I sighed. I should have felt like a load had been lifted, but I still felt people would look at Charlie and wonder. If they did, I’d hope they’d see how much our son looked like Alfie.
“Don’t worry, you’re in a position of strength here, Lily,” Alfie told me while I stood on the patio. Alfie sat on a lounge chair, with Charlie stretched out the length of his thighs, facing him. Alfie held his little wrists in his hands and pulled some funny faces, making our baby give him some gummy laughs.
“Don’t do that,” I scolded, frowning.
“What?” he asked, looking puzzled.
“Tweak my ovaries like that,” I mumbled. “You’re going to make me pregnant again and I’m still recovering from this one,” I said, nodding at Charlie.
“Baby, I’ll tweak anything you want… get you pregnant again as soon as you’ve recovered… if that’s what you want.”
“No, that’s not what I want,” I replied playfully.
“It’s criminal how appealing you look holding our baby. It’s too… enticing. You look too hot. If I wasn’t still getting over pushing out junior here, I’d climb you like a tree.”
“Glad to know you’ve not lost your thirst for sex.”
“I was never thirsty,” I argued.
“You so were… and by all accounts from what you just said, it won’t be long before you are again,” he muttered. His raised eyebrow and amused tone made me chuckle.
“I might be a little parched… but not fully thirsty yet. I’m not sure you wouldn’t hurt me right now.”
“I don’t need to penetrate you to have fun, Lily. There’s a whole drawer full of toys upstairs.”
“Stop.” I hugged myself and squeezed my thighs together. I’d barely gotten over the birth and my panties were wet for my man again.
