Page 55 of Play With Me
“I don’t really want to be–”
“Maya, go to your roomnow,” Mick snaps. It was bound to happen sooner or later. He’s lost his cool multiple times tonight when Maya couldn’trecall something he deemed simple enough to remember.
Anders looks like he’s about to hit Mick in the face. As I open my mouth to diffuse the bomb that’s about to go off, Maya shoves her stool back from the kitchen island, the loud screech of it against the floor reverberating through the room. “You’renotmy dad! Why are you even here?” she screams at him as she starts to cry.
Seeing her tears makes my waterworks start all over again. Mick looks like she sucker-punched him. Anders’ head bounces back and forth between us before he finally walks over to her and pulls her into his arms. “You’re okay, little one. Come on, betcha got homework to do, don’t you?”
She sniffles as she wraps her arms around his waist and hugs him back. “Math. You know how much I hate math,” she replies sullenly. “Will you help me?”
“Sure I will.”
Maya sniffs again, wiping her eyes as she comes around to hug me. “Will you come, too?”
“Of course, mijita. I’ll be up in a moment.” I squeeze her tightly, inhaling her cotton candy scent that permeates the entire second floor of the house.
I watch them go before turning to Mick, who is watching them with a mixture of anger and sadness etched into his features. “I hate that she’s so comfortable with him.”
Curling my bottom lip, I chew on it while thinking about my reply. “You should be thankful he’s so good with her.”
“Thankful?” He narrows his eyes.
“Yes, Mick.Thankful.” My voice grows stronger, but I still keep my tone low so she can’t overhear us. “He’s spent more time with her in the past week than you have her whole life. You can’t fault her for that. And you can’t go around acting like her father, either. You’re going to have to do damage control after your display tonight. A normal boss wouldn’t have acted that way.”
He’s silent for a while, hands on his hips as he stares at the floor. “I want to tell her…” he finally whispers.
Reluctantly, I nod in agreement. “Soon.”
I just hopesooncomes later. Much, much later.
Mick
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO
“I’m going to be a father?”
Carmela stands her ground near the door, hands folded protectively over her round belly. She nods, eyes hard as steel as she awaits my reaction, no doubt ready for me to tell her she can’t keep it.
Standing from the bed, I slowly walk to her. The closer I get, the easier it is to see the tears shining in her beautiful onyx eyes. She’s glowing. Pregnancy agrees with her.
Something uncurls in my chest, a hunger I’ve never known before—a need to stake my claim and let everyone know that this breathtaking woman is carrying my child.
“Why didn’t you tell me when you found out, tiny dancer?” All the things I missed rush through my mind like a slideshow. When she found out. The first ultrasound. Finding out the sex of the baby.
Has she already painted a room for the nursery? Which room will she put the baby in? Has she picked a name?
Whose last name will the baby have?
Carmela breathes in a shuddered breath, tears falling in slow paths down her rosy cheeks. “You made a choice, Mick. You choseher.”
I never wanted to. It was a choice I wasn’t allowed to make.
If I could go back and do everything over again, I’d choose the woman in front of me in a heartbeat.
She sucks in a breath and looks down, hands splayed over her stomach as a smile stretches her lips. “What is it? Is everything okay?”
Nodding, she beams at me. “She kicked.”
She.