Page 68 of Snowed In with My Best Friend's Dad

That's not going to stop me from trying,he’d said when I told him he couldn’t do anything that would make up for his behavior. He repeated it in my dream as he guided me to the fire at the cabin.

“No. I won’t do this again.” I tried to tug away. Tried to get out of the dream. Back to reality.

“Are you trying to punish me?”

I wasn’t, was I? No. He said terrible things to me. Even if I was punishing him, he’d deserve it.

“No, but I don’t trust you.”

“I know. But you and I are connected from now on.” He tugged me close again, and all the warmth and caring and desire from the cabin swarmed through me. I was helpless against it, melting into him. His lips covered mine and I groaned at his taste. Oh, how I’d missed that. Why did he have to be such a jerk?

But this wasn’t the real world. This was my dream, and there, he could be the man I wanted. Sweet. Sexy. Mine.

So I gave into it. I didn’t resist as our clothes disappeared and he laid me in front of the fireplace. I pulled him to me, opened for him, taking him in.

You and I are connected from now on.

Tears came to my eyes as I realized that the baby wasn’t our only source of connection. Despite it all, he was a part of me. No matter what, a part of him would always be with me.

25

Brett

Trying to wear Miranda's defenses down probably wasn't the best game plan, but it was the only one I had. Her answer to the question of whether she still hated me didn't help my confidence in the scheme.

The truth of the matter was that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I'd always had good luck with women. I'd had good luck with Miranda the night I ran into her just before Christmas. But whereas other women I’d been with were happy with just sex, or in the case of Janine, hoping for fortune, Miranda didn't care about either of those.

I’d like to put all the blame for the demise of our marriage on Janine, but I had said some pretty heinous things to her too. The difference was she didn't give a shit as long as I was forking over the money. The marriage ended because I wanted it to, not because I was an asshole.

During our marriage, I grew to despair that for the rest of my life, I was going to be miserable. The only time I saw glimpses of contentment was in business, and I had happiness with Lindsay. Still, there had to be more to life than being married to a woman who didn’t give a shit about me. If I went broke, she’d have left in a second.

When I finally ended the marriage, for a short time, I wondered if I could find love. Not the transactional kind I had with Janine, but the real thing. The type of love poets wrote about. It didn't take long for me to come to the realization that true love didn't exist in reality. Every woman I met saw dollar signs when they looked at me, and so I decided that love wasn't going to be in my future.

It wasn't just ironic that I had given up on the idea of love and then Miranda literally fell into my life. It was ironic that I would accuse her of being a gold digger when in fact, she had never looked at me as anything but me. She didn’t see my money. She didn’t see my connections. She saw me, the man. Maybe that was why I was so mean to her. Perhaps it wasn’t just that I struggled to deal with the power she had over me, but also that she saw through me. Saw to the man I tried to keep hidden.

I recognized now that I was looking at a lifetime of regret and despair if I didn’t get my shit together and earn Miranda’s trust, and maybe her love. In some ways, I was grateful she was pregnant because if she wasn't, I would have no reason to be around her. Or more accurately, she’d have no reason to be around me. With the baby, I had an excuse to see her. This child was my chance to get everything right this time. The only question was whether Miranda would ever come to believe in my sincerity, come to trust me.

When I got up this morning, I researched and found a therapist and made an appointment to meet with them. To prove to Dunk that I wasn't shirking my responsibilities to him, I headed to the gym where we reviewed reports and our game plan for the next quarter. Then I headed downtown to my office, where I took care of my other business.

When I noted that sales of prenatal supplements and nutritional products were on the rise, I realized I could be supplying those to Miranda. Of course, we'd want to check with her doctor first, but I went ahead and ordered a few cases to give to her. She wouldn't like it. She’d tell me to leave her alone. But Miranda was smart. She'd put the baby first, so if the doctor okayed it, she would take them.

Later in the afternoon, Connie's voice rose outside my office. She appeared to be trying to keep someone away from my office. This particular person wasn't taking no for an answer.

There was a time I was curious about these people who tried to get past Connie. Sometimes, I would poke my head out to watch. The problem was, once they saw me, it was hard to make them leave. Connie, in particular, got pissed when I did that. So, instead of indulging my curiosity, I stayed focused on my work. Ten minutes later, the commotion ended.

Another five minutes after that, Connie entered my office.

I smirked. "Did the intruder leave all in one piece?"

She looked at me like I was a petulant child. "I don't much like hearing things about you from gossip. It's one thing if it's not true but something totally different if it is."

I arched a brow. "I don't know what you're talking about." Even as I said it, though, I imagined she'd heard about the pregnancy. All of a sudden, I wondered if it was Miranda whom she had ousted.

I stood up. "Who was that?"

"It was a woman claiming to be the stepmother of the woman she claims you, and I quote,knocked up."

I frowned as I sank back down into my chair. Why would Miranda's stepmom be visiting me?

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