Enticing Daphne

by Jessica Prince

  “Do you realize how fucked up that sounds?” he asked in bewilderment. “You purposefully kept a massive, life-changing secret from me because you thought I’d hate you? What were you hoping for, Daphne? Were you thinking I just wouldn’t fucking notice the further along you got?”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, moving closer. “There’s nothing I can say to make what I did right. I can’t excuse keeping it from you for so long. I was wrong, I know that, and you have every right to be angry. If you want to hold this against me, I wouldn’t blame you, but you have to know that I wasn’t going to keep this from you forever, Caleb. I was going to tell you tonight.”

  He stopped moving, turning his gaze to me, and what I saw in his eyes froze me to the core—pain, anger, but the worst of all was betrayal. “You know what hurts the most? That you would tell that fucking guy before me. Were you so sure that I’d be a deadbeat father to my own child that you’d set a backup plan in place before telling me?”

  “God, no! No, Caleb. It wasn’t like that.” I rushed to him, grabbing hold of his face and forcing him to meet my eyes, praying he could see the sincerity in them. “He showed up at Hart Tower a few days ago. He wouldn’t leave. I told him I was pregnant by someone else to try and make him see that I was never taking him back. I wasn’t trying to find a backup plan. I would never do something like that to you. Never.”

  His fingers wrapped around my wrists, holding on to me while I held on to him, like we were the only lifeline the other had. “Why didn’t you tell me you were engaged to that guy, Daphne?”

  That was a story I would have been happy to keep to myself for the rest of my life, but I knew if I had any shot at getting him to trust me again, I was going to have to tell him everything. “Can we sit?”

  He pulled my hands from his face and walked around the couch, taking a seat on the far left side. I followed suit, wanting to sit as close to him as possible but understanding that he needed that bit of distance.

  “I was engaged to Stefan over seven years ago. We were only about a month away from the wedding when I walked into the apartment we shared together and found him and my mother having sex.”

  Caleb made a choking sound in the back of his throat while his eyes bugged out. “He… Holy shit. That douchebag and your mother.”

  I nodded. “And I haven’t spoken to either of them since that day. Not until they both showed up in Seattle.”

  After several seconds of quiet, he finally scrubbed at his face and blew out a breath before asking, “Do you still have feelings for him?”

  “God, no!” I declared. “No. Whatever I might have felt for him died the moment I saw them together.” I knew where he was going with his line of questioning, and I wanted to cut him off at the pass. Scooting closer, I placed my hand on top on his. “But even if that hadn’t happened, it still would have ended the same way.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “Yes, I can. Caleb, it took hindsight for me to realize the truth, but I didn’t like who I was back when I was with him. I was this insecure girl desperate for someone to love me. The only parent I ever had growing up treated life with me like it was a competition. She had to be better than me in every way. I never felt like I was good enough because she made sure of it. When I met Stefan, all I wanted was for someone to take care of me the way my mother never did. I wanted someone who looked at me like I was everything, not just a runner-up to Connie King. But even he couldn’t do that. I was just too blinded by my own desperation to see it.”

  Lacing his fingers with mine, I continued. “I’m not the same person I was back then. I’m so much stronger now. I can look back on my time with Stefan and admit that I never loved him the way a woman is supposed to love the man she’s going to marry. I was more in love with the idea of him than anything else. If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a single thing about how we ended. Please believe me when I say that I don’t feel a single thing for him anymore. I haven’t in a very long time. What I feel when I’m with you is so much stronger than anything I ever shared with Stefan. You make me happy in a way he never could. It never could have worked because I never loved him the way I love you.”

  His entire body went completely stiff at my admission of love, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d just made everything worse.

  The look he gave me was like a knife to the chest. “But it still wasn’t enough to have faith that I’d do the right thing, was it?” His tone was cold, and even though I deserved every bit of his derision, it still hurt like hell.

  He stood from the couch and headed for the front door. My stomach knotted in panic as I got to my feet. My knees trembled, threatening to give out. “Where are you going?”

  “I need to think,” Caleb answered, not bothering to turn around. “You gave yourself two whole months to come to terms with all of this. Now it’s my turn.”

  Then he was gone. And I was left feeling like the lowest form of scum on the planet.

  Chapter Thirty

  Caleb

  Daphne was pregnant. With a baby. My baby. And she’d told me she loved me.

  Christ.

  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t seem to wrap my head around that fact, especially not with my anger toward her hanging around my neck like a goddamn albatross.

  I wasn’t sure where I was going or what I planned on doing when I left her house. I spent forever just driving around aimlessly before finally ending up at The Black Sheep.

  The place was crowded, seeing as it was a Saturday night, but I still managed to find an empty stool at the bar.

  “Hey,” Deacon greeted, sliding a scotch in front of me. “I’m surprised to see you here. Didn’t you just get back into town?”

  I swirled the amber liquid around in the glass, unable to bring it to my lips and drink for some reason. “Yeah, earlier today.”

