I laughed, knowing exactly the song he meant. “Oh my god. It was Miley Cyrus, ‘Party in the USA.’”
“Yeah.” His mouth hitched. “The baristas started singing along to the chorus, and when you got to the counter to order, you sang too. Not loud. You didn’t make a scene, but you and the cashier had a moment where you were smiling and singing to each other, and it was so intensely human, the short connection of singing a cheesy—”
“Miley Cyrus isn’t cheesy.”
He held up a hand. “Not cheesy, sorry. My point is, watching you ripped my guts apart, the way you connected with her so easily, and I was hooked. I needed to have more of that.”
“So you followed me again?”
He nodded. “Imagine my surprise when you walked right into my building. Then you disappeared into the restroom, and I had no clue what to do. I just…waited.”
“And I ran into you. But I wasn’t supposed to have an interview with you.”
“No, you weren’t. But once I’d spoken to you, I couldn’t bring myself to send you away, so I gave you what I thought was an impossible task.”
“Hoping I’d fail so you didn’t have to do the sending away.”
“Yes. Because I didn’t want things or people, especially not beautiful women who made me feel more for them before we ever spoke than I had for anyone else.” He cradled my jaw in his palm, his eyes darting between mine. “But then you showed up in my office, wearing clothes from the lost and found, and I was forced to interview you. It was torture. I wanted to have you close. I knew that but wouldn’t allow myself to have it.”
“You gave me the job, though.”
His brow winged. That dubious fucking brow. “The background check said you lived with your partner. You were safe for me to have around, so long as I didn’t look at you too closely.”
It broke my heart to think about him not letting himself reach for happiness. He’d gone thirty-one years so closed off it had taken an—admittedly classic—Miley Cyrus song to finally get through to him.
“I’m sorry you found the nasty things I said about you before I shredded them. I hope you know I don’t feel that way anymore.”
His mouth turned into a full, soft smile. “Oh, I do know. I read that I have a cute butt.”
I snorted a laugh. “Well, you do. That’s indisputable.”
“I also read that you think I’ll be a great father.”
I shook my head. “No, that one isn’t right. I take it back.”
He went still. “You do?”
“Yeah, Elliot. You won’t be a great father because you already are one, present tense.”
The breath he expelled could have moved mountains with its force. His arms curled around me, pulling me inside his cave. “Work on the delivery of your devastatingly beautiful proclamations, sweetheart,” he murmured.
“Sorry, love.” I kissed his chin then grazed my lips over his.
“Forgiven, always. I love you.”
“Love you too. So much.”
He tipped me forward and gave my ass a light slap. “Now, get to work. You’ve already thrown me off the schedule you so efficiently wrote for me.”
I jumped up with a yelp and scurried for the door. At the last second, I turned back, my pulse spiking when I found Elliot still watching me.
“Go,” he ordered, an amused slant to his lips.
“I’m going!”
I left his office at the same time Davida and Ray were heading to the break room. The two of them took one look at me and shook their heads in unison.
“It looks like it all worked out, darling,” Davida said.
“Yes, it did,” I agreed.
Better than I ever could have hoped for.
The day came when Liam was supposed to be getting on his plane in Australia to fly to Denver. We’d spoken through text a few times over the last week, and every day that passed had made me more and more nervous.
He’d once been enthusiastic about being a father. What if that had come back and we had to figure out how to split custody while living across the world from each other? I didn’t think I could bear Joey being gone from me for weeks at a time.
I also couldn’t keep her away from Liam if he wanted a relationship with her, even if she already had a father.
Elliot came into the room carrying Joey. She’d learned to blow raspberries recently and hadn’t stopped showing off her new skill. Anyone who came within arm’s reach of her instantly became drenched in her saliva, but nothing deterred Elliot. When he saw her new trick, he proclaimed her a super genius and didn’t even blink when she drenched his shoulder with her drool.
“He hasn’t replied?” Elliot asked.
“No.” I held up my phone. “But he’s a notoriously bad texter, so…”
I hadn’t heard from Liam for a day. Since I’d asked him to send me the details of his hotel so I could arrange for a car to pick him up from the airport, like the kind and generous person I was.
Elliot sat beside me on the couch, handing Joey off to me when she reached her arms out. I plopped her on my lap and sighed, my heart flipping with one part hope, the other disappointment.
“I don’t think he’s coming,” I admitted.
I wasn’t disappointed for myself. My former friendship with Liam had crashed and burned and would never be revived. But one day, no matter how much Elliot and I loved her, Joey would ask what happened to the man who’d helped make her, and I’d have to tell her.
Elliot’s jaw clenched. He was holding back.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “You can say it.”
The look in his gaze was tender, but his jaw remained like stone. “I hope he doesn’t show. I don’t want him around my girls.”
I swallowed hard, choking back the thickness of my swirling emotions. “But one day, Joey will want to know why he didn’t come for her, and it breaks my heart to think of her hurting over this.”
“Mine too, and we can’t help that. It’s going to happen in one form or another. But here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to fill her up with so much love she’ll barely think about the tiny drip Liam might have provided had he stepped up like he should have. If she’s sad, it’ll be fleeting. She’ll be so secure in our home and the knowledge that she has two parents who’ve wanted her since the day they knew she existed.”
My eyelids lowered as I soaked in what he was saying. “You…?”
“I didn’t know my desire to take care of you meant I would love the baby inside you too, but it did. And when she moved under my hands, my entire world changed. No matter what happens with Liam, I’m here. I’m your pillar. Be confident you can lean on me because I will never let either of you down.”
He said this with such confidence I absorbed some of it. When the time came to have a tough conversation with Joey, I believed he’d be by my side.
I puffed out a breath, deciding to take action so I didn’t feel so helpless.
“I’m going to call Liam instead of sitting here wondering.”