Snaking an arm around my waist, he pulls me into him and presses his lips to mine. “It’s going to happen, baby. I promise you that.” He smacks my ass and struts back to the living room to finish giving Hazel the rest of her breakfast. I can’t help but wonder how this is my life.
It turns out I had a hard time pulling Trevin away from Hazel. He insisted he hold her while we ate our own breakfast. He played with her until she was too fussy to keep going. She was a handful as he tried to get her to sleep, but he insisted that he could do it. My mom instincts told me to just take her from him, but then I reminded myself that he is her father. More importantly, he’s here and wants to help take care of her. He wants to learn our routine, what she likes, and what she doesn’t. How do I get in the way of that?
“I have to admit,” Trevin says, coming back to the living after laying Hazel in her crib. “I wasn’t sure I was going to be successful at getting her to sleep.”
“She fights it sometimes. My guess is that she was having too much fun playing with you, and she didn’t want to miss it.”
“Yeah?” His eyes light up.
“Yes.”
“I love her, Cadence.” He shakes his head, and the look on his face tells me that he’s in disbelief. “I never thought—” He smiles. “She’s perfect.”
“She is. She’s such a good baby.”
“You’ve done an incredible job with her. Thank you. I know it was hard for you to do it all on your own. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for both of you.”
“It was unavoidable. The past is behind us.”
“Moving forward,” he says, offering me his hand. “I believe I made you a promise.”
“I’m not going to hold you to that. We really need to get ready.”
“We have time,” he says, not bothering to glance at the clock. His phone rings, and he grins when he looks at the screen. “Hey, Mom.”
I freeze when I hear the word “Mom” come out of his mouth. My attention is focused on him as I wait to see what’s going to happen. Will he tell her about Hazel? About me? My hands grip the hem of his T-shirt that I’m still wearing to keep from wringing them together. Will they hate me? Will they accept her? There are so many questions filtering through my mind.
“Oh, she did, did she?” He grins. “Yeah, I do have some news. Hold on, let me switch to video, and I’ll show you.”
I shriek and take off, running down the hall. His laughter follows me. “That was Cadence,” he explains. “She’s special.” I hear him tell his mother.
I’m in my bedroom with my ear pressed to the door. I’m not ashamed to be listening to his conversation. I would have remained out in the living room, but the last thing his mom needs to see when she meets me for the first time, via video or in person, is me in her son’s T-shirt sans bra, and my hair a mess from our lovemaking the night before.
That’s a hard pass for me.
I’m sure it’s going to be a hard-enough battle when she finds out I kept Hazel from him, even though it was beyond my control. I’m glad Thea understands the entire story. She knows how the night went down. I hate that she has the intimate details of my time with her brother, but at least she knew the story before he appeared back into my life.
“Mom, I need you to remain calm and not scream or cry. You have to be quiet when I show you what I’m about to show you,” he says. I hear Hazel’s bedroom door open. His voice trails off, and that won’t do. I need to hear her response.
As quietly as possible, I open the bedroom door and sneak out into the hall and stand just outside Hazel’s door.
“Mom, I’d like for you to meet your granddaughter. Her name is Hazel.”
The sound of a female gasp hits my ears. “Trevin, explain that gorgeous little girl to me,” his mom says, her voice cracking.
“Cadence, that’s her mom. She and I met over a year ago. It was a night I’ll never forget, and it gave us Hazel.”
“Your dream girl?” she asks. My eyes widen at his mother’s knowledge of our night together.
“That’s her.”
“How did you find her? Does she know that you looked for her? Oh, honey,” his mom murmurs.
“I’m moving home, Ma,” he says. “I need to be here for my girls.” Butterflies take flight, and emotion clogs my throat. It’s as if it’s real now that he’s telling his mother.
“What about your job?”
“I’m going to call Grant Riggins on Monday and tell him. Maybe they have a spot here for me at the Indy location? I’m not sure, and right now, I can’t find it in me to care. I can’t walk away from them. I won’t.” There’s conviction in his voice that threatens to take my breath away.
I wipe the tears from my eyes and slide to the floor, burying my face in my hands. It’s too much. Too many emotions are running through me. Regret that I ran scared, happiness for my daughter who has a father who loves her and is willing to uproot his life to be with her, and then there is this flutter in my chest that’s always there when I think about him. The him from my past, and the him from the present. I feel this deep-rooted connection with him that scares the hell out of me. I’ve never had someone who stuck around. No one except for Shelby, and well, Thea if you count the last year.
My head jerks up when I feel his hand on my shoulder. Trevin is crouching in front of me, a look of worry on his handsome face. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I smile, wiping at my cheeks.
“It’s something.”
“You’re really moving here?”
“Of course, I am. I told you that.”
“I know, but I—” I stop speaking. He doesn’t need me to lay my shit life on him right now.
“Come on.” He stands and offers me his hand. I take it and let him pull me to my feet. He leads us into my bedroom and motions for me to climb into bed. Too exhausted to argue, I do as he asks. “Now, tell me. Don’t hold back with me, Cadence. We know what happens when we do that. Nothing but truth between us from here on out. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I lost my parents when I was young. Well, my mom. I guess my dad was never around, at least that’s what I’ve read in my file. My mom was addicted to drugs. She overdosed when I was six. I went into the foster care system, and was bounced around from home to home. When I was about nine I landed with a family that stuck. They were good to me, but not overly loving. They made sure I had food, clean clothes that fit, and everything I needed, they were just emotionally detached. When I turned eighteen, they allowed me to stay with them until I could move into my college dorm and that was it. Shelby, my best friend, was my roommate my freshman year and we’ve been close ever since. She’s been my person until I met Thea when I moved here about a year ago.”
“I’m sorry,” he says softly.
“I don’t want you to be sorry for me. I just— To hear you say you’re staying and then tell your mom the same thing, it just kind of hit me that Hazel is going to have both parents. That you’re a man of your word, and that she’s not going to grow up like I did. She’s going to have two parents who love her, an aunt who she already adores, and grandparents,” I say, choking on the word. “She’s going to have a real family. Something I never had.”