“She forced me to take a paternity test. Anya was around three. She said she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night until she found out the truth. So I did. I was so sure she was mine. I convinced myself that she even goddamn looks like me!”
Trevor brushes a hand through his windblown hair. I haven’t said a word. I don’t know how to even begin.
“Nicola told me I was free. That I wasn’t obligated to be a part of Anya’s life anymore. But how could I just abandon her? I had been there. Through the whole pregnancy. Through the first three years of this kid’s life. I love her. I’m obsessed with how amazing she is. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I didn’t know I would raise her alone, but even knowing that now, I would not change anything.”
Trevor has his jaw clenched, and I can feel tears in my eyes.
“And I don’t blame you if you don’t understand this. Most people won’t. Why would you want to be in a relationship with a man who is raising someone else’s kid?”
I’m shaking my head, and I’m shaking all over. Anya and Trevor aren’t related? How can that be? They belong together. No daughter has belonged more to her daddy than Anya does to Trevor. I know he will protect her with his life if he has to. Even in my darkest moments when I thought he had jerked me around, I knew he was a good father in the least. Nobody can take that away from him.
“If that is what you think of me, Trevor, then you don’t know me at all,” I say.
29
Trevor
I didn’t expect Blaire to still be here, but she is. For some reason, it looks like she still wants to keep talking to me.
She’s wearing a long white lace dress and cowboy boots. Her usually sleek and neat dark hair is now a little messy in the breeze.
“Does she know? Does anyone else know?” Blaire asks.
“Lucy, Nicola’s mother, knows. We never got a chance to tell Michelle or anyone else. I never told anyone in my family, either.”
“So everyone thinks you’re her father? Including Anya?”
I nod.
Blaire licks her lips and sighs.
“Are you ever going to tell her?”
“I think she has a right to know, but I don’t want to do it until she is an adult and can fully understand the story and why we did what we did.”
“But you don’t know who the father is.”
“I don’t need to know. If Anya ever wants to find out, she can try. I won’t stop her.”
Blaire nods like she agrees.
“I wouldn’t have guessed, Trevor. Nobody would ever guess that you’re not her father. You’re right, she does look like you.”
I smile as best as I can, and she does too.
“But you’re wrong about one thing. Why would I want you any less now?”
I can’t stop grinning. Is this the moment I’ve been fantasizing about for weeks?
“You want me?”
Blaire rolls her eyes. I know she’s about to say something, but I pull her into my arms. I don’t need to hear anything else. Not another word.
But she manages to say it anyway.
“Of course I want you, Trevor. I never stopped wanting you. I thought you didn’t want me. I was an idiot. I’m sorry. I should have spoken to you openly, come to you as soon as Erica told me those stories. I let my own past experiences and prejudices get in the way. I couldn’t imagine why a man like you would want me. There had to be a catch. I was just looking for an excuse so I could leave you first because I was so afraid of you breaking my heart.”
I kiss her before she can say anything more. She opens her mouth, and my tongue slips in. I’m devouring her. She’s tasting me. Our kiss is hungry and desperate. We’ve missed each other. We’ve been foolish by staying apart.
I nibble on her bottom lip, and she kisses the stubble forming on my chin. I trace my tongue tenderly down the side of her face, and her nails are digging into my arm. My hands are on her waist, traveling down until I cup her ass. She gives a little giggle and tries to break away from me.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I growl as I keep her pinned to my chest.
“Who made you the boss of me?” she squeals as I nibble her earlobe.