The Christmas Proposal - Miley Maine Page 0,56
different if I had seen her grow up, but here she was, an adult, all at once, and she was interested in me.
“I never intended for things to get serious, or continue on for very long. I told her that from the very beginning. I think I was scared of getting attached, of her getting attached. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I couldn’t deny my desires, so I just asked if she wanted to mess around for a bit while I was here.”
“But clearly you knew that the scam of an internship was a bad idea,” Mr. Allen said.
“It was never a scam, she really did do interning work at my company. You can ask her yourself if you wish. Yes, part of it was so that my time with her was not cut short, but I also wanted to give her opportunities that she didn’t seem to be getting. I cared about her as a person, and I wanted her to be able to follow her dreams. I thought an internship at a prestigious company might be able to do that.”
“What, so her employers knew she was good at sucking dick?”
“Richard!” Mrs. Allen sent a pointed look in Mr. Allen’s direction. “You will not speak of our daughter that way, nor will you assume things of their relationship! No employer is going to think that she did that.”
“Really? Because it’s quite suspicious, interning with a family friend for only a few weeks in order to be able to get recommendations and put it on your resume.”
“Well it’s not something they should assume,” Mrs. Allen insisted. “And I will not let you attack either our daughter, or Grayson while he is still explaining himself.”
“I think I’ve heard enough.”
“No you haven’t!”
“It’s alright,” I said. “I can understand why you might assume things, or be frustrated by this, but I assure you that I never wanted to make things seem that way. In fact, I tried to move our relationship back to one that was professional after a few days, but neither of us could do it. We were both developing feelings for each other, real feelings at that point. Would you really deny us that?”
“You were the one who started things,” Sebastian said. “And you knew that they would end up wrong. I mean, you got her pregnant! What do you have to say about that.”
“I couldn’t have gotten her pregnant, I used protection the whole time. You know that I wouldn’t have done that to her.”
“He’s right,” Mrs. Allen said. Sebastian and Mr. Allen both looked to her in shock. “Serenity told me. It was Ethan.”
“That’s her ex, right?” I asked.
She nodded.
Sebastian almost looked ashamed of himself for assuming what he had, but I couldn’t quite tell if he was or not.
“I don’t care,” I admitted. “I don’t care if it’s not my baby, or that she’s pregnant. I want to support her through this, to be the man that she deserves, and the father that her child deserves.”
Sebastian and Mr. Allen looked shocked, but I could see that Mrs. Allen was nodding along as if she expected something exactly like this.
“I would like to go up and see her. I want to talk through things with her, make sure that she is okay, and get her opinion on our relationship progressing before I listen to anyone else’s.”
“Please do that,” Mrs. Allen said. “I’ll talk to these two. She should be up in her room.”
“Thank you.” I stood, and then walked upstairs to Serenity’s room. I knocked, and there was a muffled “Come in.”
When I opened the door, Serenity was lying in her bed on her side, looking at the wall. It didn’t appear as if she was doing anything else, and I wondered if she was okay. I would think that she would look happier, or at least be doing something, since it was Christmas.
“Serenity,” I said, not wanting to startle her.
She rolled over and looked at me with wide eyes, then sat up and immediately began brushing down her hair and picking self-consciously at her outfit.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you would be here,” she said. “Why are you here?”
“For you, of course.” I extended one arm to her. “May I sit down?”
“Please.” She gestured to her desk chair. “You can sit there if you’d like.”
I took her offer and sat, then turned to look at her with a sad smile. “Are you doing okay? You seem a bit sad.”
She looked down at her hands. “I