“He always said you’d screw up your life, and I guess he was right. You let Mindy go, and you’re obviously going to regret that forever.”
“I thought you wanted me to stay away from her.” Devon turned back to Bret, giving a slight headshake. Something tightened around his chest. “Isn’t that why you’re so pissed at me?”
“I’m pissed because you weren’t man enough to go after her. Once I got over the fact that you took advantage of her—”
“I did not.” Devon pushed himself up off the couch.
“—and realized that it was a relationship on both sides, I’ve been waiting for you to man up. But it doesn’t look like you have the balls for it.”
Devon took off, out of the studio, out of the building, into the crisp fall air. Leaves were falling here in New York where they were recording the album. People strolled about, milling around everywhere. He needed to clear his head.
Was Bret right? Had he really let Mindy push him away because he was scared to fight for her? Would she even still want him?
What if she had someone new, in college? What if she’d met someone her age, smart like her, with similar interests, and moved on with her life?
But… what if she hadn’t? What if she still loved him? Devon turned quickly and ran back to the studio. He burst in as Bret was putting his guitar away in his case. His breath came in short pants. His lungs were on fire now. “Your sister… is she at… the University? Or is she… home?”
“What do you care?”
“Because I’m going to find her. Tell her I love her. Hope like hell she’ll take me back since it took me so long to realize it.”
“Well, it’s about damn time. She’s home. If you want my sister, you’ve got to go back to Indiana.” Bret gave him a questioning look.
Devon hadn’t been back to Indiana since they left on their newly purchased tour bus several years ago. “Watch me.”
He pulled out his phone and called his manager while he headed back to the hotel to pack. “Chet, get me on a flight from New York to Indianapolis today. Rent me a car, I’ve got to drive a bit. You get all that?”
“This sounds like trouble,” Chet said.
“I don’t give a damn.”
Chapter Eighteen - Devon
Devon turned the car off outside of Mindy’s mom’s house. It was small and modest, the house where he’d hung out to play video games with his best friend. Bret had wanted to buy his mom a new home, but she wouldn’t have it.
It looked like maybe no one was home. Their mom’s car was gone. But then he saw someone, Mindy maybe, walk past a sheer curtain in the living room. Okay. He clutched the keys tightly. He was going to do this. He had to convince Mindy that he’d been miserable without her, couldn’t live without her another day.
Devon climbed the porch steps and gave a resounding knock on the front door. He waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, Mindy opened the door. Her mouth and eyes went wide with shock. “Devon, what are you doing here?”
“Can I come inside? To talk.” He swallowed hard as his stomach clenched like a fist.
She looked around the living room. When she looked back at him, her eyes shone brightly. “Yes, but only for a few minutes. My mom is at the park, but she’ll be back soon.”
He didn’t understand why he needed to be gone before Mrs. Cassidy came home. Did she hate him now, too, for letting Mindy go? Scratch that—if he’d hurt Mindy, he knew she’d have it out for him.
Mindy turned away and went through the house, picking up a small blanket and a couple of toys off the floor. She stuffed them in a laundry basket and put them in the hall. Maybe she had a puppy now? Didn’t matter. He needed to focus on why he was here.
“Min,” he started and stopped. How did he begin? “There’s something I need to say to you. I should’ve said it a long time ago, but… I screwed up.”
“That’s what you came all the way to Indiana to tell me? You screwed up?” She wiped her eyes as a tear fell.
“No. I mean, I did, but that’s not what I meant to say. I’m doing this all wrong.” He stepped closer, took her face in his hands, and wiped the new tears away. “I’m in love with you.” His insides shook as he waited for her response.
She gazed into his eyes. “For real?”
“Very for real. I’m lost without you. I can’t enjoy anything, not even the music when you’re not there. You make my life complete, but that’s not even why I’m here. I want to be those things for you. I want to be the one thing that makes your life better.”
She turned her face into his hand and kissed his palm. “I love you, too. But, we need to talk.”
“We will. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy, I promise.” He leaned down to brush a kiss across her forehead, but she lifted her face, and then they were kissing. Electricity shot through him. It was like time had stopped. She could still make him feel like it was just the two of them in the world.
She snaked her arms around his neck and he grabbed her ass in both hands, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist in response and moaned his name. Her mouth latched on to his neck, and she lapped at him.
“I’ve missed you,” she murmured against his skin.
“God, Min, you’re my everything. I didn’t even know what love was until I met you. I’m so sorry I let you go.”
“Not your fault.” She kissed him, opening her mouth in invitation. His body responded, and he was hard for her. He walked backward with her to the couch and sat down. Their hands were everywhere, roaming under each other’s clothes.
“We should stop,” Devon said. “You said your mom will be back soon and this isn’t how I want her seeing her future son-in-law.”
“Was that a proposal?” Mindy leaned her forehead against his, breathing hard. “Don’t ask me that yet. There’s something you should know.”
“You’ve found someone else.” He knew he’d waited too long. Stupid to think she was sitting here at this house alone, waiting for him.
