Single Dad's Surprise (Wilder Brothers #1)

by Lisa Levine

  “Poppy,” I said gently. “You need to go home with your dad.”

  “Only if you come with us,” she cried.

  “Poppy,” Jake said from the door. He looked like he was at a complete loss for what to do.

  I stood up with Poppy in my arms and walked over to him to try to set her down at his feet. As soon as I got close enough, Poppy turned around to face him.

  “Tell her, Dad! Tell her how you want her to come home. Tell her!”

  Poppy stared between the two of us and waited for her dad to say something. He looked like a cornered animal in a frozen panic-stricken state. I tried to pull Poppy’s arms off from around my shoulders so that he could take her.

  “Tell her!” Poppy screeched as I pulled her fingers away from the back of my neck. “You told me to always be honest, Dad. Be honest with Annika!”

  Poppy burst into tears as I finally got her pulled off of me. It broke me, and I felt like I was pulling my own heart out of my ribcage. Poppy stood between us, sobbing into the top of Bear’s head while Jake and I stared at each other. I waited for him to scoop up Poppy, thank me for the text to let him know that she was here, and walk away.

  “I love you,” Jake said as he stared into my eyes and caught me so completely off-guard that I felt like the ground had suddenly slipped out from beneath my feet.

  Poppy’s eyes darted up from her bear, and her mouth dropped wide open as she stared at her dad first, and then next at me.

  “What?” I said in a whisper. My heart started to race, and I tried to calm my nerves as they rushed to believe something that couldn’t possibly be true.

  “I love you,” he said again, this time louder as he stepped toward me, squishing Poppy between us as she stared up toward both of our faces.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t say it before. I should have said it from the very moment I knew it to be true. I was just scared, Annika. Hell, I’m still scared, but I’d rather be scared of all the ways this could go wrong than to let you go. When you left, I felt like you took a part of me with you, and a part of Poppy, too, parts of us that had been lost for a long time now.

  “I wanted to tell you not to go, but I didn’t want to force you to do anything that you didn’t want to do. Then once you were gone, I wanted to drive right over here and get you and bring you back home. I have spent literally every minute of every day haunted by the thoughts of you and how much I miss you and how much we need you. I don’t want to let you go, Annika, and I’m sorry if that’s selfish of me. I know that my life is a shitshow, and I’ll understand if you never want to see me again.”

  I felt the tears start to pour down my face so much that I couldn’t see through my own eyes. Jake looked at me in expectant silence as he waited for my response, and Poppy was barely breathing as she waited below us for an answer to what was going to happen.

  “Please, Annika,” she whispered. “Please come home. We both love you, see?”

  I looked down at her and cried. Then I felt Jake’s hand on the side of my face as I turned my head to look back up at him.

  “Annika,” he said. “I can’t promise that things will be easy if you come back. But I can promise you that I will love you with every fiber of my being. I don’t know if that will be enough, but whatever I have is yours.”

  I felt Jake’s hand against my face, and everything else in my life seemed to vanish. I didn’t care what pictures were on the internet or what anyone believed to be true about me or not. I only cared about him and Poppy. I only cared that I knew now without question that I had found what I had been searching for.

  “I don’t need things to be easy,” I said to him. “I love you, too.”

  Jake leaned forward to kiss me, and Poppy took a step back and out of the way as he threw his arms around me and lifted me into the air. Our lips mashed against each other, and when I felt his tongue swirl into my mouth, I felt like I had found my home.

  “Ewe,” Poppy said as she covered Bear’s eyes with her fingers.

  When our mouths pulled apart, Jake reached down and lifted Poppy up between us.

  “Whatever I have is yours, too,” she said to me. “Except for Bear, I think he would be too upset if he wasn’t with me.”

  Jake and I both laughed and pushed together for a hug sandwich with Poppy and Bear in the middle.

  “Bear definitely needs to stay with you,” I said. “You have a way of making sure no one gets lost.” I winked at her, and she beamed back at me. It was the truth. If it hadn’t been for Poppy, Jake and I might never have been pushed into each other with the force we needed to admit our true feelings.

  “Can we go home now?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” Jake said.

  Poppy had already packed most of my bag, so I grabbed my blanket up off the floor and walked out of my apartment again, holding hands with Jake.

  This time, I knew that I wouldn’t be coming back.

  Chapter Eighteen (Jake)

  After a very emotional day, all three of us were back at the house again. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to convince Annika to return with me, but thanks to Poppy and her brave venture to get her nanny, I knew that I had no choice but to try. Despite all of my fears, losing Annika would have been the single worst mistake of my life.

  When we got home, Annika settled back into her room, and Poppy helped her put away the few things that she had taken with her. The two girls were practically inseparable all evening. I had a feeling Poppy was afraid Annika was going to try to make a run for it again, so she was keeping a close eye on her. At bedtime, we both read Poppy a story together and tucked her in with a kiss on each side of the cheek. Then, as we stopped to look back into her glowing pink room, we both breathed a sigh of relief that she was safe and sound and that it was our time now.

