Single Dad's Surprise (Wilder Brothers #1)

by Lisa Levine

  Chapter Twelve (Jake)

  The banging on the front door at eight in the morning should have been the first clue. I had just barely opened my eyes when I heard it and climbed out of bed in my boxers and nothing else, to go see who was at the door. The only person we were expecting today was Poppy’s mom, but that wouldn’t be until later this afternoon, I was guessing. Maleah rarely even woke up before noon.

  I opened the door just as Annika and Poppy were coming out of their bedrooms and reaching the top of the stairs.

  “God, do you need a butler, too? Or can’t your nanny seem to make it to the door in time to open it?”

  My mouth dropped as I stood in the entryway in my boxers and bare chest and stared at Maleah and Blake with my still-hazy morning eyes.

  “Why the fuck are you answering the door in your underwear, man?” Blake said.

  “Watch your language in my house,” I warned, fully aware that Poppy was standing at the top of the stairs. Then I turned back to Maleah. “What is he doing here? I thought you were coming to spend the day with Poppy.”

  “I am here to spend the day with Poppy, and Blake is coming.”

  “Not a chance,” I snarled.

  “Well,” she said as she pushed her way past me and into the foyer of the house. “You don’t get to pick that, I’m afraid. Unless you’d like me to forbid her from being around that woman.” She pointed up to the top of the stairs where Annika was standing beside Poppy.

  “Annika is Poppy’s nanny,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Maleah this morning. I hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet.

  Maleah burst out laughing. “Sure, she is. Well then, Blake is Poppy’s nanny when she’s with me.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Maleah,” I said. I was so sick of her games and manipulation of our daughter that I wanted to choke her.

  “Come on, baby,” she called up to Poppy, who was still in her pajamas. “Time to spend the day with Mommy. Are you excited?”

  Poppy stood there in frozen and wide-eyed silence as she looked between all four of us.

  “Get dressed,” Maleah snapped impatiently. “I want to get going.”

  Poppy looked up at Annika, which I knew would not go over well with Maleah. Just as Maleah was about to launch into a rant, Annika nudged Poppy toward her bedroom, and Poppy went to go get dressed for her day with Maleah.

  Annika walked down the steps toward us. I could tell that she had just gotten out of bed, with her comfy T-shirt and gray sweatpants on. She walked up to stand beside me, which made me truly admire her strength and bravery. There weren’t many people who opted to deal with Maleah instead of practicing complete avoidance. Even Lucie ducked behind a corner every time she could get away with it when she saw Maleah coming.

  “Good morning, Maleah,” she said cordially.

  “What makes you think you can even speak to me?” Maleah spat back at her dramatically.

  Blake stayed standing just outside the door. I refused to let that bastard inside my home.

  After a few minutes of awkward posturing between everyone in the foyer, Poppy came downstairs in an outfit that matched Annika’s almost to a tee. She had on a pair of slouchy gray sweatpants and a white T-shirt, and she had even tied her hair back into a ponytail like Annika’s, which she rarely did. Maleah looked between the two of them and made an exasperated huff as she reached for Poppy’s hand and pulled her out the front door with her.

  “When will she be home?” I called out to Maleah as she dragged Poppy beside her while Poppy struggled to keep up with her mother’s furious pace.

  “Later.”

  They got into the car and drove away with Blake at the wheel and Poppy staring helplessly out of the back window.

  “That was awful,” Annika said from beside me.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t good,” I agreed.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

  “She’ll be fine. Poppy is tough; she’s had to be, unfortunately,” I answered. “I have to say I was a fan of her outfit, though.”

  Annika smacked me playfully on the chest and burst into laughter.

  “Let’s go explore the city a bit today, want to?” I asked.

  “What about Poppy? What if we aren’t here when Maleah brings her back?”

  “She always calls first so that I’m waiting at the end of the driveway to pick up Poppy from her car. Maleah doesn’t like to step out of the car unless she has a dramatic scene to make.”

  “I really don’t know how you were ever with that woman,” Annika said.

  “Neither do I.”

  The afternoon in the city was wonderful. Annika and I stopped at a coffee shop to quench our caffeine addiction first, and then spent much of the day strolling in and out of bookshops and art galleries, exploring the city, and talking about everything that came to our mind. We ended the afternoon by taking a stroll in a local park hand in hand. When we sat down on a park bench for a minute to take a rest and enjoy a moment longer of fresh air before heading back home, I asked Annika to sing for me again. I didn’t want to pressure her, but now that Poppy wasn’t here, I was hoping that she might feel a bit more comfortable letting me into that part of her life.

  “Oh no, I don’t think so,” she said as she tried to brush off my request.

  “Please?” I pleaded. “There’s no one here except for me and the squirrels and birds. I think your voice is beautiful, and I really want to hear it again, even just for a couple of minutes.”

  Although she was still quite shy and hesitant, with a bit more prodding, Annika agreed. As she started to sing and her beautiful lilting voice carried throughout the natural acoustics of the park, I slid my phone from my pocket just enough to hit the audio record but not enough for her to notice. It’s not the best audio quality on the phone, but at least it’s something.