“Don’t be ridiculous. There won’t ever be anyone else for me, not like that.” She slipped out of his arms and onto the couch. “But there is someone you need to know about before we can be together. We’re a package deal now.”
Was she seriously talking about her puppy now? “I could care less if you have a dog. We’ll take her on the road with us.”
“Dog? What?” She half-smiled, her head tilted.
“The toys. And the blanket. You’ve got a dog, right?”
Mindy stood up and crossed to look out the storm door. When she turned back, her fingers twisted together. “Katy isn’t a dog. Those were baby things.”
“Oh.” They could get past this. He wasn’t going to be angry at her because she’d been with someone else in the year they’d been apart. “You had a baby?”
“No, Devon. We have a baby. A little girl. I named her Katherine, after my mom.”
A flush of adrenaline hit his bloodstream and his stomach was heavy. “A baby. You and me?”
Chapter Nineteen - Mindy
Mindy’s insides felt torn apart at the idea that Devon might reject their child. What if he didn’t even believe her? What if he was worried she wanted something from him? What if, what if, what if. It was all she could think about.
“You should at least meet her, Devon. Even if you don’t want me, you should see her. She’s beautiful, smart… perfect. She’s my perfect little angel.” She took a faltering step closer.
The door opened behind her. It was her mom. She was chattering away at Katy and the stroller wheels squeaked on the hardwood floor. Mindy whirled around to face them. She couldn’t keep looking at Devon, his face slack with shock.
She wondered as she had a hundred times before, at her choice to keep this a secret from him. She hadn’t wanted to saddle him with responsibility he wasn’t ready for, hadn’t asked for. Katy was precious to her, but having this baby had been her choice.
“Devon?” Her mom s
topped in her tracks and looked at Mindy, her lips pursed.
Mindy undid the latches and picked the baby up from the stroller. “Mom, can you excuse us?”
Her mom gave her a long, questioning look then nodded. “I suppose so.” She started to turn, then stopped. “Devon, I’ve known you a very long time. I treated you like one of my own.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Devon said.
“Think very, very carefully about the next words you say. They’ll define who you are to this child. And to Mindy.” Her mom turned at that and walked into the kitchen. She was right. If Devon couldn’t find a way to love them both, then they could never be together.
“I understand.” Devon took a step closer to Mindy, his eyes bulging from their sockets. “Can I hold her?”
She held Katy close, inhaling her scent for a moment. She smelled so clean and new, still. Her child… their child. “Yes.”
He crossed the room and held his arms out. She slid the baby into them, helping him adjust to Katy’s small size. “She was two weeks early. It made me think of you. She was so excited to take center stage, she couldn’t wait.”
“And she’s healthy?”
“Absolutely perfect. Has been since day one and she’s in the ninetieth percentile for her development.”
“Is that a good thing?” He looked into his daughter’s clear, blue eyes, Mindy’s eyes. She saw it on his face, the moment everything clicked into being real for him. He hugged the baby close. “You’ve got a head start on me. I don’t know what any of that means.”
“It means she’s smart and developing well physically.” Mindy sat down on the couch because her knees were wobbly. She wanted to ask him what this meant for their future. Did the three of them have a future? But that seemed selfish considering he’d only just found out he was a dad.
“Is this why you left me? Because you didn’t think I’d want her? Because I already love her. She smells like nothing else, and she looks so much like you.”
“She got your blond hair, though.” Mindy couldn’t help but smiling when she talked about Katy. But her stomach fluttered with nerves.
“Sure she does. She’s got to have a little bit of her old man. As long as she looks like her beautiful Mommy.” He sat down beside her and laid Katy down on his thighs. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yeah, this is why I left. I knew Bret would try to make you marry me, I knew the label would try to make you marry me, and that was the last thing I wanted. If you want us, I want it to be because it’s what you want.”
“Are you kidding me?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze, staring hard at a spot on the old hardwood.
“Min, look at me.” When she lifted her face and looked at him, he touched her cheek, keeping one hand firmly on the squirming baby’s belly. “Of course I want you both. I love you. Hell, I’ve known her for less than five minutes and I’d cut off an arm for her. I love both of you.”
Relief rushed through her like standing under a waterfall. “So, you’re not mad?”
“Oh, I’m going to kill your brother. If he’d only told me what was going on…” He shook his head, his mouth a hard line.
“I made him promise me he wouldn’t. Here.” She scooped the baby up, spread a blanket on the floor and laid her down there. “If you don’t kiss me in the next five seconds, I might die.”
Devon stood and was by her side in a flash. He wrapped his arms around her and looked down at the baby and then into her eyes. His lips took hers, gentle and sweet, and then more. Demanding and hot, everything at once.
When they parted, he held her close. “We’re a family. We’ll always be a family. I love you, Min.”
“I love you, too, Devon. So much.”
Today, they would start their lives together. She didn’t care if they ever married, though she’d remind him he’d sort of proposed to her. She just wanted to raise their daughter together, as one. For the first time since she had left him, she was truly happy again.
