Second Chance Baby (Crescent Cove #18)

Chapter 15

FIFTEEN

The sound of my phone going off had us breaking apart. Seeing my agent’s name on the readout had me letting out a groan.

“Reality had to descend sometime. My fault for turning my phone back on like a responsible adult.” I held up a finger to my girls. “Just give me a minute and we’ll continue this conversation, okay?”

“Sure thing.” Bridget cupped her arm around Carrington’s shoulders. “We will wait right here.” Her eyes locked on mine. “We aren’t going anywhere, promise.”

Swallowing hard, I clicked accept on Daphne’s call.

“Yeah, yeah, yell all you want at me.”

“Yell? Do you have any idea how many bookings I arranged for you today? True, a lot of them were due to the stills of the shoot Drake released to some group of his of industry professionals, but trust me, you’re about to have more work than you can handle.”

“What? How? Why?” I was so dumbfounded I could barely speak.

Even Elaine’s call to Bridget hadn’t clued us in that things had gone to that level. I waggled my brows at Bridget, and she smothered her laugh in Carrington’s hair.

“Do you have any idea how hot that shoot was? We have to reshoot some of it because, hi, we can’t put up that much skin in a charity calendar, but I think we can use some of it just as is. It would be a waste not to. In fact, I think Rita has a lot of plans for you two.”

“She does?”

Daph went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “We will need another shoot. Hopefully, one almost as hot, but maybe more on PG-13 side–if you two can handle that.”

I nodded quickly, although she obviously couldn’t see me.

Getting my hands on Bridget for the first time in too many years to count had pushed me far too close to the edge.

“Rita Savage is rebranding and wants you two for her upcoming book cover. A bit more sedate for that one, preferably outdoors. So yeah, we will need both of you back for a location shoot first thing tomorrow. Can that happen?”

Half dizzy from what she’d just said, I blindly agreed. I had no intention of going back on the road just when I’d committed to sticking close to home for my little girl. Especially since the holidays would be here in a flash. I was looking forward to working with Gideon, as well. Photoshoots were mind-numbing in the worst way.

And Bridget was here now. Maybe she’d even stay.

“Did you say both of us?”

“Yes. Your chemistry is off the freaking charts.”

“I’m trying to get out of the business, Daph. I told you that.”

“Not when you’re this hot you’re not. Don’t make any decisions yet. Make sure you make it to this shoot. I’ll text you details.”

Then she was gone.

Frustration seeped into the shock. What about Carrington? And if Bridget was carrying another baby, I didn’t want her overworking.

If she wasn’t, I would be the one working overtime to ensure she was very soon.

Seeing my face, Bridget stepped forward, her laughter long gone. Now worry lined her brow. “I knew we’d have to do a reshoot. Tomorrow?”

“Yeah, first thing. No one planned on this unexpected reshoot, so the clock is ticking money-wise, but the crazy thing is they want even more. More of us.”

Bridget linked her hands under her chin as if she was praying. For what, I wasn’t sure. “Yeah, I kinda got that vibe from Elaine too, but I got off the phone fast. I can’t really believe it.”

I gripped the back of my neck. “Daphne kept talking as if people couldn’t get enough of us together . Rita wants us to be on the cover of her next book, too.” I exhaled then scrubbed my hands over my face. “I planned on basically being done modeling. I wanted to stay home with my girl. With my girls,” I said, emphasizing the plural of the word, so she understood exactly what I was saying.

No more confusion. We’d both made assumptions long ago, and then we’d lived as if they were pure fact for too freaking long.

Everything was going to be out in the open now. Nothing hidden. Leaving absolutely nothing to chance.

Pure pleasure filled her gorgeous eyes as her lips curved. “Gotta say I’ve never enjoyed a shoot so much before.” The tip of her tongue peeked out between her lips in obvious amusement.

I couldn’t hold back my low growl as I tugged her against me, hard. “I damn well hope you haven’t.”

Her helpless giggle as she pressed her face into my neck made me hug her tightly. I simply couldn’t get enough of having her in my arms.

“I need to put on something more comfortable after a quick shower.” She eased back and winced. “Playing basketball with this whiz kid was not my smartest move. I hate having to go back to the hotel, but now I’m all sweaty from running around in a damn sweater.”

“Just go on in and check out the bottom drawer of the left-hand side of my bedroom dresser. You should be good with what’s in there. And if not, just note what you need, and we’ll get you more.”

