Page 188 of Offside Devil

He rolls his eyes, charging ahead. “You both keep saying it’s complicated, but it isn’t. When you love someone, you make it work. Do you love him?”

If I hadn’t already crushed three cookies, I’d be spewing the crumbs all over his pearly-white countertop. “Excuse me?”

“Do. You. Love. Him?”

My mouth opens and closes, but Daniel just stares at me, waiting. I blurt out an answer just so he’ll look away. “Yes! Obviously, I do. I love both of them.”

“So there you go. Now, you have to fight for them.”

“But—”

“You’re gonna say you have secrets, but who doesn’t?” he carries on. “I keep a jar of peanut butter in the drawer next to my bed for when I get hungry in the middle of the night. Taylor knows this and, after a minor attempt at an intervention, she accepts it. That’s what love is—you accept people for who they really are.”

I snort. “My secrets go a little deeper than a hidden peanut butter jar.”

“So do mine,” Daniel says in a whisper. “But I’m not going to tell you those because you aren’t the woman I was waiting in my underwear for. The depths of my dark, twisted soul belong to a gorgeous blonde.”

“Zane?” I tease.

Daniel busts out laughing. “I think you’re getting our blondes confused.”

I’m happy for Daniel and Taylor. Really.

But the longer I sit in his happy love-glow, the more I think I should’ve never left my indentation on Taylor's couch.

I slide off the stool. “They’re okay, though, right? Zane and Aiden? They’re healthy?”

“You aren’t going to ask them yourself?”

My silence is answer enough.

Daniel sighs. “Aiden is fine. He’s going to start back at preschool in the next couple days. Owen has been watching him while Zane looks for a new nanny.”

Obviously, Zane is eventually going to need someone else to watch Aiden, but the implications of it still sting.

Aiden will get close with someone else. By this time next year, he might not even remember me.

Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I blink them away. “Thanks, Daniel.”

“Yeah.” He leads me to the door, leaning against the frame as I step into the hall. “I know what I say doesn’t mean a damn thing to either of you, but for what it’s worth, I think the two of you can make it work. I still have hope.”

I give him a tight smile. “That makes one of us.”

75

ZANE

“Who the fuck are you?” I ask through the closed door.

I’m not opening it until I know Carson isn’t pulling a Tonya Harding. If this guy is here to break my kneecaps, he’s going to have to rip my door open first.

“Ian,” he says flatly. “The investigator you hired.”

I snatch my keys off the floorboard and climb out of the car. “Ian” has to be a full foot shorter than me, but the man is a boulder. I didn’t know people could be built like cubes, but here he is.

“Ever heard of a phone call?”

“Ever heard of a wiretap?” he fires back. “I like to do business in person when I can. Unless there’s a P.I. tailing me—which I doubt, because I check for that kind of thing—no one will ever know we worked together.”

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