*****
THE END
Contemporary Romance: Daddy's Business Friend
Description
He’s forbidden territory.
He’s much older than me. Not to mention my dad’s best friend and ... my boss.
I know I shouldn’t want him, but how much longer can I resist?
All I can think about is his experienced hands, his dark, intense eyes.
He’s known me since I was a little girl. But I’ve grown up, I’m a woman now.
Just once wouldn’t hurt, would it?
Wrong... Here I am, pregnant with his baby.
Have I lost him forever? Or is he man enough to handle the responsibility?
Chapter One
Laken Singleton blew the ash brown hair out of her face as she added whipped milk to a coffee. Tinsel decorated the counter she stood at in honor of the upcoming holidays. She’d been working at Coffee Hut for three years now. She’d just been fired from her second job a few hours ago. The diner she’d been working at was closing down due to decreasing revenue.
She needed both jobs or she wouldn’t be able to afford to live and scrape a little bit into savings every month so she could go back to school one day.
Her co-worker and friend, Jen, sauntered up beside her to grind beans. “Mr. Cranky-pants is throwing another tantrum. You know you’re the only one who can calm him down.”
Sure, it was childish, but Mr. Cranky-pants was the name Jen had given their manager, Kevin. Laken rolled her eyes and sighed. She was too tired to deal with Kevin today. “I’ll see what’s going on. Be right back.”
She followed the narrow hall back to Kevin’s office, wiping her hands on her apron. “Hey, Kev, what’s wrong?”
“The cash register came up short again yesterday. If it happens again, I’m going to have to let one of you go.”
Whoa, this wasn’t just a bad day. This was a big freaking deal. Neither she or Jen could afford to lose their jobs. Jen had a little boy at home, two years old, and no one to support them. It would be Christmas soon and Laken couldn’t imagine how awful it would be if Jen couldn’t buy her little boy any gifts.
On the other hand, since Laken’s dad had died, she had no one to support her, either. Somehow, even though he’d been partners in a business and they hadn’t exactly been poor, her father hadn’t left a will. If he had, no one could find it.
Her stepmother’s first action after the funeral had been to kick Laken out of the house and vow not to give her another dime, either for college or to live on. Laken didn’t mind so much being financially independent if you could call the frugal way she lived that, but her father had saved all her life for her to become a doctor. It’s all she’d ever wanted.
She brushed her hair away from her espresso black eyes, where it had fallen from her bun. “Kevin, calm down. There’s got to be a logical explanation.”
Kevin stood and scrubbed at his short beard with a hand. “If there is, I can’t figure it out. I don’t think either of you girls would steal from the till, but I’ve got to answer to the owners.”
Laken sat down in a chair beside his desk. “Have you considered the register might be going wonky? It’s pretty old. It’s not out of the question that it’s not recording when we have to comp a coffee or invalidate a sale.”
“I’ll see about getting a new one, but I honestly doubt the owners are going to spring for it.” He sat down behind his desk and picked up the phone. “You should get back to work.”
Laken’s chest hitched when she tried to breathe. This was scary, for her and for Jen. Maybe she should start looking for a new job? She’d hate to leave this place, though. She knew her job, she was good at it and she liked Jen. She even liked Kevin, much as she hated to admit it. But something had to change. She just couldn’t afford to get fired. If she were going to leave, it needed to be on her own terms.
***
Trevor sat across the table from Eleanor Singleton, his best friend’s widow of the last three
years. This was one hell of a way to spend his forty-fourth birthday. He drummed his fingers on the table, eager to get this meeting over with.
They didn’t have a board of directors or investors. There was only him and Eleanor.
Before, when it was him and Frank, things had been easy. This company was their baby. Trevor had no kids of his own. When his wife was alive, he never gave up half hoping she’d take pregnant, but she never did. He supposed one of them had been infertile. She hadn’t been interested in pursuing any treatments. He’d accepted that, as he had many things going on in his life. It hadn’t been a happy marriage.
He never intended to settle for less than the best life had to offer ever again.
“Eleanor, you can’t really want to sell the company Frank worked so hard to build.”
“I have no interest in this company, especially if it’s not bringing me any profit.” She scowled at him and lit a cigarette. There was an ordinance against smoking in public places, including office buildings. Eleanor could care less if they got cited, so she lit up during all of their meetings. It never seemed to worry her that Frank had died of lung cancer after a long-fought battle to survive.
Trevor stood and shut the office door, so at least his employees wouldn’t be subjected to her secondhand smoke. “Goddamn it, how much do you want for your share?”
She picked up a pen, grabbed a post-it and shoved it at Trevor. He picked it up. It was outlandish—the company, which she only owned half of, was nowhere near this much. “If we sold today, you’d never get this much.”
“All the same, if you want my half, that’s what it’s worth.”
He’d try reasoning with her. He willed his voice to come out calm and even. He couldn’t seem to help his jaw clench. “Why do you want to sell?”
Shattered Daddy: A Billionaire Suspense Romance Page 44