  As we walked back home, I genuinely thought this was one of the most fun days I had ever had. There was no division between us at all—no divide between our age, our previous lifestyles, or past experiences. We were just having a purely good time being together.

  “Hey,” I said as I pointed to a new little wine bar that we passed on the way home. “Want to swing in here for a glass of wine?”

  “Sure.” Annika smiled.

  We laughed and talked over a drink and found ourselves unable to keep our hands or lips off of each other, even just keeping our bodies from touching as we sat or walked beside each other was difficult. The chemistry between us was undeniable, and every minute seemed even more enjoyable than the ones before it. Still, we were both thinking about Poppy and anxious to get her back home.

  “Do you think that Maleah is trying to pry into what caused Poppy’s demeanor to change?” Annika asked.

  “Yeah, definitely,” I said. “But that’s not what I’m the most concerned about.”

  “What is it?”

  “Maleah’s boyfriend, Blake, has always been bothered by Poppy. He thinks of her as something that distracts Maleah’s attention and takes her away from her touring potential and money-making. I don’t like him being around my daughter.”

  We sat together in a worried moment of silence as we finished our wine. Then we both agreed that it was time to head home and wait for Poppy.

  The rest of the walk back wasn’t long, and as the late afternoon started to turn into the shades of dusk, we were almost back home with the driveway in sight, when my phone rang.

  “It’s Maleah,” I said with relief that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath on. “I’m sure this means she’s ready to pull up with the car.”

  I picked up the call, but before I could say hello, all I heard was a drunken and hysterically screaming Maleah coming through the other end of the phone.

  I felt all of the blood drain from my face and saw Annika looking at me with a desperate concern. I put Maleah on speakerphone so that we could both hear her.

  Her hysterical and slurring voice was shouting a mile a minute, and I couldn’t make out w
hat she was saying. Panic rose inside my chest as I feared for the worst and felt Annika holding onto my arm in devout worry.

  “Maleah, calm down!” I said into the speaker. “Calm down; I can’t understand you. Is Poppy all right?”

  More gibberish.

  “Maleah!” I hollered at her as loudly as I could to get her to stop and shut up. “You need to calm down so I can understand you. Where is Poppy?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What? What do you mean you don’t know? Where are you?”

  As soon as Maleah said the name of the playground in the city, I hung up the phone and ran toward the driveway to get into the car with Annika alongside me. I ran every light and stop sign, and even though Annika’s hand on my thigh was trying to provide some calming reassurance, the look of horror on her face was making it even worse. When we reached the park, I had barely turned the car off before I grabbed Annika’s hand and started running toward where I saw Maleah and Blake sitting on the grass.

  “Where is she?” I growled at them both.

  “I don’t know,” Maleah sobbed as she laid her face down in her hands.

  I walked closer to her and lifted her face to mine. “You’re drunk,” I said disgustedly. “You took our daughter for a day, and you got drunk while she was in your care.”

  Maleah cried uncontrollably. I doubted that she was merely drunk, and I doubted that she had any actual clue what was going on.

  “What did you give her?” I shouted at Blake, who was sitting smugly on the grass, looking like he was bored and wanted to leave.

  “Relax, man. All she had was a few sangrias.”

  “You did this,” I bellowed as I lunged toward him.

  “No, stop!” Annika yelled as she grabbed me by the shoulder.

  I almost pushed her away, but I stopped myself before I could.

  “This is just wasting time. We need to find Poppy before it gets dark, Jake.”

  She was right.

  “You did this,” I hissed at him. “And as soon as I find my daughter, I’m coming for you.”

  “Yeah, like I’m scared, you asshat,” Blake said as he stood up and grabbed Maleah by the back of her jacket as if she were a pet dog. “We’re out of here. Find your brat on your own.”

  That’s it. I’m going to fucking kill him.

  “Jake, stop. We need to find Poppy,” Annika said as she pulled my arm toward the center of the playground.

  We frantically walked as we searched the corners of the park. This playground was sprawled over several sections of a giant park, with various playground structures placed at different points along the path. We stayed together and tried to search every square inch of the park as fast as we could before we lost what little daylight remained.

  “How could they lose her?” I said as I felt my voice crack and my words choke in my throat. “How could they lose my daughter at the playground?”

  “It’s going to be okay,” Annika said as calmly as she could. She was crying, too; I could hear it in her voice. She was terrified for Poppy. When it started to become too hard to see, we used our cell phones as flashlights and kept going. There were only two sections of the park left to search. If we didn’t find her there, we would need to go to the police. I couldn’t believe this was happening, my beautiful daughter lost and in danger of being taken or worse.

  “When we find her, I’m never letting her out of my sight again,” I said as rage mixed with a briny fear inside my head. “Maleah will never take her away from my sight again.”

  That section of the park yielded nothing. There was only one more section to search, and then I would break down into full-blown despair over my missing daughter. The last section of the had mostly park benches and overgrown paths. The only piece of playground equipment that was on this side was the monkey bars, and it was the farthest from the main area of the playground. The chance of Poppy being here was slim, and my hopes were quickly giving way to distress.

