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“Thank you,” I say as the warm liquid warms my belly and spreads out to heat my whole being.
She nods her head with a smile. “You’re very welcome.” Reaching out, she takes the bowl from my hands and leaves the room, no doubt to take the dish to the sink.
A few moments later, she returns and picks up the second coffee from my bedside table. We sit in silence for a few moments, drinking our coffee. In my head, I’m losing my mind, wondering why Methew thinks he has a claim to her. I’d assume he was trying to mess with me if she didn’t also seem so strange and close-mouthed about their relationship.
Something is going on between them, but she seems ashamed while he wants to use the connection against me.
“You seem very deep in thought. What’s on your mind?” she asks.
I glance at her. “If you’re not his mistress-”
She lifts a hand, cutting me off mid-sentence. “I don’t want to talk about that. Why are you so bothered by him?”
I can’t tell her that he antagonizes me or that we’re deadlocked in this weird, constant state of competition. I also can’t tell her that the thought of him owning her eats me up inside.
Instead, I put my coffee on the bedside table and lay down. A few moments later, I feel her crawl into bed beside me and I drift off to sleep.
I wake, feeling her warmth and I close my arms tighter around her. At some point I must have rolled over and pulled her into a hug. I glance at her, watching her long lashes as her eyes shift in her sleep.
Now that I feel sober, I’m a lot less worried about her relationship with Methew. She’s here, in my arms, and not with him. She’d chosen to meet him in public, which means she likely didn’t feel safe meeting him at his place… or she wasn’t interested in being alone or intimate with him.
I’d been a bit of an ass and I feel lucky she’s here. Thinking about how she’d taken care of me when I’d been drunk and trying to corner her, I feel bad for my actions and grateful she hadn’t abandoned me to figure my own shit out.
Instead, she’d brought me home safely, fed me, hydrated me, and even stayed to keep me company so I wouldn’t wake up alone.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“I need to tell you something,” she whispers. “Before we take things any further.”
“You don’t owe me any explanations,” I say, making peace with the thought that she might not tell me everything and that I don’t need to know everything.
“I know, but you need to know that I’m a mom.”
I blink, stunned. Of everything she could have said, I never expected her to say that.
“I have a five-year-old daughter. Methew is the father, but he doesn’t know about her. That’s why I was going to meet up with him – to tell him the truth.” The words escape her with pressure that begins to lose steam. “But after today, I’m not sure I want to tell him at all. He only seems interested in one thing, and I don’t want to let him think he has any chance.”
I’m reeling with the news, but am glad she trusts me enough to tell me the truth.
“Thank you for sharing with me,” I say as the silence begins to stretch out between us. I don’t want to share my opinion - that he would absolutely use this against her to get what he wants, and I can’t imagine he’d be a good dad, or a dad at all.
Still, this changes nothing for me. I still want her. Her having a child makes no difference to how I feel about her. All I feel now is that I’m lucky because she comes with a built-in family. And other things begin to make sense, like why she’s so particular about hours, and why she has to work the hours she does, and why she’d refused to stay all day in the beginning when I’d asked.
“What’s your child’s name?” I ask gently.
I can hear her smile in her voice. “Evie. My mom told me that she was asleep when I called last night, and she encouraged me to stay with you.”
That’s why she’d been pulling her phone out when she left my room. “Well, I’m thankful. What does Evie like?”
Her voice lowers. “Jellyfish. Lights. Jellyfish lights. She’s a bit obsessed.”
I let out a low laugh. “Jellyfish are pretty amazing, so I think I understand.” My mind is already moving a million miles a minute as I think about all the ways we can incorporate jellyfish into her life – starting with the amazing exhibit at the local aquarium.
Chapter Nineteen
Alisha
I’m still agonizing over telling Methew the truth.
