Page 32 of Fated Secret Baby

I lift her up, bringing her close to him. “Orion is your daddy, Junie.”

Her little nose wrinkles up. “I don’t have a daddy.”

“You do. We just lost him for a while.”

She looks at me suspiciously. “But the magic found him?”

“The magic found him.”

Juniper looks at him, then looks at me. “Can we have ice cream for dinner?”

Orion laughs. I laugh. Leave it to the four-year-old to totally take all the tension out of this situation.

“Whatever you want, Junie. Go put on your shoes, and we’ll go get ice cream.”

“Yay!”

Juniper scrambles down, sprinting for her open suitcase. Orion moves next to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “The magic brought her a dad?”

“She’s four. It’s the best I had.” I shrug. “When she’s older, we can explain it.”

“And what will we say?”

I turn to him. I grab both of his hands, holding them as I look down at them. “That I didn’t think you wanted to be with me, and I left, because it would have hurt me too badly to hear you say it. That when I found out about her, I wanted to tell you, but I was too scared.”

“Of what?”

“That you’d hate me,” I whisper. “That you’d never forgive me for running away.”

“Calista…”

“I’m so sorry, Orion. I’m sorry that I took her firsts away from you. I’m sorry that I didn’t give you the chance to be a dad…”

“It’s okay. There’s nothing to be sorry for,” he says. “I’m sorry that you didn’t think you could trust me. And that you thought I’d tell my mom more about our future than I told you.”

“You’re very close with her,” I say softly.

He grimaces. “I would like to be less close.”

“Orion…”

“My mom interferes in my personal life. She does it because she cares, but I told her that if she continues to act like that, then I will have to remove myself from my relationship with her.”

My eyes widen. “How did she take it?”

“Poorly. But the point is not to isolate her or cut her out. The point is that I want to have a relationship with my mom. Just not one where she’s deciding things for me,” he says.

I wince. “Ouch. Point taken.”

“I’m my own person, Calista.” He squeezes my hands. “Fate made us mates. You don’t have to decide things for me. From this day forward, there are no more lies, okay?”

“No lies.”

“And no half truths. No secrets. We tell each other everything, because we’re both people who can trust that the other one is going to choose something that’s right for both of us—” He kisses my knuckles, punctuating his point. “—over choosing something else. Sound like a deal?”

I smile, trying to keep the tears from my throat. “Sounds perfect.”

“Also, you’re moving out of this place. And out of Florida.”

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