Hesitantly, she looked up at me. “Trav, what did you do?”

I just couldn’t move on.

I’d never been able to face the idea of a future without her, so I’d pretended as if we’d just hit pause instead. Worse than the idea of spending the rest of my life alone had been the mere possibility of trying to love someone else.

Since I hadn’t ever believed it was possible, I never bothered to try. Hooking up with the occasional woman was one thing—I distracted myself with a crazy schedule, so it was definitely on the rare side. Bringing a woman home to confuse my young daughter was not an option.

“I just kept what you left here.”

“In case I came back?” she asked, her voice breaking. “What if there was someone else…”

“There was no one else who needed room in my dresser.” I cupped her chin in my fingers. “That space always belonged to you. I never considered otherwise.”

She shut her eyes. “I made so many mistakes. But I swear, I never stopped loving you. Not for one day.”

As much as I wanted her to elaborate, I brushed a kiss over her forehead. “Go change. We’ll be out here waiting for you to check out our amazing, incredible, still-in-progress Halloween display.”

She hurried off, ducking her head probably so I couldn’t see her tears. Good thing. Her tears wrecked me as completely as Carrington’s.

But then I looked up and discovered our daughter was forlornly dribbling her basketball. What was up with her? From what I’d overhead when I’d re-entered the yard, she’d certainly seemed on-board with us getting back together.

Even more so than when I’d sprung it on her this morning. Maybe being with her mom all day long had unlocked some things inside her I’d missed.

Maybe she was overwhelmed? Too many changes all at once.

“Hey, kiddo,” I said quietly, tapping her on the shoulder. “What’s going on with you?”

“Daddy, I want her to stay. What if she decides not to? Even if she says yes, how can we be sure she won’t change her mind later?”

I pulled my little girl into my arms, bending down to rest my cheek on the top of her head. “Honey, we have to trust her.” Saying it out loud made me realize I needed to do the same. I had to believe she was going to stick this time. “She loves us. And you know what? It’s only been two days.”

Two days could have been two lifetimes at this point.

I swayed with her a bit. “Honestly, I think she’s missed us, just as much as we’ve missed her. I’d bet everything on that.” I eased away to look directly into her eyes. “She loves you so much, Carrington. It’s one thing I know without a doubt.”

“Really? You really think so?”

“I know so, Care Bear. I know her better than anyone.” I kneeled down in front of her though my bad knee immediately protested. Then I used my thumbs to brush away her tears, my heart cracking a little more with every single one. “You know I’d do anything to keep you safe. If I really thought she might not be able to go the distance this time, I wouldn’t have ever invited her back here to stay with us. As much as I love her, you come first. You’re both my heart, but you take up just a teensy bit more room.”

She threw herself in my arms, and I wrapped her up as tightly as I could, murmuring softly as I rocked her until her tears slowed then finally stopped. When she gave me a determined smile, I reached up to frame her face in my hands. My fierce Care Bear was back in action. “I think you’re right, Daddy. She does love us, and she wants us back. Just it’s hard to trust it because I want it so much.”

I shifted on my knees as they started to ache even more. My old football injury reminded me I wasn’t a young guy anymore. Not to mention running around all day with my girls, then climbing a ladder a couple dozen times tonight to decorate had done me in. Kneeling on this hard ground drove that home with a vengeance.

But Carrington wasn’t anywhere near done yet.

“And Biscuit just makes our family better, you know? And Amerie and Aunt Lacey do too.”

“Yeah. We’ll go get Biscuit tomorrow after we take you to school and finish our shoot. I just want to make sure he can handle being in the house while we aren’t here, you know? So, until we can make sure, it’s better if he stays at Aunt Lacey’s.”

“That makes sense.” She sniffled loudly. “We can just be happy, you know? Maybe we could even make our family bigger.” She dashed away her last few tears. “If you guys want that too. Since Uncle Moose has like five thousand kids, and they’re all so happy all the time.” She cocked her head. “But we don’t have to get that crazy. They have more kids than anyone.”

My laughter rolled out of me and then just kept coming and coming. I didn’t even bother trying to stifle it. I felt as if I hadn’t laughed so hard in a million years.

“I like how you think, kid. But I agree, Moose has a truly nuts number of kids. But I think you’d be a great big sister. All that is up to your mom, so we’ll just see how she feels on that score, okay?”

“Okay.” Her smile trembled before growing wider.

