Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“The odds are unexpected, but the best things in life are uncertain.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because you’re uncertain about me, about the paternity of our daughter, and I know that the two of you in my life will be the best thing that has ever happened to me.” With that, he leans in and presses a kiss to my cheek. “Good night, Laney.” Shoving his hands in his front pockets, he steps back and waits for me to be safely inside before jogging back to his truck.
I peek through the blinds and watch until I can no longer see his taillights. My hand touches my cheek where his lips just were, and I can still feel them, soft yet firm, pressed against my skin.
What I did tonight was dangerous and out of character for me. I allowed a strange man to pick me up and take me back to his place. I don’t know him, even though in my gut, it feels like I do. It’s not just my gut, but his eyes; they tell me more than anything that we meant something to each other. I need to call my mother. I need to confront her, but part of me wants to sit on this new information for a few days. Maybe, the more time I’m here, my memories will come back to me. Maybe I won’t need my mother’s story or Kenton’s. I’ll have my own.
Chapter 6
Kent
When my alarm finally sounds at 6:00 a.m., I’ve been awake for hours. I finally managed to fall asleep sometime after one in the morning, only to wake back up at two thirty. I’ve been lying here in bed ever since. I’m not tired. My mind is racing and I can’t seem to shut it off.
She was here.
In my house.
She had my baby.
She can’t remember me.
Never in my wildest dreams could I ever have imagined that this would be our outcome. That the woman I love, have loved for years, doesn’t remember our time together. I knew that a part of me would always be hers, with how deeply she burrowed herself under my skin all those years ago. However, seeing her now, knowing what I know, knowing that her daughter is mine, it’s clear to me that it’s more than just a piece of me that’s hers. It’s all of me. Everything I am.
Rushing through a shower, and a pot of coffee later, I’m loaded up and heading to the shop. The lab doesn’t open until eight, and that’s about the time we’ll get on the jobsite. I’ll just have to step away to make the call. I’m not putting this off. I want the test and I want my daughter.
Pulling into the shop, I’m the last to arrive. Good, that’s how I wanted this to go down. Less time for idle chitchat. Instead of going inside, I hop into Ridge’s truck just like yesterday. I’ve barely got the door shut before the guys come filing out of the office. Seth is last, of course, just like always. Not that I can blame him. If Delaney worked here, I’d always be last too.
“Mornin’,” Ridge says, climbing behind the wheel.
“I need to call the lab at eight.” I blurt the words like a confession.
“Good plan.” He puts the truck in Drive and pulls out of the lot, pointing us toward the Nottingham Estate. Pointing us toward Delaney.
“She’s mine.” I already told him this yesterday, but I need to say it again. Out loud to someone I know. It’s almost as if I need to claim her, claim both of them publicly since my dumbass let that opportunity pass me by last time. Never again.
“How did last night go?”
“Fine.” I run my fingers through my hair. “She came over, we had dinner, we talked. I told her my version of the story, and she told me the version her mother told her. Her mother never liked me. Never approved of us being together. It all makes sense. The timeline fits.”
“And how does Delaney feel about all of this?”
“Fuck, man. Angry, confused. She doesn’t know me, Ridge. She doesn’t remember our time together. I had a picture of us, one we took the last time we were together. It’s the only one I’ve ever allowed myself to keep of us, as a reminder. I showed it to her and could see the confusion and the disbelief in her eyes.”
“I can imagine this is tough on her.”
“On her, on me, on my daughter. Fuck, I have a daughter.” A daughter who is close to Knox in age and I’ve never met. A daughter who thinks that family other than her is what has kept me away from her all these years. A daughter I’ve never held in my arms or tucked in bed at night.
“You can’t push her, Kent. You know that, right? I know what you’re feeling. I know you. You want her and your kid right now, all the time. I get it. I do. However, you can’t push either of them. If her memory doesn’t come back, she might not ever be yours.”