  “Jake, over there!” Annika said as she shined her light onto something beneath the structure. “It’s Poppy!” she shouted.

  Annika took off running toward the monkey bars, and as soon as I saw her reach Poppy and pick her up from her crouched position on the ground, I fell to my knees and burst into tears of relief. I couldn’t remember ever crying before, not even as a kid. I was sure that I had, I just didn’t remember it, and it definitely didn’t happen often. But this, this was deserving of every tear I would ever have.

  Annika came over to me with Poppy in her arms and Poppy’s little hands gripping Annika’s shoulders. She knelt next to me, and all three of us wrapped our arms around each other and cried until we were ready to get up and go home. When we stood up, I carried Poppy in one arm with her tired face resting against my shoulder and held Annika’s hand with the other. I gently slid Poppy into her seat in the car and buckled her in. She looked exhausted as if all of the wind were knocked out of her, which it very likely was. When I came around to the driver’s seat, Annika looked at me, and I think she could see the fury spread across my face.

  “I’m going to drive to Maleah’s penthouse to let her know that we’ve found Poppy and that she is safe now with us.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better just to call to tell her that?” Annika asked.

  “No,” I said.

  When we pulled up to Maleah’s penthouse, I left both Poppy and Annika in the car.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said to Annika. Poppy was already asleep in the backseat. “Stay with Poppy. Don’t leave the car.”

  Chapter Thirteen (Annika)

  I sat in the car in the dark as I listened to Poppy’s deep breaths. She was so exhausted that she was tilted over in her seat, sound asleep with her mouth hanging open, poor thing. We needed to get her home and into her warm and snuggly bed.

  I didn’t think any good would come from stopping here. I was mad enough to punch Maleah in the face myself, which definitely meant that Jake was not in complete control of his anger. After several minutes had passed, I started to worry about the real reason he had stopped here. I didn’t want to sit here and wait and wonder what was happening inside Maleah’s penthouse, but I also didn’t want to wake Poppy and carry her into whatever unknown scenario was inside. Fortunately, within the next couple of minutes, Jake came walking back to the car. When he opened the car door, it roused Poppy, and both she and I looked at Jake’s bloodied face and swollen eye in horror.

  “Oh my God, what happened?” I gasped as I reached for him.

  He sat down in the car, almost as if he were half-falling.

  “Daddy, what happened?” Poppy started to cry as though she had woken up from one nightmare and fallen right into another.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart, I’m fine. We’re going home now, don’t worry.” Jake looked at me in a silent plea for help with trying to calm Poppy so he could focus on driving home. His right eye was swelling closed, and there were multiple bleeding cuts on his face. He gripped the steering wheel with bloodied knuckles that were already starting to turn several shades of purple.

  “Everything is okay, Poppy,” I said gently to her. “Go back to sleep, sweetie.”

  “I can’t,” she said, still sniffling in the back seat. “I need Bear.” She started to cry again.

  I took off my seatbelt and crawled through the center of the car to the backseat to sit with her. I pulled her up against me, and she laid her head down on my lap. While I stroked her hair, she finally fell asleep.

  Jake met my eyes in the rearview mirror once we both heard Poppy’s heavy breaths indicative of a sound sleep.

  “What happened?” I asked him quietly so as not to wake him up.

  “I beat the shit out of Blake for putting Poppy in danger,” he answered.

  “It kind of looks like he beat the shit out of you.”

  “Yeah, he got a few good hits in, especially for such a scrawny guy, but only because he had a chair leg in his hand. Once I got that away from him, he cou
ldn’t stand his ground, and I beat him to a pulp. If you think I look bad, you should see Blake. He won’t be getting out of the hospital anytime soon.”

  I was getting ready to open my mouth and say something about how he shouldn’t have done that, but then I remembered a conversation that I’d had with Poppy, which suddenly seemed very similar to this.

  “Are you mad?” he asked as he looked at me anxiously through the mirror with his one good eye that he could still see out of.

  “No,” I said. “I would have done the same thing.”

  And honestly, I would have. Just like when Poppy had clocked that girl at school in the face for insulting her mother, I would have done the same thing this time, too.

  “What did Maleah do?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Jake answered. “The same thing she always does—absolutely nothing.”

  The drive wasn’t long, and we rode the rest of the way in exhausted silence.

  Once we arrived at the house, I carefully lifted Poppy out of the car and handed her over to Jake, who, even with all of his injuries, carried his daughter gently into the house as if she were a delicate and precious butterfly that he was trying not to smoosh.

  The light inside the house made Poppy open her eyes to see that we were home. Her little, squinting eyes blinked at me over the top of Jake’s shoulder.

  “I’m hungry,” she said in a tired voice.

  “I’ll make you some food,” I said as I brushed the messy strands of hair out of her eyes. “Peanut butter and jelly sound good?”

  She nodded.

  We both sat down at the table with her while she gobbled her sandwich ravenously.

  “Poppy, did you eat anything today?” I asked when I saw how hungry she was.