by Lexi Wilson
Daniel now had a little girl he needed to be concerned with, which meant any woman who was going to be with him had to at least, on some level, be prepared to be with him long-term and be ready to be a mother to his niece.
We had nothing. Not really. Yes, I’d stayed over the last few days, but other than that, I’d done everything I could to put distance between us.
I thought I loved him, but maybe I didn’t even know what love was anymore. Maybe what I thought was love was really just the end of the pain I’d been feeling the past couple of years. I couldn’t trust my heart, and I couldn’t trust my head. I didn’t know what to do.
The only thing I knew was that there was no way I could go to Daniel and tell him I was love with him until I knew with certainty what the hell we even really had, and not just what I thought we had.
The elevator doors opened, and I headed into the hallway, still only dimly aware of the environment around me. My body knew the direction, and I headed down the hallway. I opened the door to the office and let out a big sigh.
I took several steps until I realized someone was sitting at my desk. I stopped and stared. My brain took several seconds to accept what I was seeing.
My grip loosened, and my coffee cup fell.
The man at the desk reached out and snatched it out of the air. My husband had always had good reflexes.
“Blaine?” I said.
Chapter 29
Daniel
I paced back and forth in my office, a sleeping Sasha in my arms, my heart racing. When Blaine had come in and introduced himself, I didn’t know what to do or how to react. He’d blindsided me at the door, so I decided to let him wait for Morgan, but I didn’t want my niece around him at all.
Maybe I should have been a dick and thrown him out the minute he introduced himself, but at the same time, I had a feeling if he’d tracked her down and shown up after years, he had a good reason for it. I didn’t want to mess things up for Morgan by not giving her a chance to decide how to handle him.
That didn’t mean I had to like it though.
I sucked in a breath. I couldn’t believe that Morgan’s ex-husband was in the office, a living obstacle in the way of me trying to build a lasting relationship with Morgan.
No. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn’t her ex-husband, but her actual husband. Even if they hadn’t seen each other in years, they still were technically married.
My door remained partially open. I tried to convince myself this showed I wasn’t hiding the fact that I was eavesdropping, but I didn’t exactly have it wide open either. I wanted to know what the hell Blaine was doing there and if he planned to try and end his separation and reclaim his marriage.
It wasn’t like I could complain about a man trying to get his wife back.
No. Screw that. I could complain, and I would. Blaine had failed to be a good husband. Morgan should have divorced his ass when he’d not provided the support she needed after the death of their child.
If he asked her to take him back, I hope she threw her coffee in his face. I cracked a grin at the thought. I’d pay her a bonus if she did that.
That didn’t mean I didn’t want to fight for her. I resisted the urge to march out into the other room tell Blaine to go back where he came from and that Morgan was all mine now, but I didn’t think that’d go over well with her at all.
“I’m sorry for surprising you,” Blaine said, his voice low. “You look good by the way, great, really.”
“You sound surprised,” Morgan said. “You were expecting me to look worse?”
“It’s just you weren’t taking care of yourself when we separated. So, I wasn’t sure how you’d be.”
“I had more important things on my mind than how I looked, and it’s not like you cared all that much.”
“Hey, I’m just trying to offer you a compliment. You don’t have to be so hostile.”
“I don’t have to be nice either.”
Blaine let out a long sigh. “Sorry. Let’s start over.”
I couldn’t make a fist because I was holding Sasha, but that didn’t stop me from thinking of how I wanted to toss Blaine out the window for daring to come in here and piss off my woman. At least that meant he wasn’t going to have a shot at convincing her to take him back though. Small victories.
“What are you even doing here?” Morgan said. “And why were you sitting at my desk?”
“Your boss said I could wait here until you got here. He said you’d be in any minute.”
“Daniel did?” she sighed. “I had to get some coffee.”
“Okay, so I needed to talk to you,” Blaine said.
“Come over here,” Morgan said.
“Okay.”
They didn’t speak for about five seconds. When they started again, I couldn’t make out what they were saying, and from what it sounded like, they’d moved closer to the door to the hallway. Morgan must have realized I could hear and didn’t want me to overhear their conversation.
Not good. Not good at all.
Gritting my teeth, I tried to think through the all the possible implications of her trying to make sure I didn’t hear anything. If she didn’t want me to hear what was going on, that meant she had something to hide. The possibilities for what she might want to hide from me passed through my mind.
I kept coming back to the cold, hard reality that Morgan wasn’t actually divorced. Even though everything she’d told me made me believe that was just because she hadn’t bothered with the paperwork, it was hard to ignore the possibility that she was holding on to the thought that she might get back together with Blaine and that she still harbored some positive feelings for him.
That would also explain why she’d been so reluctant to get involved with me. The realization was like a punch to the gut, and I again resisted kicking open the door and demanding to know what was going on.
My pacing sped up as I moved back and forth, frowning. I checked Sasha in my arms, but she still slept soundly, oblivious to all the turmoil in my heart and mind.
