Page 38 of Daddy's Double Surprise

“Sweetheart, he’s your father and he cares about you. And I know sometimes the way he goes about things is misguided or?—”

“He is trying to micromanage me, Mom.” I sat up and pulled my pillow to my chest, wrapping my arms around it and resting my chin on it. “I asked him to have dinner, just the three of us, so I could talk to him about my plan to stay here and the fact that I’m not breaking up with Carter. And he invited a man to set me up again.”

I would never understand that incessant need he felt to force me toward a man. It boggled my mind why he thought I couldn’t take care of myself or be satisfied being single—or dating someone he didn’t approve of.

“Your dad is just…” She stopped and stared at her lap, pulling her hand away from my leg. There was no way to defend his behavior except to make him seem not so bad. And maybe he wasn’t horrible, but to me it was stifling.

“He approves of Carter to be his best friend, his golfing buddy, his drinking buddy, his poker buddy, and yet the instant Carter wants to date me, he’s a horrible man?” I shook my head and buried my face in the pillow for a second. When I looked up at her she had an expression of sympathy.

“Honey, your father wants what’s best for you. He just thinks Carter is too old. Look, when this baby is graduating high school, Carter will be close to retirement and you’ll be forty-five, in your prime.” She frowned and reached for my hand, so I let her take it. When she put it that way, I started to understand why both of them had doubts, but I had no doubts in my mind at all—at least not about his age.

Carter was the one for me. It didn’t matter if he was older than me. When you meet your soulmate you know, and his heart was intricately connected to mine on a vibrational level we couldn’t explain. We belonged together.

“Mom, what did Dad mean when he said Carter isn’t who I think he is? What did he mean about a connection between him and Kira?” When Dad had said that, Mom hadn’t battedan eyelash at it. I brushed that off as her being too ashamed or feeling too guilty about telling him about the baby to have any true reaction, but the longer I thought about it today, the more I knew there was more to it.

Now, her eyes shifted away from me, looking at the pile of used tissues on the nightstand from my day of feeling sorry for myself. Her shoulders drooped a little more, and she sighed.

“Honey, you just have to talk to Carter about it. Alright?” She patted my hand and met my gaze again. “Dad has his concerns about things, and he goes about them absolutely the wrong way. I’ve had a talk with him about the way he tries to force you into situations to meet men he approves of. He won’t be doing that ever again, but this situation with Carter has to be resolved somehow.”

“I’m pregnant with his baby. How do you think it’s going to work out?” My angry retort brought tears to her eyes and she stood up, blinking them back.

“I think you should just talk to him…”

I covered my face to hide the fear I knew would be there. It wasn’t so easy to just walk into Carter’s house and talk to him about these things. I wanted my mom to shed some light on it so that I would have some sort of clue what situation I’d be walking into. Nothing made sense to me. How could Carter be connected to Kira in any way?

“Mom,” I said, pulling my face out of my hands and forcing tears away as I spoke. “I’m scared to tell him about the baby.”

Her eyebrows dipped and pulled together. She walked back to the bed, sat down, and handed me the box of tissues off the nightstand.

“Why are you scared to tell him, sweetheart? He’s going to be a father. It’s his right to know.” Her eyes searched me, and the tears started to escape though I blinked rapidly.

“He doesn’t want kids, Mom. After his daughter died it was really traumatic. He told me he doesn’t want kids again because he’s afraid the same thing will happen, that he can’t stand the idea of hurting that badly again.” My face hurt from all the crying and blowing my nose. My skin was raw, so dabbing my tears away felt better than wiping them. The tissues had built-in lotion but they were still scratchy to my raw nose.

“Oh, baby,” she sighed, and pulled me in for a hug. “I understand his fear. He’s been through something very painful, and you have such a big heart to want to protect him.”

Leaning on her shoulder, I slid my arms around her torso and let her hold me. “You should see the pain in his eyes when he talks about her, Mom. How can I cause him fear for his future again? I’m so torn inside.”

She rocked me from side to side, patting my back, smoothing her hand up and down my shirt. “Well, honey, there’s this song called ‘The Dance’ by Garth Brooks that goes something like this…” Mom started to sing such a beautiful but haunting melody that had me crying harder. “I could’ve missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss, the dance…”

My mind went to Kira, thinking of the happy times we shared, laughing and texting. The way we’d go shopping or clubbing. We’d dance for hours and then come home and relive it by talking about it all night. Mom was right. I could’ve lived without the pain of losing her, but to not know her, to push her away just because I knew this pain might be possible would have meant I never got to experience the good things we shared.

Carter was hurting because of the pain, but the sparkle in his eyes when he spoke of his little girl’s life, what joy she brought him, that was the part worth it all. The dances in our life made room for us to move past the pain if it came—when it came.

“Just talk to him, baby. You’ll see he’s not going to be angry with you, and you can help him work through the fears.”

Mom held me for a few more minutes before she walked out of my room leaving me to cry. I didn’t fully trust that Carter would be okay about the baby, but I also didn’t think I could stand it much longer if I didn’t learn what Dad meant by him having a connection with Kira. I just wanted all of this to be over and for my heart to feel secure again instead of this raging tempest of fear and uncertainty. I had to talk to him, even if it meant something painful would happen. Even if I had to remember my owndancejust to survive the wake of it all.

26

CARTER

The hallway was sterile, the faint hum of fluorescent lights overhead echoing in the quiet. I stood at the door to the conference room, my hand resting on the cold metal handle. The tension in the air was thick, like it had been soaking into the walls for days, maybe weeks. I wasn’t sure what they’d been expecting, but they weren’t ready for this. I could feel my jaw tighten, the familiar anger curling up inside me.

I glanced to my side at Joseph, who stood next to me, his face a mask of concern, but I could see the unease beneath it. He hadn’t said much since the moment we uncovered the extent of what was going on, but I could tell it had shaken him. This was my company, but he was supposed to lead it, protect it—but now everything was on the verge of coming apart.

He exhaled slowly, rubbing his temples as if trying to push through a headache. “Carter, I know this is…a lot, but let’s keep it civil. We need answers, yes, but we don’t want to burn bridges unless we have to.”

I didn’t respond immediately. I didn’t want to be civil. These men had crossed a line. I wasn’t going to let them squirm their way out of this with a few rehearsed words. They had knowinglybroken the law, exploited the vulnerable to meet their quotas. And now, it was time for them to face it.

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