Page 50 of Silver Fox's Surprise Baby

However, I’ve always heard that you know when a relationship is worth fighting for.

I’m not going to walk away from Kendall without trying to talk this through with her.

Even if she isn’t ready to fight for us right now, I am.

At least then I can say that we tried.

Zara opens the front door and raises an eyebrow. I can tell from the thin set of her lips that she is less than thrilled to see me. Aurora stands just beyond her, her arms crossed as she glares at me.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” she asks, her tone sharp.

“I just want to talk to her. If she doesn’t want to talk to me, then I’ll go away.”

“I think you should go now,” Aurora says, shaking her head like a disapproving mother. “I don’t know what you did to hurt her, but the only time she comes out of her room is to go to school.”

My heart slams against my chest. I never meant to hurt her this bad. I knew that telling her the truth would hurt her, but I never thought it would be like this.

“Please. I just want to talk to her. I just found out that we’re having a baby.”

“You could have stayed and talked to her. Or called while you were away.” Zara looks at me like she can’t believe I would have the audacity to show up at her door. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing with my friend, but she doesn’t deserve to be hurt by the likes of you.”

“Let him in,” Kendall says, appearing behind her friends. “I’ll talk to him and then he’ll leave, and we can go back to our ice cream and movies.”

“Alright,” Zara says as she and Aurora brush by me out of the apartment. “I’m going to head to the store and pick up something for dinner. By the time we get back, you should be gone.”

The look she gives me is enough to turn my blood to ice in my veins. She seems like the kind of woman I wouldn’t want to piss off any more than I already have.

I enter the apartment once they’re gone and shut the door behind me. Kendall crosses her arms and shifts her weight to one side, looking at me with bloodshot eyes. There are dark circles beneath those eyes. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days.

“I got your letter,” I say, tucking my hands in my pockets as I look at her. “And I don’t know if this is the last thing I should be saying to you right now, but I love you too. I’m sorry that I hurt you the way I did.”

Kendall’s lips press into a thin line. “Is that all you have to say after everything that happened?”

“No. I want to tell you that you’re right. When I offered you the job, it was out of a sense of duty to your father. Taking care of you was Dave’s dying wish. Even years later, I couldn’t break that promise.”

She nods. “I understand.”

Some of the tension and guilt eases from me. I look around the apartment, trying to figure out what I want to say next. There’s so much that needs to be said, but I know our time is limited. It’s only a matter of half an hour at most before Zara comes storming back in here and demands that I leave.

“I never should have dragged you into my life the way I did. I just wanted to show you what the world was like—the parts of it that I knew you hadn’t seen—but I didn’t stop to think for a moment about whether or not you wanted to see them.”

“All you had to do was ask me,” she says, her voice soft. It’s lacking the anger that I expected to receive from her. “If you had asked me, I would have followed you anywhere.”

“I know that now.”

“You fucked up.”

“I know that too.” I run my hand through my hair and shrug. “I’m sorry, Kendall. Please come back home.”

She shakes her head and I feel my heart being ripped from my chest. I know that an apology isn’t enough, but I hoped that it would be a step in the right direction. I want her at home with me where we can work on this together.

“I want you to come back home but it’s your choice whether you do or not.”

“I’m not working for you anymore,” she says, her gaze flitting up to meet mine. I can see steel behind her eyes. “If I come back home, I’m not working for you. I don’t want to have to feel obligated to do anything I don’t want to do.”

“Did you ever feel obligated?” I ask, waves of guilt rolling through me.

“Sometimes.”

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