Page 16 of Only for Me

“You might.” Her eyes locked on mine and I shook my head, annoyed, and moved out of the way so they could come in. I motioned toward the living room, watching both of them as theylooked around my place. I paid an interior designer to furnish everything when I first moved in but the setup was basic as hell. Regardless of my status, I kept things simple. So the entire place was clean: black leather, gold accents, and black tiled floors because them shits were easy to clean. I had more than a few wild nights here, which was another reason things were nice but basic. Not much to stain, destroy, or break when the trees were blazing and the liquor was flowing.

“You can get comfortable. Raaj should be here in a few.” I wanted them to sit their asses down instead of scrutinizing my shit.

“Who is Raaj?” Makari frowned at me.

“My lawyer.”

“Oh…” She glanced at her girl who gently tugged her arm and led Makari to the living room. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, watching as Makari lifted Avi from her carrier then pressed the plastic clasps to unhook it from her body. When she dropped it on the floor and situated Avi in her lap, the baby looked around my place with her eyes wide and her tiny ass brows pinched, then she found me and she smiled.

Something in my chest shifted for a brief second but then it was gone. Babies were cute, hell mine was fucking beautiful. She looked like a female version of me with a head full of jet black curls but that was about it.

“You’re really not going to offer us anything while you’re standing there guzzling water?” Ol’ girl had me turning my gaze in her direction to find her eyes narrowed on me.

“This isn’t happy hour, baby girl. We’re here for business.”

“Oh, so you really are an asshole and not misunderstood,” Makari mumbled and I chuckled.

“The baby need anything?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, she’s good.”

And don’t need shit from you…

She didn’t verbalize that last part out loud but I heard it loud and clear. Luckily for me, my doorbell was going off again. After checking the camera and realizing it was Raaj, I had a distraction that would keep me from telling Makari and her girl to kiss my ass.

There was a woman with Raaj dressed in black scrubs and a lab coat carrying a black plastic case about the size of a medium toolbox. I led her to the kitchen table where she set up, then Raaj got started with Makari.

“I assume you’re Ms. Phoenix.” She nodded and he extended a hand. “I’m Raaj Armand, Mr. Hayes’s attorney. I appreciate you cooperating with this.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Makari look down at Avi then nod. “I just want to get this resolved so we can go back to our lives.”

Shit me too but our lives no longer existed in the ways we wished they did. We were fucking stuck in this.

“Understood. Dr. Logan is here to do the test. She will go over the process and I have some paperwork we need to take care of.”

I moved through the next hour robotically. Logan explained things, then collected our samples, starting with Makari and Avi, leaving me for last. Makari and her girl whispered shit back and forth while Raaj watched the entire thing like a hawk. His ass was acting like he didn’t trust ol’ girl doing the samples, which made me wonder why the hell he chose her. But then again, I knew Raaj. He wanted to document everything so there was no question about the validity of the test.

After Logan was done, she packed up everything and talked to Raaj before she addressed the rest of us. “We’ll have the result sent over before nine tonight.”

“Shit, that fast?” Ol’ girl seemed surprised but Makari wasn’t.

“He can afford it.”

“I’ll send them directly to Mr. Armond…”

“Don’t I get a copy?” Makari frowned hard as fuck. Logan smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I have your email as well but the official results that will be used for legal reasons will be sent to Mr. Hayes’s attorney.”

“How do we know he can’t mess with them?” Ol’ girl cut her eyes at me and Raaj spoke up.

“Ms. Phoenix will have an official copy. If there were a situation where they didn’t match, she could submit and request additional testing. I don’t plan onmessingwith the results. There’s no need. Mr. Hayes isn’t denying the child. He’s the one seeking custody.” He glared at me like he still couldn’t understand why the hell I was doing this but he didn’t need to understand. He only needed to handle this shit in a way that made sure I was covered.

“Is there anything else?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

Makari looked at me, then her girl, before she shook her head. “No, I think we’re good.”