Page 11 of No Regrets

Chapter Four

He was really doing this. Kaden pulled in behind her, glancing at the small white building Bree now called home. Damn things changed over the course of the year. First order of business would definitely be moving her out of this hellhole and back into a house she’d call her own, even if they never truly shared it as a family.

Damn. He killed the engine of his Mercedes just as her mother stepped out from the townhouse. Eighteen months ago, Regina Miller looked like the mom every kid wanted—a housewife by nature, loving toward her daughter and supportive to her husband. Ex-husband now, but that was another story for another time. Now, Regina stood with her hand on her apron-covered hip, looking like a bull seeing red.

He stepped out from the car, trying to prepare himself for her attack, though she didn’t attack the person he suspected.

“You go to a funeral for one night and come back married?” Regina all but yelled at Brianna causing some nearby neighbors’ gazes to wonder. “Brianna, did you learn nothing from the first round of foolishness with this boy?”

Brianna licked her lips, nervously trying to usher her mother inside. “Mom, people are watching. Let’s go inside and talk about this.”

Kaden came up to them and saw Regina ready to spit fire. He knew he should say something but “hello” felt awkward.

“Mom, come inside, now. You need oxygen, and we need to talk.”

Finally, Regina stepped inside and Brianna followed behind her, leaving Kaden to close the door after them. The small living space closed in around him tighter than a glove. If he wanted to, he could touch both walls by holding his arms out. A set of steps sat next to the door, and the foyer led into a hallway to which he assumed led to the living room and kitchen.

He followed the way the women went, finding his assumptions to be right. The small living room served as a dining area as well, and a little bathroom sat underneath the steps. Considering what Brianna used to live in—a four-bedroom, three-bath home of at least two thousand square feet of living space—to this, he knew she left for the money. With the way she worked off her pretty behind, he knew she didn’t have much of it left.

“Mom, would you sit and listen to me. It’s not what you think.” She stood next to her mother, forcing her to wear her oxygen mask.

“Not what I think? My daughter is married to the same man that abandoned her pregnant with his child eighteen months ago—did I miss something, or does that accurately describe the situation?” Regina glared at him before turning her head away from them both.

“Mom, please.” A baby started crying, and Regina looked toward Kaden as if he were solely responsible for it. “Just, listen to me.”

Brianna took off down the hall and climbed the steps as if she were competing in a marathon. Before he even had time to blink she came back down, carrying a tearful child with the same emerald green eyes he and his father shared.

“Mom, Tim’s will stated that if we didn’t get married, Shiloh wouldn’t get her inheritance. He’s giving her his ranch in Texas, the five-million-dollar ranch he loved so much. That’s more than I could ever give her in this lifetime, and I believe she deserves it.” She situated the baby higher on her hip. The small child looked at Kaden with amazement in her eyes. “He also set up a trust fund for her which she can use for college if she wants, or to buy her first house, or for something that I can’t give her. Mom, it’s only for a year. Until the estate is settled.”

“It’ll just be a year for you to get attached to him, for that baby to get attached to her father, and then what? He’ll leave. Just like he did when he found out you were pregnant.”

“Ms. Miller, I have no intentions of running away from my family.” Kaden finally said, realizing he never called Regina “Ms. Miller” his entire life.

“Yeah?” she sounded amused. “You’re the love-’em-and-leave-’em type, Kaden. Tell me once when you’ve had a relationship longer than a year.”

“Mom, this isn’t fair.”

“What wasn’t fair was seeing my daughter go through the pain of childbirth without the father, the wonderful sperm donor, there helping her through it. Do you think pushing a live human being out of a vagina is easy?”

Kaden shook his head, dropping his gaze to the floor.

“Damn right it’s not easy. Especially when complications arose.”

“Complications?” He darted a glance to Brianna, who shook her head.

“Nothing major,” she replied.

“Nothing major? Shiloh’s heart rate dropped to the eighties because the placenta detached and sent you into premature labor. And then once you started pushing her out, she decided to come out breech. If that’s nothing major, I’d hate to see something important.”

Kaden’s heart stopped beating in his chest. He stared at Brianna, who was doing her best to keep from crying in front of the child, he supposed. And then the sweet little baby smiled at him, and he couldn’t hold it back anymore. He wanted her to like him, even if the rest of her family hated him.

“Can I hold her?” he asked, the child’s grin growing wider. She seemed almost shy, laying her head against her mother’s chest, though she still stared at him.

“I don’t want him anywhere near my granddaughter, Brianna. I’m too weak to be there for you both when he breaks your heart again.” Regina popped the mask over her mouth, seemingly done with their conversation.

“He’s her father, Mom.” A tear fell to Brianna’s cheek, a tiny rivulet gliding across her smooth skin. “And like it or not, he’s here now.”

She turned to him, closing her eyes before speaking. “Shiloh, sweetie, this is your daddy.”

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