  “Figured you’d be shacked up with your secret girlfriend,” he joked. “I mean, that’s still going on, isn’t it?”

  I frowned into my drink. “Yeah. I think so. I don’t know.” Finally looking up with a sigh, I admitted, “I’m not even sure anymore.”

  Deacon rested his forearms on the bar, giving me all his attention while his other bartenders continued scurrying around filling drink orders. “What makes you say that?”

  I rubbed at the two-day growth of stubble that coated my cheeks. “She’s pregnant, man.”

  He jerked back in shock. “Oh fuck. And you’re….”

  When he couldn’t finish the sentence, I offered, “Yeah. It’s mine.”

  His cheeks puffed out with a heavy breath. “Wow. I don’t even know what to say.”

  “That makes two of us,” I grumbled. “The real kick in the nuts is that she’s known about it for two months now and never said a word.”

  “Wow,” he repeated. “Just… wow.”

  I slammed the glass on the bar top with a roll of my eyes. “Think you could find something else to say than just ‘wow’?”

  Then he said something that hit me right in the stomach. “You’re going to be a dad, brother.”

  I was going to be a dad. Holy shit. I was going to have a kid.

  “How do you feel about that?”

  How did I feel about that? No matter how many times I asked myself that very question, I couldn’t seem to come up with an answer. It didn’t feel real. It was like I was in some sort of parallel universe, living a life totally different from the one I imagined myself living.

  “I don’t even fucking know,” I answered honestly. “I’m too hung up on the fact that she’s known for two months and kept it from me because she was afraid I’d blame her or some shit.” When Deacon didn’t say a word in my defense, I looked from my untouched drink back to him. “What? What’s that face about?”

  “Well….” He hemmed and hawed for a bit. “Can you really blame her?”

  “Unbelievable,” I snapped. “You’re defending her?”

  Holding his hands up in surrender,
he spoke quickly. “I’m not defending her, per se. Should she have told you about the surprise bun in her oven? Most fucking definitely. But put yourself in her shoes.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Deacon didn’t bother with gentle; he simply got straight to the point. “Look at your track record, man. You’ve practically lived the past decade in the gossip rags. It’s not a stretch to think you wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of being tied to one woman for the next eighteen years.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” I defended, even though I knew he was totally right about everything he’d just said. The look he gave me said that I wasn’t fooling anyone.

  “You were, Caleb. Look, I’m not saying your girl’s not at fault here. I’m just suggesting that maybe you shoulder a bit of the burden as well. Have you two even discussed what you are to each other?”

  My mouth opened and closed a few times before I was able to answer. “Well, no. Not exactly.”

  He took the untouched scotch and dumped it before pouring a glass of water and setting it in front of me. “What does ‘not exactly’ mean?”

  “I told her I wanted to be more than a fling.” Then I added that stupid shit about not wanting marriage or kids, all because I was afraid I was pushing for too much too fast.

  What a clusterfuck.

  “Are you kidding?” he asked with a sarcastic snort. “Oh, well then that changes everything! You want to be more than a fling. How the hell did she not see that as the declaration of love it was intended as?”

  Flipping him off, I grunted under my breath. “Okay, I get your point. You don’t have to be an asshole about it.”

  Deacon’s face went hard, his tone serious as he spoke. “Listen, I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should forgive her. That’s your call. But the fact is you’re going to have a baby. It’s time to let go of all the shit from your childhood and grow the fuck up. You were dealt a messed-up hand in the parent department, I’ll give you that. You never got to see what a real, healthy relationship looked like. But only you can decide if you’re going to let history repeat itself, or work your ass off to be better than them. And brother, just a word of warning. If I see history repeating itself, I’m going to personally kick your ass.”

  My blood heated at the accusation. “I’m nothing like them,” I growled in warning. “I would never treat Daphne or our child that way.” I couldn’t even imagine being the type of father or husband my own dad was. In all the time Daphne and I had been together, never once did I think about going back to my old ways, a different woman warming my bed every night. She was all I needed, all I ever thought about.

  If my father felt for my mom even an ounce of what I felt for Daphne, I couldn’t imagine he’d ever turn his sights on another woman. It was unfathomable.

  “Then stop moping around my bar and go figure out what the hell you want.”

  Figure out what I want.

  The bastard made it sound so easy.

  The life I’d always imagined for myself had been turned on its head in a second. I hadn’t planned for Daphne to come in and shake up my carefree world, but I’d finally just started to accept the idea of settling down. Hell, I’d even grown to like the thought of having one woman to come home to as long as it was her.

  Throwing a baby into the mix had rattled me all over again. I felt like I was turning into a man I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t a bad thing, just a shock. I needed some time to adjust.

  Daphne and I hadn’t exactly started on the most stable foundation. You could barely call what we had a relationship. There were so many ways for us to ruin what we’d just started, and that thought terrified me.

  But when she told me that she loved me, I could see it in her eyes that she really meant it. And fuck me, but I was starting to believe that maybe I felt the same. The problem was I didn’t have the first goddamn clue what real love looked like. All I knew was that the thought of not having her in my life every single day from there on out was something I couldn’t even bring myself to consider.