Good. A baby shouldn’t ever have to worry about the tension of the adults around them. If a man couldn’t control himself with an infant present, he was no kind of man at all.
Morgan and Blaine spoke in low voices now, and I couldn’t make out much of anything other than general tone. It sounded like she was upset about something, but if she wanted me involved, she wouldn’t have purposefully moved away from the door. She could also always call for me, and I’d be more than happy to help.
Sasha started to stir. That meant there was a good chance she’d start to cry. That would give me a good excuse if I needed to go out there and stake my claim, which felt increasingly necessary, if not for Morgan’s sake than for my own sanity.
“I can’t believe your gall,” Morgan said, almost yelling.
Sasha’s eyes opened at the sound of Morgan’s raised voice.
“Calm down,” Blaine hissed. “I just thought it was best to do this in person. You don’t have to be hysterical about it.”
“Hysterical? Are you kidding me, Blaine?”
That was it. I couldn’t take this crap anymore, and I wouldn’t let Blaine talk that way to Morgan in my building, let alone my office space. It was time to at least interrupt this garbage.
I pushed open my door with my back, Sasha giving me a little baby yawn and looking up at me with curious eyes.
Blaine and Morgan stopped their conversation instantly, both looking my way. A lot of my bravado vanished, and I mentally scrambled to justify my intrusion.
“Daniel,” Morgan said. “Did you need something?”
I moved toward the pair. “Sorry to interrupt you. I’m sure you have a lot to still catch up on.”
“Less than you might think,” she said, glancing over at Blaine.
“Sasha was just getting a little fussy,” I said. “I was hoping maybe you could hold her. There was that Henderson call coming up, and I can’t exactly bounce her on my knee while I’m trying t
o negotiate.”
Something seemed off about my explanation, but I couldn’t quite place it. The Henderson call was, in fact, coming up. When I’d taken Sasha into my office, it’d been a reaction to Blaine showing up. I didn’t plan to keep her in there all day.
Morgan narrowed her eyes, “She doesn’t seem very fussy.” I noticed she held a thick manila envelope in her hand. I wondered if it was something Blaine had given her.
She moved over to the desk and dropped it there where it landed with a thud. There were a lot of papers in there.
“Well, she was acting up in there,” I lied. Yeah, not proud of compounding lies on top of lies, but Morgan was pushing forward too hard against my explanation.
She walked over and took the still awakening infant from me. “You can go get ready for the call now, then. I’ll take care of Sasha until you’re not busy.”
The hint of suspicion in her voice suggested she saw right through what I was doing, but I didn’t know how much I cared anymore. At least, I’d shaken up whatever conversation that had been going on before. Even if Morgan was irritated at that moment, I was sure she’d forgive me later.
“Oh, I have a couple of minutes,” I said, with a smile. “I just didn’t want to have to rush out there with the baby. So I figured it was best to come and ask you. Again, sorry for the interruption,” I offered Blaine a polite smile.
Blaine cleared his throat. “I said what I needed to say. I should get going.”
“Yes,” Morgan said, her voice icy. “You probably should.”
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Anger flooded my veins. He came in here unannounced to surprise Morgan, angered her, and now he dared kiss her? I only barely resisted gritting my teeth and telling the guy to get the hell out.
“You look good with a baby,” Blaine said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Morgan’s eyes widened, and anger filled them. “Get out, Blaine. Now.”
He waved his hands in front of him. “No matter how you feel about me, you know what I want will help us both out.”
“I said get out,” Morgan snapped.
I was just about to order Blaine out when he shrugged and headed for the door. We both watched as he stepped out then closed the door. A good thirty seconds passed before Morgan broke the silence.
“If you’re going to lie,” she said, “be smarter about it. It’s embarrassing and beneath you otherwise.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. Yes, I’d lied about a few things, but I didn’t think she’d be so offended by me claiming the baby was fussy when she was calm.
“The Henderson call isn’t until tomorrow.”
“Oh? Is it?” I mentally kicked myself for making such an obvious mistake. Obviously, my assistant would know when all my teleconferences were, and that also explained why it’d seemed odd to me when I’d mentioned it myself. “I’m sorry. My mistake.”
“I have things to take care of,” Morgan said. She headed over to the playpen and gently set Sasha down. “You should probably go take care of your work as well.”
“Yeah, I probably should.”
I frowned, not liking her tone, or being dismissed, but she was obviously upset about whatever happened with Blaine, and it was equally obvious that if I pressed her right then, she was more likely to slap me than tell me what the hell was going on.
Marching into my office, I closed the door. There was nothing I could do about it for now. I just had to trust that Morgan would talk to me after she calmed down.
Chapter 30
Morgan
I sat at my desk, staring at the manila envelope in my hand. It was so heavy and thick, like he’d made it purposely heavy just to get its importance across.
It didn’t matter. It could have been a single piece of paper inside, and it still would have been the most important paper in the world for what it symbolized.