  We went down into the library with a bottle of wine and two glasses, and I started a fire in the hearth for us to sit beside. I poured the burgundy liquid and handed Annika her glass, and then we both took a long and well-deserved sip. The chairs seemed too far apart, even when we pushed them together, so we opted to sit on floor cushions in front of the fire.

  “I had the picture taken down off the internet,” I told Annika. I hadn’t wanted to talk about any of this, but I needed to clear the air about everything that was going on and how I had handled things while she was gone. “Blake and Maleah are being charged with defamation of character, and Blake has a laundry list of other charges thanks to all the drugs they found on him in Maleah’s penthouse when he had tried to call the cops after our brawl.”

  “Well, that’s good, at least,” Annika said. “At least he won’t be around Poppy anymore. What about Maleah?”

  “I released her from her contract with Soundz. She’s old enough to make her own decisions and her own mistakes, and I don’t want any part of it. I terminated the contractual agreement between us, and I no longer represent Maleah in any capacity.”

  “And what about her seeing Poppy?”

  “I’m still figuring that one out,” I answered. “I was hoping you might be able to help me with that.”

  “Oh,” I said, trying to show my excitement but also remain as vague and elusive as possible until it was time for me to reveal the whole news to her. “I also might be signing on a very talented and brand new singer soon that I am very excited about.”

  “Cool!” she smiled.

  We sat together as we drank our wine, and my hands traced over her body as she leaned back against me.

  “Did you really mean what you said earlier?” she asked after a few minutes. “The part about being in love with me?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “More than I have ever meant anything in my entire life. Did you?”

  “Yes. I’m just a little worried about how we’re going to be able to make it work. Our lives are so vastly different.”

  “None of that matters,” I said. “As long as the three of us are together, we can figure out the rest.”

  When I heard myself say
the words, it suddenly seemed to make sense to me. None of it mattered, not the money or the career or the drama with Maleah or the picture on the internet; because as difficult as all that stuff was, nothing could touch what was inside the walls of this house. And Annika and Poppy were the only things that mattered to me at all.

  As days and nights passed and the three of us spent time together, everything seemed to be not only peaceful but also perfect. On most days when I would come home from work, I would find Annika helping Poppy with her schoolwork. Poppy was getting better at staying out of trouble in class, and we hadn’t gotten a call from her teacher since Annika had returned. I loved watching the two of them together. I had never seen Poppy so happy and content. And it seemed like each passing day, I fell more and more in love with Annika.

  After a few weeks, though, I noticed that Annika was starting to act a bit strangely. She seemed preoccupied and distant. When I asked her about it, she said everything was fine. She also seemed to be more tired than usual, and even Poppy noticed her falling asleep during some of our nightly story times. I worried about everything from her being sick to her being unhappy.

  Since Annika insisted that everything was okay, I talked to Lucie about it at work. She was the only other woman I knew I could trust. I described how Annika was behaving and asked Lucie for her opinion about what was wrong and what I could do to fix it. Lucie was always so respectably blunt, and I was sure that if anyone could find a solution, it would be her.

  “Gosh, I don’t know,” Lucie said.

  Great.

  “I can’t have screwed this up already,” I said, frustrated that things seemed to have been going so well, and now there was some sort of ambiguous, looming uncertainty again.

  “Take it easy,” Lucie said. “I’m sure that you didn’t screw up anything. You guys are going to have ups and downs, all three of you. It’s not a perfect situation; nothing is. But that’s what makes it so imperfectly perfect.”

  “You realize that what you just said makes no actual sense, right?”

  Lucie laughed and went back to work. I just hoped that everything was okay with Annika.

  When I got home, Annika and Poppy had been making chocolate chip cookies, and the deliciously sweet scent somehow managed to waft throughout most of the giant house. As soon as I had opened the door from the garage and came inside, it tickled my nose and made me immediately salivate.

  “Mmm,” I said as I walked into the kitchen. “Do I smell fresh-baked goodies?”

  I looked around the kitchen to find Annika, but all I could see was Poppy sitting on a stool at the counter alone, stuffing an entire cookie into her mouth.

  “Yep,” she said as the crumbs fell out from between her open lips. “And they are so good, Daddy. You have to eat some.”

  “I will, pumpkin. Shouldn’t you be in bed? Where is Annika?”

  “Oh, she got some cookie batter in her eye and went upstairs to wash it out.”

  “Okay, I’ll go check on her, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay, Daddy!”

  I was pretty certain that Poppy was about to get a stomachache as I saw her stuff a second cookie into her mouth out of the corner of my eye while I walked out. I was guessing that she had probably had several before that as well. But getting cookie batter in your eye sounded like a strange occurrence, and the excuse didn’t sit well with me. I got the feeling that there was something else going on.

  “Annika?” I called as I knocked on her bedroom door, which was partially, but not fully open.

  When I didn’t hear a response, I walked into the bedroom. I wanted to make sure that she was okay. “Annika?” I asked again when I didn’t see her.

  The bathroom door was also half-open, and although I didn’t want to be intrusive, I also needed to make sure that she was okay. I pushed the door to the bathroom open wider and saw Annika standing at the bathroom sink. She was holding something in her hand and looked up into the mirror as I came in. I caught her tear-filled eyes in the reflection as she stared back at me.

