Page 37 of Secret Baby Daddies
Jace grumbled.
“I liked going with her.”
His sullen tone was almost enough to make me smile. It wasn’t his normal MO to pout or not get his way. He was the true bulldozer in life, going after what he wanted and taking it.
“Go see her at lunch.” Luc headed towards the door. “I’ll let Harvey know we need a meeting. Get some sleep and think of something creative to hit Harvey with.”
I waited until he was gone to look over at Jace.
“I’m all for busting his kneecaps.”
“How was she?” Jace wouldn’t meet my eyes as he asked.
“Sad. Scared. I found her hiding under her blanket.” I shook my head at the image of her curled up, her big eyes even bigger than normal. “Maybe we’ve been going about this all wrong.”
“We had a moment yesterday.” He rubbed his jaw and sighed. “I stopped being so fucking demanding and just spoke to her and she fucking melted into me. She had this smile on her face I hadn’t seen before and it, honest to god, felt like the sun had come out.”
“I think she wants this. For whatever reason, I think she likes us. We can still fix it. We have to. Even if there wasn’t a baby I’d want to keep her. There’s just something about her.” I lay back on the bench and stared up at the ceiling. “She’s sweet. She acts feisty but there’s no hiding how soft her heart is.”
“She talks to her plants at the shop. Full on conversations.” Jace laughed quietly. “It shouldn’t be so fucking adorable but it is.”
“She tried to warn me about it like that would make her less attractive to us somehow.”
Luc exploded back into the gym. “She’s gone! She’s not in her room.”
My heart sank. I thought I’d made progress in her trusting me. Apparently I was mistaken. “We’ll find her.”
We had no choice. She was ours. She belonged with us, not just because that was where we wanted her but because it was where she was meant to be.
CHAPTER 29
Harley
I was starving. I’d woken up alone in my bed as Maddox was leaving and without the emotional storm I’d been in clouding my senses, I realized I was starving. I felt like a cat burglar as I crept downstairs and into the kitchen. Their mansion wasn’t mine and it felt wrong to just help myself to whatever I wanted. Still, I couldn’t help it. The way my stomach was growling made me think I was pregnant with a bear instead of a baby.
I opened the huge, commercial-sized fridge but I really didn’t want to have to heat something up so I just grabbed a bottle of water and explored deeper into the kitchen. There was a butler’s pantry but on the opposite side of the kitchen, there was a bigger pantry, one just for food storage. The sight of all the snacks made my mouth water.
Not wanting to be caught stealing food, I closed myself into the pantry and used my cellphone light to grab an armful of things. Chips, snack cakes, and even candy made their way into my hoard. I couldn’t imagine the men upstairs eating a single item of junk food, with the way their bodies had just about zero body fat. I wasn’t questioning the reason for the junk food, though, I was just going to inhale it.
I put on a video about hybrid flowers and quietly ate way too much. Stretched out on the pantry floor, I felt a sense of peace wash over me. As silly as it was, sneaking food and hiding away in the pantry felt normal to me. When my dad’s wife was around me, she made it a huge deal about the fact I wasn’t skinny. She limited my food and harassed me through every meal we shared. Sneaking downstairs to find food late at night when my stomach was cramping from hunger had become a ritual. I’d given it up once I was on my own since I could barely afford daytime food, much less midnight snacks.
I rolled over onto my stomach and watched a man named Leroy cross-pollinate two variations of roses. When my eyes grew heavy I just propped my head up on my folded arms and yawned. Leroy’s voice was just humdrum enough to lull me off to sleep.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up with a dead phone and a knot in my neck from sleeping oddly. It felt like I’d barely blinked but I could tell by the light coming in from under the pantry door the sun had already been out for at least a few hours. I groaned and sat up, feeling a slight sense of shame as I looked around at all the food wrappers on the floor. Oops.
I stood up and stretched before collecting all my trash and letting myself out of the pantry. I quickly disposed of the evidence and then looked around, wondering where everyone was. I didn’t know what time it was but the house felt oddly empty. I walked around the first floor, exploring in the name of looking for one of the guys. I found a gym, a formal dining room, a formal living room, an informal dining room and living room, a bar, a pool, and a freaking library.
I might’ve spent a few minutes living out my childhood Belle fantasies in the library, spinning around with a huge grin on my face at all the wild worlds waiting to be explored around me. It was mid-spin that I heard a door slam somewhere in the house. I stopped short and hurried out to see who it was.
I don’t know who was more surprised when I found all three of the men standing by the front door, all looking like shit. Rumpled clothes, dark bags under their eyes, and an overall air of despair which wasn’t exactly their normal look. Their eyes all seemed to bug out when they saw me, so much so that I had to look down at myself to see if I was naked.
“Where have you been?” Luc inhaled and exhaled slowly but I could see a vein in his forehead pulsing. He was furious.
We stood there, facing off in the foyer, a standoff I hadn’t known was happening. They all seemed furious, even Maddox. I put my hands on my hips, not wanting to be the only one looking stupid and unsure of what was happening.
I also didn’t want to admit I’d been hiding in the pantry all night.
“I was asleep. What’s your problem?”
