“It’s my fault.”
His eyes dart to mine, and I can’t actually believe how still she’s being in his arms. She runs a fingertip along his jawline and giggles at the feel as his scruff tickles her fingers. He’s so different from Ford—opposite, really. While Ford has dark blond hair and brown eyes and he’s always clean-shaven, Tyler has dark hair and these magnificent green eyes and sexy scruff outlining his jaw.
“You’re right. It absolutely is,” he says to me, but he keeps his tone light in front of the baby. “And that’s a really big issue for me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
I nod. “I was going to tell you this week. I just didn’t have the words or the courage. I was working on it.”
“Did you think you’d tell me and things would just magically fall into place and we’d be one happy little family?” He’s still schooling his tone in front of her, and she’s still in awe of him, and I’m trying not to let the tears stream down my face as he says things to me that I’ve had coming a long time.
And as much as all this hurts, as much as I deserve it, I still have to admit that I feel a tiny measure of relief from some of the guilt that pressed me down for so long now that the truth is out.
There are other things to feel guilty about. The fact that I cheated on my husband last night, for one thing.
“No,” I say. “I didn’t have any idea what to expect.”
“How could you keep this magical little creature from me?” he asks.
I don’t have an excuse. I was selfish. I was scared. I was alone.
At the time, I did my research. I had no legal obligation to tell him. Ethical—yes, for sure. But legally, no.
“Who’s on her birth certificate?” he asks.
“Ford,” I whisper.
“And he agreed to this?”
“I want to tell you everything, but not in front of her,” I say softly. “She needs to eat lunch. I need to take care of her needs, and I can take her to my sister’s to get her down for her nap, and then we can talk.”
“You think I’m just going to let you walk out of here with her now that I know?” he challenges. He’s still holding her, and I’m terrified he has the means to take her away from me...a possibility I never even considered before.
The court wouldn’t grant him custody, would they?
From what I know, kids are usually only taken from their mothers if they’re in an unsafe environment or if I was unfit to be a mother. I’m not unfit. I’m a good mom. But Tyler has a lot more money than me, and I don’t know how any of this works. He has the money to pay to get what he wants.
I don’t.
“I’m here for the next few days. I promise you can see her as much as you want.” I’m about to add you can trust me to the end of that sentence, but I’m not entirely sure that’s true. He can trust me when it comes to my promise, but I don’t know how he’ll ever believe that considering what he learned today.
She reaches out for me—the first time she’s moved in his arms at all except to touch his tattoos and his jaw.
He hands her back to me with a short nod. “How long does she nap?”
“Usually around two hours.” I kiss her temple, a little relieved that he handed her back even though deep down I knew he would.
“Get her down and get back over here. We have a lot to discuss.”
CHAPTER 31
TYLER
My heart is heavy as she pulls out of the driveway with my daughter.
My daughter. That is not a phrase that was part of my vocabulary when I woke up this morning.
I don’t even know how to feel about this. I’d just started thinking about the possibility of kids sometime down the line. Dustin was the one with a knocked-up girl, not me. He’s the one who was about to change everything for our little band, not me. And it turns out I’ve been in the dark. It turns out that maybe I’m the one changing things first.
Dustin pulls into my driveway just as I move to shut the front door. Fuck. We have a band meeting in ten minutes that completely slipped my mind.
To be fair to myself, though, some other shit has come up.
Once the