  “Annika?” I said as I ambled toward her. “Is everything okay?”

  She didn’t answer, and when I reached the sink, I saw why. There, in her shaking hand, she was holding a pregnancy test. And there, on the front of the test, was a big pink plus mark.

  I wanted to react in a certain supportive way that I knew I should have, but I was so shocked that I did the only thing I could think of to do. I grabbed her in my arms and held her.

  Annika dropped the test into the sink, and it clattered around the porcelain as it fell. She buried her head against my chest and cried. I had no idea whether she was crying out of sadness or happiness or purely stress and fear. I couldn’t figure out how she was feeling because I couldn’t even figure out how I was feeling myself. I hadn’t wanted another child. Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted. But I did know that I wanted Annika.

  I stroked the hair on the back of her head with my hand and held her tightly. This was why she had been acting so strangely. I didn’t know what we were going to do, but I knew that I had to be there for her because I knew that she was probably shocked and scared. We had only made love that once, but that once was all that it took. I knew that I should have been more careful, but I just couldn’t stop myself from wanting to have her.

  “I’m sorry,” Annika cried.

  “Sorry? What in the world do you have to be sorry about? This was equally as much my doing as it was yours.”

  “I know, but things were finally going so well between me and you and Poppy, and now there’s this. I just don’t want to ruin anything.”

  “Annika, nothing is going to ruin what we have, I promise. This is wonderful, albeit unexpected news.”

  I was stunned and pretty terrified. I was going to be a father again. As I stood there holding her, I had to stop myself from shaking, but the longer I held her, the more I realized something. I truly did love Annika, and so did Poppy. I wanted our little family to be together forever, and maybe this wouldn’t be a bad thing. Poppy could use a little friend to play with, and Annika was an expert with kids. My company was coming back online as far as progress and public view, and it would almost be like a second chance to do things the right way.

  “How do you feel about this?” I asked her once we finally walked out of the bathroom together and sat down on the side of the bed. I held her hand and looked into her eyes. I knew she had been through so much, and this was just one more unexpected thing that would turn her life upside down.

  “I am scared and nervous, and I have to admit that I wasn’t ready to have kids for quite a while. I’m also happy and excited because any baby created between us was created out of pure love. But I’m just not sure I want to put all of my dreams on hold again, at least not before I’ve had a chance to pursue some of them.”

  “Which dreams?” I asked, hoping that she might have been talking about her singing career.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “See, that’s just it, I’m not sure about all of the things I want to do. But the only thing I am sure of is that I want to be with you and Poppy.”

  “Then that’s all we need,” I said as I smiled at her and kissed her cheek. “Marry me.”

  “What?” Annika said with stunned and widened eyes.

  “Tomorrow, we can go pick out the biggest and most beautiful ring that your heart desires. Say that you’ll marry me, please. I want to make all of our dreams come true. I want to marry you, and have this baby, and make our little family together with you, and me, and Poppy, and this baby. And I want to help you chase after your dreams. Marry me, Annika.”

  For a minute, she looked like she was going to cry again, and I got worried that it was all just becoming too much for her.

  “Okay,” she said through her tears. “I’ll marry you.”

  I kissed her and rolled her back on the bed so that I could lay over her and kiss her some more.

  “I love you,” I said between the moments that our lip
s touched.

  “I love you, too,” she said. “When should we tell Poppy about all of this?”

  “Tomorrow. I don’t want to waste any time. I want to make our family official as soon as possible. You and Poppy pick out everything that you want, and I’ll buy it all and hire someone to put it all together. An engagement party, a wedding, a baby shower; whatever your heart desires, it’s yours.”

  “A wedding?” Poppy said from the doorway.

  Jake and I both sat straight up.

  “Poppy!” Annika said in shock. “What are you doing out of bed?”

  I glanced at Annika and then held my gaze on Poppy. “Bed? You were in the kitchen eating cookies when I came in.”

  She raised her brows and her shoulders, and the cutest expression of guilt and remorse crossed her face. “Bear had a bad dream, so we got a cookie, and we were coming to see if we could lay with you for a little while. Are you guys getting married?” Poppy diverted the attention away from the fact that Annika had thought she was in her room and not stuffing her face downstairs.

  Annika looked at me and smiled, and I knew it was too late to put the cat back into the bag.

  “Yes,” I said. “I just asked Annika to be my wife. How do you feel about that?”

  “Yay!” Poppy squealed as she ran toward us and jumped up onto the mattress with her bear. “I’m so excited! Can I be the flower girl?”

  “Of course you can,” Annika smiled. “You can help me pick out everything for the wedding, including the flowers.”

  “Who’s having a baby?” she asked.

  Damn, how can one little girl hear so much from the hallway?

  “We are,” Annika said gently.

  Poppy’s mouth made the shape of an O, and she stared at Annika’s stomach. “When?”

  “Not for a while.”

  “Is it going to be a brother or a sister?” she asked.

  “We don’t know yet,” Annika said. “Which one would you prefer?”