By some miracle, we didn’t collapse into a sweaty, sated heap. Instead, Gavin showed significantly more composure than I could, helping me to clean up the cum that dripped between my thighs with a bit of paper towel. It was shockingly intimate, somehow much more vulnerable than the act we’d just finished.I got my panties back on just in time for the whole affair to be ruined.
Suddenly, my phone blared to life. I scrambled for it, finding my discarded purse slung carelessly on the floor—I’d have to avoid thinking about how gross public restrooms were for another reason now. The contact lighting up on my screen was for Holly, my babysitter, and the parental panic that sparked through me seemed to cloud my brain more than the lust had.
“Sorry,” I said without looking at Gavin. “It’s my sitter, I need to answer.” I pressed the phone to my ear without a second thought about Gavin’s presence.
“Holly? Is something wrong?” I asked, a little bit of guilt weaving into my anxiety for extra flavor. I never left Daphne with a sitter at night if I could help it, and whatever horrible thing my brain thought up that could have happened to her was surely my comeuppance for letting my selfishness take over for a few hours.
“Hi, Ms. Tate. Sorry to bother you on your night out, but Daphne woke up and is…um, upset.”
My heart dropped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, really,” Holly hurried to reassure me. “She’s just having trouble going back to sleep because…well, because you’re not here, I think. She’s asking for you, and I remembered you said to call you if there was anything unusual or?—”
“You did the right thing, Holly,” I said, becoming the reassuring one now. Entering mom mode. “Is she crying?”
“Just a little,” Holly admitted with a wince I could hear.
“Put her on the phone, please.”
It was funny how quickly I could code switch back into mom voice. Soothing her through her sputtering tears, I talked my baby girl down, reassuring her that I would be home soon, that she was in good hands with Holly.
“I love you, little miss,” I told Daphne once more. “Now get some good sleep, and Mommy will be back before you wake up. Okay?”
Daphne yawned, revealing how tired she really was. Then her little voice said, “Okay, Mommy. Love you.”
When I hung up the phone, my heart rate was finally slowing to its usual pace. I turned back toward Gavin slowly, almost forgetting he was even there. He was watching me with a stony, almost suspicious look on his face. He spoke before I could think to ask what was wrong.
“You have a daughter,” he said flatly.Shit, shit, shit.
“I do,” I admitted, seeing no other way forward.
“How old is she?” The question was pointed, his tone even sharper. I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat.
“She’s four,” I admitted. Damning evidence. “I know it’s a shock, but I?—”
“Fucking perfect,” Gavin spat, cutting me off. “I should have known. How much do you want?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Money,” he sneered. “This whole thing has got to be some kind of plot to get child support or something, right? And fuck, we didn’t use a condom—are you trying to trap me with another kid?”
Boiling rage started to climb up my throat in seconds. No way he was accusing me of this. Gavin’s expression was trying to hide his panic, exaggerated anger covering up the clear worry that he had a daughter he’d never known about before, that his life had just changed in a second. But I had no sympathy for his fear—it was nothing close to the fear I’d felt when I found out I was pregnant. And no matter how freaked out he was, there was no excuse for him calling me a gold digger.
“I’m on the pill, asshole,” I spat in his face. “And I don’t want a dime of your money. I don’t wantanythingfrom you.”
I turned my back on him and stomped out of the bathroom without another word, pulling up the rideshare app on my phone. I had to get out of here, get away from him. I never wanted to see his stupid, handsome face again.
12
ALLIE
“Take this next turn,” I urged the rideshare driver the second I climbed into his modest sedan. I tried to keep my tone less frantic and pissed off than I was, but it still came out a little sharp. “It’s a short cut.”
I was hoping to beat Gavin back to the beach house. Petty, sure, but despite the mind-blowing sex we’d had not long ago, I didn’t want to see him again, even just to pick up my car. The rage was vibrating through me still, and by the time we pulled up to the modestly fancy rental house, I was on edge, looking forward to scream-singing to angry girl music on my drive back to my apartment, to my little girl, who I prayed wasn’t related to Gavin Ratliff. But before I could climb into the used SUV I’d gotten in lieu of a mom van, Luca appeared in the doorway of the house, and then he was crossing to meet me in the driveway.
“Hey,” he called, stopping me in my tracks. His tone was even and calm, his face soft with concern. “Hey, Allie. I, uh, just talked to Gavin. He said you’d be…pretty upset.”
“Understatement,” I snapped, digging for my car keys in the little impractical bag I’d brought out with me. “Did he tell you what he accused me of?”
