Committed Passion by Bonnie Dee Page A

vest and tie and jogged off to rejoin the wedding party. I sat in the sunshine with the dozing drunk and thought about dads, my dying dad in particular. I’d be a father soon, and even though the embryo inside Leah was little more than a cluster of cells, I could already feel the weight of it. My son or daughter. I couldn’t imagine walking away from that responsibility. Made me want to punch the idiot beside me who’d left his woman and child to fend for themselves.
    I grimaced at the sour stench of alcohol and the drool glistening at the corner of Peters’s mouth. He’d belatedly tried to make amends and show an interest in Travis, but it seemed his new leaf had already dried up and crumbled.
    I couldn’t sit there with the guy all day. I had Leah to get back to. What the hell was I going to do with him?
    “Hey.” I nudged his arm. “Clay, wake up.”
    Bloodshot blue eyes flickered open, and he stared at me.
    “Listen, I know you want to see your boy, but this isn’t the time or the place. You’ve got to make an arrangement with Rianna and not on her wedding day. How’d you know to come here anyway?”
    He glared and ran a hand from his sweaty forehead through his tangled hair. “Not your business.”
    “And this wedding isn’t any of your business, man,” I responded. “Not after the way you treated her.”
    “You don’t know. You only heard her side. She left me. I didn’t leave her.”
    I’d heard enough from Jonah about why Rianna had fled. I had to uncurl my fingers from fists at the thought of this thug slapping her around. But getting mad and punching him wouldn’t do anybody any good. I needed to calm him down and send him away.
    “Why don’t you call your sponsor and ask him to pick you up?” I suggested, keeping my tone easy. “I’ll wait here with you for your ride to come, and I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with Rianna, tell her she needs to set up this meeting with Travis real soon.”
    Maybe it was a lie. It would be up to Rianna and Jonah how they dealt with Peters, but anything to appease him and get him gone.
    The man had reached a more compliant level of drunkenness. He pulled out his cell phone and squinted at it, searching for a number.
    The sponsor didn’t answer his call, and I’d had about enough of the whole situation. I took out my own phone. “I’m calling a cab.”
    “I don’t have money for that.” He peered at me with a crafty gaze. “You got a few bucks you could loan me?”
    “If you promise to go home and sleep it off. No bars. No liquor stores. You don’t want to give in to that, not when you’ve come so far.” I gave him the sort of pep talk I imagined a sponsor would. “Remember why you’re giving up drinking. Not just for Travis, but for yourself. Swear you’ll go home.”
    “Yeah, yeah. All right.” He didn’t sound very convincing, but I’d given all the rah-rah speech I could manage. I called a local cab company and waited impatiently for a car to arrive.
    “Who the hell are you anyway?” Peters asked after a few minutes.
    “Jonah’s brother.” At the risk of getting him stirred up again, I added, “You can trust Jonah to be a good father to Travis. He about raised me and my brother. If you really want Travis to be happy, maybe its best if you keep your distance for a while, at least till you’re sure you can stay on the wagon.”
    Apparently, Clay was sober enough now to register what I said. He didn’t argue or make excuses. His shoulders slumped as he rested his arms on his knees and stared at the ground. “Fucking life,” he muttered at his feet.
    “I hear ya.”
    I glimpsed Jonah coming toward us and motioned him away. Just the sight of Jonah might start another angry tirade. A few minutes more and I’d have the drunk in a cab and out of our hair.
    The older brother I’d known growing up would’ve marched in to take charge. That had always been Jonah’s way. But Jonah had changed since getting with Rianna.