  I had to tread carefully, because one wrong move and I’d lose her forever. And that just wasn’t something I could live with.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Daphne

  I hadn’t slept for crap the night before. I kept picturing Caleb’s face when he walked out my front door, and the pain I felt at that memory was just as acute as it had been the first time around.

  I wanted to fall apart, wallow in a shitload of self-pity like I had when my engagement went belly-up, but I knew that wasn’t an option this time around. It wasn’t just me I had to take care of. I had my little bean. I had to pull up my big girl panties and carry on with my life for his or her sake.

  That meant I was only allowing myself one day to binge on Ben & Jerry’s while crying over sappy Hallmark movies where the woman overcame some clichéd adversity and got the man of her dreams in the end.

  I started the moment the sun rose and was a good four hours into my sob-athon when my front door was thrown open. I was mid-lick on a spoonful of Chunky Monkey when Caleb came walking in, hauling two large suitcases behind him.

  “You really shouldn’t leave your door unlocked like that. Anyone could just walk—” He stopped the moment he set eyes on me. “Have you been crying?”

  I pulled the spoon from my mouth, still in shock at the unexpected sight of him, and used it to point at the TV. “The guy in the movie grew up in a foster home,” I said on a sniffle. “He never experienced love and believed he’d be alone forever. But then he hired a quirky book nerd as his assistant, and she broke through the walls he’d built around his heart to show him true love did exist.” I let out a hiccupped sob as I finished with “It was very touching.”

  “Dear god,” he muttered, looking at the TV in abject terror. “Do you watch shit like that all the time?”

  “N-no,” I stuttered. “Just when I’m having a pity party. But it’s worse now that I have all these pregnancy hormones coursing through my system.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Wiping at my tearstained cheeks with the neck of my ratty sweatshirt, I asked, “What are you doing here? And what’s with the luggage?”

  “I’m moving in,” he answered simply, like he was announcing the day’s weather forecast.

  “I… you… what?”

  He left the bags by the door and moved to the couch where I was sitting, taking a seat on the cushion next to mine. “I’m moving in. I gave it a lot of thought last night, and decided that our baby needs to be raised with both its parents living under the same roof.”

  I could barely comprehend what he was saying, but the one thing that stood out the most was the way he said our baby. Hearing Caleb string those two little words together in his rich, velvety voice made my belly flutter. I gave my head a shake to try and stay on topic. “But what about your apartment?”

  “I’ll put it on the market,” he said with a casual shrug. “I don’t think it’ll take long to unload it, especially since I’m selling it fully furnished—”

  “Wait.” I closed my eyes and held my hand up to stop him. I was struggling to keep up with everything he was saying. “Fully furnished? But that’s all your stuff.”

  “It’s not like I’ll need it. Besides, my stuff would clash with everything you’ve got going on here. And I like your style better anyway.”

  “I… you….” Tears started leaking from my eyes again. “You’re giving up all your stuff because it doesn’t go with mine?”

  “And I like yours better,” he said softly.

  “Oh god.” I started blubbering uncontrollably. “Th-that’s the sw-sweetest thing I’ve ever h-heard!”

  “Fuck me,” he mumbled, pulling me against his chest in a tight hug. “You really are a mess, aren’t you?”

  “I-it’s the b-baby. It’s t-taking over my b-body,” I sobbed. “I c-can’t control a-anything!” I finished on a loud wail.

  Caleb rubbed soothing circles al
ong my back while I used his T-shirt as my own personal tissue. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but he didn’t let me go until I finally got ahold of myself.

  Wiping under my eyes, I inhaled deeply, blowing the air out past my lips before looking at him again. “But I thought you hated me,” I whispered.

  “I don’t hate you,” he said softly, brushing at a stray tear with the pad of his thumb. “I’m pissed, but I don’t hate you.”

  It took every ounce of courage I had to ask my next question, knowing there was a strong possibility I wouldn’t like that answer. “So what does this mean for us?”

  My anxiety doubled with each second that ticked by without his answer, until he finally said, “Well, that depends.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip until it became raw. “On what?”

  “Did you mean what you said last night? Do you really love me?”

  My head bobbed up and down in a frantic nod. “I do.”

  His shoulders slumped on a deep exhale, like me confirming my feelings for him had just lifted a weight off his chest. “I want to make this work,” he said with such fierce determination that I could practically feel it radiating from him.

  They were sweet words. What they weren’t was a declaration of love. But that was okay. After all, I was the one who’d broken the trust between us; it was my responsibility to heal the breach I caused.

  I could do that. And I could wait for him to finally love me the way I loved him, because for the first time in my life I finally felt like I had a man worth waiting for.

  I only hoped I hadn’t broken us so badly that I wouldn’t be able to put us back together again.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Daphne

  The past month had been unbearable.

  Caleb and I had been living together like two of the most considerate roommates to have ever existed.