Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“I met my wife when I was seven years old. It went from being the worst day of my life to the best. I still remember the way she looked, the way she felt sitting next to me, the strawberry smell of her fuckin’ hair.”
Although he was physically there with me, his mind was somewhere else entirely. It wasn’t me who was standing in front of him, holding his baby girl.
It was Bailey.
Hurting me in ways I wasn’t prepared for.
“She saved me. Right from the start, she brought purpose into my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. We planned our lives together, down to the name of our kids. Jackson, Jagger, and Journey. We tried for years to have our baby girl, until she finally arrived at the worst timing possible.”
My eyes rimmed with tears, cuddling Little Miss tighter to my body.
How could he say that about her?
Reading my mind again, he added, “I wanted Journey more than anything in this world. Our family wasn’t complete until we had her, but she was what ended that dream.”
Did Bailey die in childbirth? Is that what happened to her? Is that why he can’t hold his daughter?
“I can see your mind spinning with questions. Do you have any idea how badly I want to hold Journey? How it kills me inside that I can’t? She called me Da today, and I never once told her that was who I was. That was all you, Cami. All you.”
I cleared my throat and swallowed hard. My heart beating rapidly with the effect his words…
His demeanor…
His tone…
Was having on me.
“After the way I’ve treated you, you’re still here. In my face, hearing me out, helping me, not just my kids, which is what I pay you for. But me.” He was looking through my body, not at me, when he questioned, “Waiting for what? What the fuck do you want from me?”
I was taken back, not expecting him to ask me that.
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“If that were true you, wouldn’t be standing here right now. Try again.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“The truth. I want the fucking truth.”
“I am here for your kids, Dr. Pier—”
“Enough with the ‘Dr. Pierce’ bullshit. My name is Aiden, say it,” he gritted through a clenched jaw.
“I… I… I…”
“For Christ’s sake, you’re like talking to a child.”
My eyes widened. “Actually,” I snapped, “I can’t say what I want to you, because I have a sleeping baby in my arms. And unlike you, I’ll be the one up with her all night if she wakes up.” I regretted what I said as soon as he stood up, growling from deep within his chest.
Shit. I awoke the beast.
Journey chose that instant to stir awake. Sleepily reaching her arms out toward him, she mumbled, “Da.”
Completely halting his uproar.
The pained expression on his face once again took over…
Everything.
Giving me the courage to express, “You want to know what I want? I would love for you to just for one second stop blaming everyone for what you’re going through. It’s not fair. You’re pushing the people who love you away, and for what? To be miserable and alone? That’s what you want?”
Without faltering, he stepped into my personal space, his muscular build looming over my petite frame. I didn’t cower. If anything, I stood taller. He cocked his head to the side, reaching for a piece of my hair, twirling it around his finger.
“I’m not alone. You’re here.”
My lips parted, and his eyes followed the subtle movement of my mouth.
“You’re not living in the south side anymore sweetheart. Cover your body the next time you’re around my family. I don’t appreciate men looking at my kid’s nanny the way they were today.”
“What about the way you were looking at it?”
“Carajo. Fuck. Did I really just say that?”
“Yeah, you did.”
I sucked in my lips, biting my tongue.
“Last I checked, I’m a grown ass man. I can look at what I pay for.”
My mouth dropped open.
He grinned, letting go of my hair and placing a finger under my chin to shut my jaw instead.
“Careful, Cami, there’s sure as hell a lot more I can do besides look at you. Unless that’s what you want?”
“I’m paid to take care of the kids not entertain you. How the hell do you go from one extreme to the next?”
“That’s what you do to me. I can’t seem to control myself around you. And I have yet to figure out if that’s a good or bad thing.”
I threw his question back at him. “What do you want from me?”
“I’ve yet to figure that out either.”
He took one last look at me and left me hanging, walking out of the nursery.
What the fuck?
In a stupor, I laid Journey down in her crib and turned on her white noise player before kissing her head and leaving her room. Gently closing the door behind me.