Stepbrother for Christmas

by Amy Brent

  “It’s mine,” Gage stated matter-of-factly. “Right? We were together seven months ago. We were in Florida together about seven months ago. Of course, this baby is mine.” He paused to give me a long and hard look. “Is this why your father has barely spoken two words to me about you? The only times we talk are through my contracts.”

  “I asked him not to tell you,” I said. “It was the only way I thought that would protect us from everything.”

  “Protect us from what?”

  I sat down on the edge of the couch while Gage paced in front of me. He ran a hand over his face in aggravation. Guilt tugged at me. Telling him the truth would put both of us at risk, but all I longed to do was to feel Gage’s arms around me again. I craved that more than anything in the world. I had to tell the truth.

  “If you sit down,” I started, twirling a piece of hair around my finger anxiously. “I’ll tell you everything. Starting from Florida until now. I don’t want you to wake Ethan with all your pacing.”

  “Fine.” He took a seat in the recliner across from me. “Start from Florida because I honestly want to know what the fuck happened. I can’t even wrap my mind around any of this right now, Amber.”

  I sucked in a long and deep breath while rubbing at my aching ribs. “I got a phone call from Scott while we were in Florida. Not on my cell phone, but through the hotel line. He had hired a PI to track me down. This investigator followed us around for a while apparently, because there are photos of us together.”

  Gage’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Photographs of us being intimate?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. “Many of them were of us being intimate. The last photograph he had was of us on the beach in Florida. So, Scott called to tell me that if I didn’t leave you and drop the divorce, he’d leak the images to the press.”

  “Fuck.”

  “I know. Trust me. I wanted to tell you the truth, but I wanted to see the pictures for myself. Scott never bluffs when it comes to threats. I told him that I had left you because I didn’t want to ruin my father’s career. He’s already so disappointed in my life at the moment.”

  “And you dropped the divorce?”

  “I dropped the agreements,” I said. “I’m still legally married to him at the moment, until I figure out what to do.”

  “What about the baby?” Gage asked harshly. “Our baby, Amber. How could you hide something like that from me? You know how much I wanted to start a family with you.”

  “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I came back from Florida,” I said, startled by the intensity in Gage’s voice. “I just knew that this was something that Scott would see as bait. I was trying to protect you and my father. You have to understand that.”

  “Don’t play the victim in this situation, Amber. You could’ve told me. We were together, for Christ’s sake.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “This involved me. I was going to propose to you in Florida. I had a plan to tell your father, and none of that would have changed if you just told me.”

  I sank back against the couch cushions in disbelief. Shock filtered through me numbly. He was going to propose to me? I stared across the coffee table at the man I had imagined being with since I was a teenager. We would’ve been engaged by now. We would’ve been enjoying our first child together. That possibility had gone out the window the moment I decided to believe Scott’s words over Gage’s love and care for me. It made me sick to my stomach thinking about it.

  Hurt flashed in Gage’s eyes as he rose from the chair on unsteady legs. I pushed myself up and off the couch to grab Gage’s arm before he reached the front door. Desperation washed over me as I looked up at his cold and stony face pleadingly.

  “I’m sorry,” I cried, trying to keep my voice low to not disturb Ethan. “I didn’t know any of that, Gage. If I would’ve known—”

  “That was the point. It was supposed to be a surprise.” Gage shook his head at me as he untangled himself from my hands. “I can’t do this, Amber. I know why we are in the situation we’re in at the moment. You chose to believe your ex-husband’s words over mine. You chose to trust your future with him, rather than with me.”

  “Gage—”

  “That’s exactly what it is,” he said flatly. “I hope you figure it out, Amber. I can’t deal with this when you are the one calling all the shots, without even telling me a word.”

  “I was just trying to protect my father and you!” I exclaimed as he opened the front door. “That’s all I was trying to do, Gage. Not to hurt you, or anyone else.”

  “You did, though. That’s what you don’t understand.”

  Freeing himself from my hands, Gage stepped out into the dark night without looking back at me. I gripped the side of the door with tears streaming down my face as I watched his tall and trim figure disappear into the shadows across the street. The SUV’s, my father’s security team, were back in their usual spots. They followed Gage’s retreating form down the street.

  I closed the door with a shaky sob. The world gave out beneath my feet, and I sank down to the ground. Curling up into a ball, I tried my best to stifle my cries with the back of my hand. Gage was right. All of this was my fault. I had chosen to believe my ex-husband over Gage. Now, I was stuck in a home all alone, with my son sound asleep upstairs and a newborn baby on the way. I had done everything I thought I could do to protect my father, but also Gage and our little family.

  So much for that, Amber. You’re the one that shit all over what you could’ve had.

  I pressed my forehead against the carpeted floors. I had no idea how I could even fix it in the long run. There was no going back to the past, even though I wanted to go back to Florida that morning to hang up on Scott. Let him leak the pictures. Let him run his mouth all over the television. I would’ve at least had Gage throughout all of it, along with our baby girl, Lily, and Ethan. We would’ve had each other.

