Page 14 of Grumpy Ex's Secret Baby

“I was never going to tell you. With the kind of life you lived, I can’t risk that for Trinity. I don’t want her to spend her life in the limelight as a spectacle for everyone else.”

“You think I do want that for her? You’re talking about the life I lived, not the one that I’m interested in living now. I’ve stepped away from the entertainment industry and working with those kinds of companies.”

“The cameras are still going to follow you.” Haley shook her head. “I can’t deal with that, Tyson. And I won’t put Trinity through it either.”

“I want to know my daughter, Haley. I’m willing to work with you and go through whatever arrangement you think is best, but I’m not going to just back out of her life like I never knew she existed.”

“What if that’s what I want you to do?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper as she stepped forward, her hand cupping my jaw. Her thumb lightly brushed over my cheek as she stared up at me. “What if I asked you to forget her so your lifestyle won’t taint her?”

“I’ve already told you,” I said, reaching up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. “My old lifestyle isn’t a problem anymore. I want to settle down and start a family. I want Trinity in my life, but if you refuse even to let me try, I’m going to hire a family lawyer.”

“That’s it, is it? You’re just going to threaten me into getting what you want?”

“I’m telling you the truth, Haley. I’ve always wanted a family. I have a daughter that I just found out about. I’m willing to work with you and whatever you decide—apart from stepping out of her life completely—and if that’s so horrifying to you, I will take legal action.”

As angry as I was with her, there was something about having her this close to me, her floral and vanilla perfume drifting in the wind. It was the same perfume that I had bought her when we were in high school. We had been walking through the mall when she smelled it and said she liked it. I had gone back to the mall later that day without her and bought a bottle to surprise her. I still remember the surprised look on her face when I handed her the little blue bottle.

“You still wear the perfume I bought you,” I said as her hand dropped from my face.

“I’ve gone through a few bottles since then,” she said, her mouth twisting into a smile for the first time that day.

“Still. What else from our past are you holding onto?” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her waist.

As much as I wanted to be angry with her—and I was—the waves of hurt rolling over me were overwhelming. I knew this wasn’t a problem we would fix tonight. We had been going in circles with our argument, which was getting us nowhere. It wasn’t something that could be fixed with some words and a good night’s sleep.

Right now, we were both hurting over a life we had missed out on. Even though she had kept Trinity from me, I knew it had to have hurt her over the years. Her father had raised her. She loved him. She would have wanted that same kind of relationship for her daughter, and she had watched the first few years of her daughter’s life go by without the other parent in her child’s life.

I had missed seeing my daughter when she was born and all the firsts that occurred over the last few years. Her first steps and her first words. The first time she took off running, and the first time she got hurt. I missed the first band-aid and the first real food.

I missed out on so much of her life, and I wasn’t prepared to miss out on another day of it.

“I like her name,” I said, combing my fingers through Haley’s hair as she clung to me like her life depended on it. Haley melted into my embrace, burrowing her face in my chest. “What’s her middle name?”

“Leigh.”

“You named her after my sister?” I asked, grinning as I pulled back slightly to look at her.

“When we met up again four years ago, you couldn’t stop bragging about Leigh and all that she accomplished. I couldn’t think of a middle name, but I thought Trinity Leigh sounded nice.”

“Leigh’s going to lose her mind when she hears that.”

Haley shook her head. “I don’t know what the hell we’re doing, Ty.”

“We’re figuring this out.”

“And what if we can’t?”

I couldn’t think about that right now. There was no way I could even start to think about what the relationship with my daughter would look like if Haley and I couldn’t find a way to make this work. Hell, it wasn’t even an option I was willing to consider. We had to make it work.

Right now, the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to kiss Haley.

Before she could start panicking again, I kissed her. For a moment, she was frozen in place. In the next second, her mouth was moving against mine, and her hands were working themselves through my hair.

I pressed against her, my cock straining against my jeans as I pushed her up against the wall. Haley moaned as I kissed down her neck, yanking her neckline out of the way. She moaned as I pulled her bra to the side before taking one of her nipples into my mouth. Haley writhed against me as I sucked and nipped, driving her into a frenzy.

“You like that?” I murmured before switching to the other side.

“Fuck,” she hissed, arching her back as I unbuttoned her pants.

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