“We will make sure to keep you informed along the way. We know this is a lot to take in all at once and how you feel will always be the most important to us. I promise.”

“Thanks, Daddy. I gotta say I’m glad she came back when she did. My friend at school, Jesse, told me it’s not good for guys to not, like, have a girl in their life for too long. Like you guys get…blocked or something.”

“Huh?” My head was now swimming as if I’d had too much to drink. And I hadn’t touched a damn drop in forever. “Huh?”

“You know, like pent-up.” She waved her hand. “Or whatever. Okay, I’m gonna go check out the Halloween decorations. There are so many cool ones. I gotta see.” She ran off, leaving me still kneeling there on the ground with my head on the verge of an explosion.

What had just happened? I’d felt like I had a good handle on current events even as crazy as these last two days had been, and then my firstborn—my only born as of yet—had rocked me again.

Had my daughter been referring to sex? And not in the abstract?

And not about her parents having it but….

Yeah, I couldn’t even complete that thought. She wasn’t even eleven yet, for God’s sake. And she’d just made me think she knew far more about the subject than I could even begin to understand.

I stumbled to my feet and decided I needed to clear my head for a few minutes. The night breeze was nice and cool, so I’d just take a walk to the back of my property just to work out the ache in my knee and think through what my daughter had just blown my mind with.

I’d clearly jumped to conclusions. There was no other explanation. I needed to talk to Bridget to get her read on the situation, but I’d rather not dump more on her so soon. She had enough to worry about right now. Maybe I could talk to my mom, see what she thought. She’d certainly successfully raised her own brood.

I ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch in the way to the rarely used walking path at the edge of my property. I wasn’t even sure where exactly it went. Below me were a few cottages, but I’d never taken the time to explore.

Right now, I needed a moment away from everyone. All my neighbors were pretty damn nice, so it shouldn’t be a huge problem.

I narrowed my eyes. Hey, what the heck was that person doing down there, prowling around someone’s shed next to my neighbor’s cottage? Someone who looked awfully like my eldest brother, jeans, smirk and all?

“Hey,” I said in a loud whisper, making him startle up to his full height. Yep, that was definitely my brother. “You hurting for cash, man? Need some stuff to resell so now you’re lurking around other people’s storage sheds?”

“Ha, funny. Why are you back here?” His voice was barely pitched over a whisper.

“I asked you first.”

“I know the property owner.” Suddenly, a floodlight clicked on, and Penn shielded his eyes with his hand.

“Oh, do you now?” I scratched my chin. “Hmm.”

“No ‘hmm’. No story here. You had like half a dozen flamingos with witch hats. I didn’t think you’d miss one. I’ll pay you back.”

I waved him off. “You can keep it for her. I assume it’s a her?”

He nodded, saying nothing more.

I shifted my feet. “Look, your life is your business.”

“Thank you. I just said the same to your…Bridget.”

“Why? What did she say to you?”

He shrugged.

“Are you keeping secrets for her now?”

“No, I tried to be a friend to her. Something I suspect she sorely needs. She loves you, you idiot.”

His words warmed my chest, and I caught myself smiling dopily until I managed to compose my face into sober lines. Then I figured why should I hide my feelings? I should share everything freely now if that was what I wanted from her.

And I loved that woman with my whole heart.

“I want to marry her and possibly have a half dozen more kids with her, if she’s on board. Do you have any thoughts on that you’d like to share? Maybe you’d like to warn me away and suggest I get my head examined?”

“Who said that to you?” He staked his flamingo beside him.

“No one yet. But just thinking ahead. I know everyone worries. And I get that. I’d worry too if I was on the outside, looking in. But she makes me so fucking happy, man.”

“Even with the risk you have to take?”

“Loving someone is the only risk worth taking.”

He cocked his head. “When did you get so wise?”

“Oh, I’m just faking it. Trying to keep up with my super smart kid.” I glanced behind me just to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “Who’s scaring the hell out of me by inferring things about sex she shouldn’t know yet. She’s not even eleven yet, man.”

He winced and shoved a hand through his hair before he twisted the band off his wrist to tie it back. “Not my department, dude.”

“Yeah, I know. How old were we, man? We couldn’t have known much at her age, right?”

“Males are born knowing about sex.”

“That is true, kinda. But kids her age know so damn much, it’s boggling. Freaking social media is a gateway drug to all knowledge.”

“Yet you want more of them?” He looked over his shoulder as if he was making sure he wasn’t being tracked too.