  Chapter 25

  Gage

  “This costume sucks, Dad.”

  I bit back an exasperated sigh as Lily picked at her Frozen dress with a frown. She adjusted her blonde wig, full of massive amounts of coarse blonde hair intricately braided, with a frown as well. I zipped up the last part of her dress before taking a step back.

  “You said the dress from Frozen,” I said. “This is what I picked up at the store.”

  “Yeah, but every girl in my class is going to have the same type of dress,” Lily said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She rolled her eyes at me dramatically. “It’s going to be lame, Dad. I’m going to look the same no matter where I go tonight.”

  I did my best to contain my irritation, even though little things like this were starting to wear me down. Marcie had been one of those moms who understood what her daughter needed, or what she desired to do. She would throw Halloween parties in our house for all of Lily’s friends, but that had changed over the years. Our house wasn’t even decorated for Halloween as it once was. Lily never brought the topic up, and I never bothered climbing up into the attic to sort through Marcie’s boxes of decorations.

  “You’re beautiful, no matter what,” I said, grabbing my wallet and keys. “Get in the truck if you want to get candy. I get half of your stock because I’m driving you everywhere in Bozeman to get the best candy spots.”

  “I don’t think so. You have to get your own candy.”

  “We will see about that.”

  The entire population of Bozeman was out and about when I managed to find a parking spot in a busy suburb where the middle class lived. It was the same place that I had taken Lily for years because of the impressive turn out. We often walked away with a couple buckets full of candy. I spotted Raychelle waiting for us on the corner as a string of kids darted by her, eagerly dressed up in various costumes.

  “Isla from Frozen,” she said, taking in Lily’s costume with a smile. “I’ve seen a couple of those walking by. Come on, now. Let’s get a photo.”

  She held up a
camera, but Lily shook her head. “No, Aunt Ray. I look the same as everyone else. Mom would’ve made a special costume. Even Amber would’ve done it.”

  “Lily,” Raychelle said sharply. “Don’t act ungrateful in front of your father. He has done everything he can to make sure that you are okay.”

  Lily looked at me through narrowed eyes, full of tears. I sighed. “Go on, Lily. Find your friends. Please just try to have a good time and not make a scene.”

  She didn’t protest. Darting down the sidewalk, Lily headed in the direction of a small group of friends that were waiting for her. The group took off together. Raychelle and I strolled behind them at a slow pace to give them space, but to keep an eye out for them as well.

  “I should’ve offered to help with the costume,” Raychelle said guiltily. “I knew that Lily is getting to an age where she wants to be cool and fit in. Wearing the same costume counts as lame to her.”

  A headache pounded in my head. To fight of the chill clinging to my fingers, I shoved my hands deep into my coat pockets with a sigh.

  “She’s getting to age that I don’t even understand,” I said. “This is where I wish Marcie was the one here to help her go through everything. I don’t have a fucking clue about what I’m doing.”

  Raychelle patted me on the shoulder. “You’re doing all that you can do, Gage. It’s not easy being a young girl. It wouldn’t be easy no matter which parent was standing here.”

  “It doesn’t feel that way sometimes.”

  “And Amber?”

  My throat clenched at that. I focused on the various decorative and plastic spiders hiding in the sticky cobweb along the shrubbery of someone’s house as we passed by.

  “I thought you had found her,” Raychelle remarked, frowning. “Am I right? I thought that was what you had said a few weeks ago. I never got the chance to ask again.”

  “No point in asking,” I replied, bitterness swelling in me again.

  My mind flashed to her pregnant and swollen baby with our child growing every single day. I couldn’t get past her keeping that sort of secret from me. It was too much. It hurt too much.

  We stopped on the corner of an adjacent street. I watched as Lily walked along with her group of friends, talking with a smile on her lips. All traces of her discontentment were gone now.

  “What is going on?” Raychelle asked, frowning. “Don’t bother lying to me about it, either. I’ve read some interesting headlines about the Roselynn family.”

  I shrugged my shoulders indifferently. “That’s why Amber claims she went into hiding, to protect her father’s political career. Her ex-husband has been blackmailing her.”

  “With what?”

  “With our relationship,” I stated coldly. “He has photos, from what Amber told me. He threatened to give them to the press to ruin her father’s career, and to destroy our relationship as well. That is the story that I got when I found her here in Bozeman.”

  “And you’re still upset with her?” Raychelle slapped me on the shoulder, hard. She glared at me when I rubbed at my shoulder in surprise. “What is wrong with you, Gage? That poor girl is being blackmailed, and you’re upset with her?”

  “She didn’t tell me the truth,” I replied defensively. “I would’ve done everything I could to protect her. She made that decision without me.”

  “It’s also your hand in this too, Gage. It takes two consenting adults to get into this sort of thing.” She gave me a hard look then. “What else is there? Something else, I can see. What is it?”

