Page 40 of Dark Memories
“So you claim you don’t know how to talk to kids?”
She would have wiped that smirk off his face and that amusement right out of his eyes if they had been having this conversation two days ago. Today, though? She’d apparently fallen under his spell—all over again—and was ready to yank her panties off for him. She was toast. One push from his pinkie and she’d topple over, arms stretched out, inviting him to take her.
The way he used to.
She needed to dump a bucket of ice over her head.
“You in there, Delaney?” He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.
“Huh?” She blinked his face into focus, then frowned. “Stop grinning at me like that.”
His grin grew wider. “I will when you tell me where your mind was.”
“None of your beeswax.” Good God, she’d been hanging around a seven-year-old too long. A wicked melting-away-the-last-thread-holding-her-panties-together smile curved his lips, his all too seeing eyes delving into her thoughts again. “And stop reading my mind.”
“Not a chance. Your mind is the best thing I’ve read in the past eight years.” He glanced at his daughter. “Let’s get her bed made up so we can get her in it. Then we can have adult time."
Did he mean what she thought he meant? She hadn’t had adult time since her attempt to replace him, and that hadn’t worked so well.Yes, please,her girlie parts pleaded. We want adult time. With him.
She was in serious trouble.
If Delaney didn’t stop looking at him like that—the way she used to when naughty thoughts were on her mind—Zach’s resolve to take things slow with her was going to sprout wings and fly out the window.
She glanced down at his daughter with a soft smile on her face. “She’s not going to like seeing her fort gone when she wakes up in the morning.”
“Well, I’m not sleeping on a bare mattress. How about we go buy her one of those teepee things tomorrow? Think she’d consider that an acceptable substitute for a fort?”
“Guess we’ll just have to find out.”
It took them twenty minutes to get his and Kali’s beds back to rights, and when his daughter and her dog were tucked in, he placed a kiss on her forehead.
“When they handed her to me in the hospital and I held her for the first time, I knew right then that she held my heart in her tiny hands,” he quietly said. He glanced over at Delaney. “Newborns look like soggy raisins.” He grinned when she laughed and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “It’s true. They are not cute, no matter what anyone says. Nor do they look like anyone. The point I’m making is that I still wasn’t sure she was mine, but in that moment I didn’t care. I was her father, end of story.”
“But she is. All you have to do is compare your eyes and mouths to see it.”
He smiled. “Yeah, she got both of those from me. Cinda doesn’t know it, but I had a paternity test done. Not because I doubted I was her biological father, or cared if I was or not, but as insurance. Even though Cinda had gotten her way and we were married, I didn’t trust her. What if the day came when it suited her to tell me I wasn’t Kali’s father? The test only proved what I already knew.”
“Kali’s very lucky to have you as her father.”
“I think so.” He slipped his hand around Delaney’s. “Come. We’ll finish this conversation in my office.” This was a talk long overdue.
“I’m on duty,” she said when he picked up a wine bottle to pour her a glass.
“Just a splash then.” He made a whiskey for himself, then sat in the chair next to hers, handing her the wineglass.
They were silent, sipping their drinks as they stared into the fire. He’d told her the other day that Cinda had threatened to abort the baby, but if Delaney was to forgive him, she needed to hear the whole story.
“I blamed Cinda for what happened between us, but that resentment also included the baby,” she said, her admission hanging in the air.
He didn’t know what to say to that. He wanted her to love his daughter, not resent her.
“If not for her, I wouldn’t have lost you. And I was jealous because I’d thought if anyone would be giving you babies, it would be me. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that any bitterness I had for Kali is gone. You’ve raised a beautiful daughter, Zach. You should be proud.”
“I am proud of her.” He held up his glass and stared into the amber liquid. He wasn’t surprised by her admission. Hell, if some man had appeared out of the blue and claimed Delaney was carrying his baby, Zach thought he might have gone ballistic. And part of his resentment would likely have been toward that baby.
“Thank you for telling me that.” He took a sip of the rich whiskey, then set the glass down. “I didn’t handle the way we ended the way I should have, and you had every right to those feelings.” He reached across the table and wrapped his hand around hers, linking their fingers.
She shrugged. “What’s done is done.”