“So, who’s the chick?”

“Rita Savage,” he said, his eyes going wide as if he was surprised he’d fessed up.

He wasn’t the only one.

“No way. The woman you were rude to?” Then the reality dawned on me. “Mating dance? Sorry, off my game. She’s gorgeous though. Seems really nice too. Be careful with her.”

He started to blow me off and then he angled his head to study me more carefully. “Why do you say that?”

“Because I wasn’t as careful as I should’ve been and didn’t tell Bridget exactly how I felt enough so she got scared over everything and didn’t feel she could talk to me about it. She had her own stuff from her past, and it messed her all up. Which, of course, affected us too. And she blamed herself for everything when I didn’t do half of what I should have to make her feel loved and protected and like I put her first. Carrington too, of course,” I added hastily.

“Yeah, she had a rough home sitch too, right?” He held up a hand. “Not trying to pry, just help.”

I appreciated the help since I felt so out of my depth on so many levels. “Yeah, her mom had mental health issues. Her sister is a bit older, and I don’t think they were that close when they were younger, And she had friends, but no one super close, and people need that. Especially women. I mean, seems like everyone has a bestie. They need besties.” I cleared my throat. “I mean, not only them. You have a best friend too. And you’re super tight. I just don’t. I never made time for friends when I was caring for Carrington on my own. I don’t regret putting her first, but yeah, I wish I had someone closer friend-wise. I mean, John is a friend, but…”

“Do you need a bestie, Trav?”

“I wouldn’t turn one down, no.” I grinned. “Got any lines on some available ones?”

“No, but I can stand in here and there.”

“But you’re not even local.”

One of his hawkish dark eyebrows rose. “Like you are?”

“I may be sticking closer to home for a while.”

“If you want to make a go of things with Bridget, you probably need to stay planted long enough to grow some roots. And there are plenty of guys around here that miss you. Dads by the dozen around here too.” He rolled his shoulders. “I don’t know what I’d do without Larsen.” He let out a shuddering breath. “Don’t want to find out, either.”

“I envy how close you two are. Just having someone who will listen to whatever is spinning in your head makes such a difference. And who always has your back. It’s worth so much.”

“Yeah.” He seemed to be mulling something over. Did he share it? Of course not, because he was Penn.

But then, I wasn’t exactly an emotional open book, either, so I had no room to talk.

“But I’m so grateful for all of you. You keep me sane. Sure, you all can be judgmental as hell, but I never doubt you all have my back and want what’s best for me. And I fucking appreciate it. I won out in the sibling lottery. No doubt.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled and he held out an arm, indicating for me to step forward. We did our manly clapped back hug thing and then he stepped back.

“So, are you doing it with Rita yet?”

He tipped back his head. “And we’re back.”

I had to laugh. “C’mon, I’m still me. But I won’t press you for more than you’re ready to give. Just want you to know I care. And I will talk about anything you need to work through with you. Don’t even have to ask. Just give me a teensy tiny opening.”

His mouth lifted on one side. “Teensy tiny is a kid phrase. Or a phrase you’d use with kids. Dad speak is its own language.”

“So, help me out here with some adult conversation. Save a brother.”

“I’m still figuring things out. And hell, I definitely don’t get the kid thing. And you want more? Like plural?”

“I fucking love being a father. Can’t hold me back there. Though I don’t want to push Bridget.”

She stepped up beside me and slid her arm around my waist. “You’re not pushing me. I’m on the same page of our book. Hi again, Penn.”

“Hi, Bridget. Sorry to steal your guy for a few. Guess we needed a brotherly heart-to-heart.”

“All good. Take your time.” She leaned up to nip my earlobe as she whispered, “Some of the clothes did not fit, as predicted. But I stole one of your shirts to go with my jeans post-shower.”

“Looks good. Steal anything you want, babe.” I nuzzled my face in her fragrantly-scented wet hair. She’d used my ocean-scented shampoo, and it smelled far better on her.

“Did I overhear you mention Rita?”

“Women have bat ears, I swear. Yes, Rita. She lives down there.” Penn motioned blindly over his shoulder, but Bridget hurried forward.

“Oh, really? That cute little cottage? She lives here now?” Then she was off rushing down the hill, the steep incline be damned.

Slowly, Penn shook his head. “She doesn’t live here. She’s staying here. And Bridget is long gone.”

I patted his back. “Freudian slip, bro.”