  I let out a pent-up breath through my clenched teeth. “There’s a baby, too. My baby according to Amber.”

  “A baby?” Raychelle whispered, eyes widening. “Oh, Gage. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I don’t know, Ray. I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

  “No, I mean, what are you doing here? You need to make this right if you truly love her. Do you think Marcie would be proud of you for acting like this if she knew about it?”

  I grimaced at the thought. “Why did you have to drag Marcie into it?”

  “Because you’re a better man than this, Gage. You are a way better than that ex-husband of hers that is trying to destroy her family. Think about it from Amber’s perspective.”

  A blonde haired little boy, about the same age as Ethan darted across the street. He was also dressed as Spiderman, with the mask dangling off at his side. My heart ached when I watched the little boy go to his father to grab his hand.

  This could be us next year.

  I didn’t want to look past Amber hiding her pregnancy from me. No matter what her reasons were, even if they were meant with good intentions, the months of never knowing that she was carrying my child stung. It kept me from enjoying that part of raising a child.

  I couldn’t deny it that Amber was the only one that I wanted right now on this chilly Halloween evening, with Ethan and Lily trick-or-treating together.

  She was just trying to protect her father, too. I had kept our relationship a secret to protect him. How was what I did, any different from what she did?

  The two of us wanted to protect the ones we loved more than anything in the world. At the end of the day, I didn’t care what Scott leaked to the press. Amber belonged with me, not him. Our child would be raised with love, despite what the media and general public opinion said.

  “Gage.”

  I looked over at Raychelle as she smiled at me knowingly. “Go to Amber. I know that you want to go. I’ll watch after Lily tonight.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  The neighborhood Amber lived in was alive with trick-or-treaters, too. I parked in front of Amber’s house to find a bowl of candy on the front porch step, and all the lights were clicked off. I knocked on the door to double check if Amber was home before starting down the street.

  I let out a relieved breath when I found a lone Spiderman in a group of Ninja Turtles walking together from door to door. I recognized the blonde curls of Amber’s hair as she walked along behind them with a group of other parents.

  She never looked more beautiful than right there, dressed in a pair charcoal leggings, a black shirt that stretched across her pregnant belly, and the rusty orange cardigan she wore. Her blonde curls bounced as she waddled slightly in a pair of simple boots.

  “Amber!” I called out to gain her attention.

  Amber stopped at the sound of my voice. She turned to look back at me with wide eyes, visibly shocked to see me standing behind her on the sidewalk a few feet back.

  “Gage?” She blinked a few times. “What are you doing here?”

  “You know why I’m here,” I said.

  She glanced at the group of women surrounding her, but they quickly dispersed in the direction of Ethan and his group of friends further down the street. Amber approached cautiously with her arms crossed over her chest. A puzzled frown tugged at her lips.

  “I’m confused,” she said. “I thought you were upset with me. Why are you here?”

  I took her cold hands in my own. “I don’t want to go through this life wondering what we could’ve done together. You know what I mean?”

  “Of course, I know what you mean. I’ve been thinking the same thing.” Amber glanced over at the SUV’s that were parked alongside the road. “Gage, we can’t do this here on the street. Not yet. I don’t want my father’s security team to put the pieces together before I can say anything.”

  “You’re right,” I said, and let go of her hands reluctantly. I gazed at her while desire burned through me all over again. “I love you, Amber. I’m sorry for the way I acted a few weeks ago.”

  Amber smiled at me tenderly. “I can’t say that I blame you for being upset. I’m sorry too for everything that has happened. Walk with Ethan and me?”

  “What about your father’s security?” I asked as I followed her down the sidewalk, longing to reach for her hand. To feel some sort of connection again.

  “I’ll tell them you s
topped by to make sure Ethan was having a good Halloween. They won’t bother us unless I give them the signal to come over.”

  “Right.”

  I spent the rest of the evening following Amber and Ethan around the affluent neighborhood, decorated with expensive decorations. The air smelt of crisp apples and dry leaves. Halfway through the walk home, Ethan placed his little gloved hand in my own hand as we walked back down the street.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You make Mommy happy.”

  Tears filled Amber’s eyes. She looked away hastily to hide them before Ethan could see. I smiled down at Ethan and smoothed a hand down the back of his fair head.

  “I’m happy to be back too, buddy. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I sat down on the couch in the living room while Amber whisked Ethan off for a warm bath to fight off the chill. There was no doubt in my mind that word would reach Beau that I had spent the night here at Amber’s house. His security knew where I was, but all of those doubts fell away when Amber came back downstairs. She slid onto my lap, straddling my hips before I could get up.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she breathed, pressing a kiss up against my lips that instantly set my blood ablaze. “I love you, Gage. Please don’t leave me ever again?”

  “I don’t plan on it,” I replied, reaching between us to rub at her swollen belly tenderly. “Don’t leave me again either, Amber. Everything will work out. I’ll make sure of it. I promise.”