I almost wanted to laugh. After two years, they’d finally arrived—divorce papers. I’d always thought it was too much of a hassle to worry about, and Blaine had claimed the same, but now here it was. We’d both finally cut our ties of matrimony and were moving on.
Jacy, among others, had always kept on me about how important this was. So why did I feel so terrible?
I sighed as I thought back to the conversation I’d just had with Blaine.
I’d moved us away from Daniel’s office. He never left his door open a crack. It was either closed completely or wide open, which meant he obviously wanted to listen in. I couldn’t believe at how clumsy he was at trying to spy on me.
That, combined with Blaine’s sudden reappearance, pissed me off. If Daniel wanted to hear what we were going to talk about, he should have been brave enough to just leave his door open. This wasn’t some stupid high-school dance love triangle. We were all adults. I decided to punish him for his cowardice by not letting him overhear anything.
For that matter, Daniel should have been brave enough to send Blaine on his way. He knew how I felt about the man and how he’d made me feel. Or at least how I thought I’d felt. I half-suspected he wanted the guy to stay to test if we were going to get back together or not. The idea that Daniel trusted me so little made me question if it was a good idea to love that sort of man.
“I didn’t realize you’d had another kid,” Blaine had said, eyeing the playpen. “Congratulations. I—you deserve it, Morgan, you really do.”
“That’s not for my baby,” I said, my voice icy. “It’s for my boss’s niece. I’ve not been pregnant since our son.”
Blaine’s face twitched, and he sighed. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. You still in therapy?”
I shook my head. “No, not anymore, but it was helpful.”
“Good, good. Very good. It’s always a good thing to move on. Have to live your life, right?”
“I am living my life.”
Blaine gestured around the office. “And you’ve moved up in the world from just working for some banker to working for a billionaire. Congrats on that at least.”
“Thanks,” I said, growing more than a little weary of the small talk. I doubted Blaine had tracked me down just to chat about my job.
Blaine shuffled his feet and avoided eye contact. Whatever it was he needed to say, I wanted him to just get it over with, so I could go on with my life and forget about ever seeing him again.
“So I’m here, and you’re here,” I said to Blaine. “The only thing I care to ask is why that is. I assume you must have some spectacular reason for tracking me down to talk, let alone face-to-face. I can’t even remember the last time we exchanged an email.”
“It’s simple,” he said, as he held up a thick manila envelope. Somehow, I’d not noticed it before. “Because it’s time we finally took care of something we should have taken care of years ago. Something to help us both move on.”
“And what’s that?” I wondered, suspicious of what was in the envelope.
“These are divorce papers. I’ve got it all set up for a non-contested divorce. You just have to sign them. I figure we both effectively already went our separate ways, so there is no property to divide up. This can be very easy and over with soon.”
I blinked, and my heart kicked into a gallop. The finality of the idea put a lot of other recent events into stark contrast. My hands trembled.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want a divorce, but I’d gotten used to not being divorced, even though I knew I needed one to move on. It hadn’t been all that long ago that I’d finally taken my ring off, after all. Being suddenly confronted with the reality floored me, and even scared me a little.
“What?” I squeaked. “Divorce papers?”
“Are you really that surprised?” Blaine said with a laugh. “Why else would I come here?”
“Yes, I’m a little surprised. It has been years now.” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant despite my pulse pounding my ears.
“Yeah, it has been years, and it’s ridiculous we’re not divorced already. We don’t l
ive together, do anything together, or even talk or see each other. Our marriage ended a long time ago, and it’s time we made it official.” He frowned. “What? Did you think we would get back together? Is that why you’re acting this way?”
I shook my head violently. “No. I’m not lying awake at night thinking of you, if that’s what you’re getting at. I don’t have much in the way of fond memories left for you anymore, Blaine.”
He scoffed. “Then I don’t get your reaction. I would have thought you’d be jumping for joy. You get what you want. I get what I want.”
Blaine was right. I couldn’t figure out was bothering so much about the situation. A moment of reflection helped me finally pinpoint the reason for my distress: one simple question that might reveal so much.
“Yes, we both need and want this.” I took a deep breath. “Okay, not that I’m disagreeing, but why now? You’re the one who always said we didn’t need to worry about it.”
“That was before, and you deserve another chance with someone else who can make you happy. Just like I do.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”
Blaine sighed. “I guess I should just get it out of the way and let you know. I’ve met someone else. If it means anything, I’d think you’d like her. I want to marry her.”
“I see.”
“And I hope you’ll meet someone as well, if you haven’t already.”
I didn’t bother to let him know about whatever was going on with Daniel. It was confusing enough without adding Blaine to the mix. I still couldn’t even say if Daniel and I were in an actual relationship, even with the feelings I held for him.
“And you suddenly came to this conclusion?” I asked. “After years?”
Blaine rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I don’t want my kid born out of wedlock. I guess I’m old-fashioned that way.”
The words hung in the air at the moment. My eyes widened. “What? Your kid?”
