Page 40 of Rejected Wolf's Secret Baby (Rejected Moons 4)

She just regards him solemnly.

“Can I pick her up?” he asks me.

“Give it a try,” I say. “We’ll see how she responds to it.” Usually Emmy doesn’t let men hold her without kicking up a fuss, although she’s been all right with Dad so far.

Brandon stands up and lifts her out of the playpen. She goes to him willingly, wrapping her arms around his neck, leaning her head against his shoulder, and looking for all the world as if she’s known this man her entire life. It’s startling to see.

Brandon grins. “Hey, you like me,” he says to her. “I think you’re pretty cool too. Maybe if your mom comes around when you’re a little older, you and I can practice sparring, or I can teach you how to set snare traps. You need a man’s influence in your life, and not one of those goofy human men. Right?”

Emmy smiles at him, and my heart melts a little watching him talk to her.

This is exactly what I’ve always wanted for Emmy. Exactly what I’ve always told myself she didn’t need, because she had a mother, and the idea that kids need two parents is just a construct.

Except she’s here in her father’s arms, and even though neither of them have any idea who the other one is, I can already see a bond between them.

And for the first time, I start to think seriously about telling them the truth.

I’m not sure I can justify keeping them apart anymore.

23

ALICIA

“Soareyouwithhim now?” Kayla asks.

Brandon’s just left, and Emmy’s playing happily with a stuffed bear and a picture book. Dad, thankfully, is still asleep, having missed the whole thing. Now Kayla’s pulled me back into my room to deconstruct everything that just happened.

“No, I’m not with him,” I say.

“I mean, I think it’s great if you are,” Kayla says. “I’d support it. You know I’ve always thought you two would make a good couple.”

I can’t help laughing. “Yeah, I know that,” I say. “You’ve made that abundantly clear over the years.”

“Well, good!” she says. “You ought to know how I feel about it. But seriously, with him coming around all the time, and now you introducing him to Emmy…”

“He doesn’t know she’s his,” I say. “You know that.”

“Maybe he doesn’t,” she agrees. “But you still wanted him to meet her. You wanted to include him in her life. Why?”

“He asked to meet her.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that,” she insists. “You’ve kept her to yourself for two years, and now you bring Brandon over to meet her just because heasks?”

I sigh. “All right,” I admit. “We’re getting…close. I don’t know.”

“So youarewith him?”

“No! I’m notwith him.We’re just friends.”

“You’ve been sleeping together, though.”

“What makes you say that?”

She looks pointedly at Emmy.

“That was two years ago. It could have been a one-time thing!”

“Okay, sowasit a one-time thing?”

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