“Loud and clear, Mom,” Luca said softly.
The call ended a second later, and we all stood there like we’d been slapped.
Cade broke the silence. “She’s right.”
Luca nodded slowly. “Yeah. She is.”
I looked at the two of them, then let out a long breath that fogged in the night air. “Alright, guys. You two are the romance experts here. How do we win her back?”
Cade grinned. Luca cracked his knuckles. And for the first time in days, I felt hope stir in my chest like a lit fuse.
We weren’t giving her space anymore. We were going to fight for our girl.
34
ALLIE
It was entirely too depressing to be at home in my little apartment when Daphne wasn’t home. I should relish the opportunity for alone time, for me time, but I was getting pretty tired of spending time with me after a few days of Cade-imposed “space.”
I’d taken a rare sick day from the diner, and there was no Gavin, Cade, or Luca here to fill the empty hours either. The morning sickness, intense and miserable, hit after I’d taken Daphne to daycare, but before my shift started. Though when I was pregnant with Daphne I remembered feeling sick for most of the day, this nausea had passed shortly after I’d made the phone call to work, promising to pick up some extra hours later in the week. I knew it was a blessing to feel physically fine, but I could’ve used a distraction from all of the emotions I didn’t want to feel.
There was something majorly wrong with me if I’d rather be puking than sad.
Music should’ve been my distraction. Especially with the big chance from Delia Nance lurking at the back of my mind, the approaching meeting getting closer on my calendar. I shouldturn to the thing that I never had time for when Daphne was around, the thing that kept me going before that little girl had taken up the mantle herself. But after I had done the dishes and the laundry, after I’d tuned my guitar in preparation for a therapeutic jam session, all of my energy had promptly drained away, replaced by a nagging emptiness.
I missed them. I missed them so bad it hurt. But I was trying to relearn how to live without them. It felt safer to return to normal—just me, my daughter, and no pesky men. Loneliness was safer than being in love.
Then why did a sudden knock at my apartment door make my heart leap with hope, and joy, and something that almost felt like safety?
I knew before I opened it. I just knew that I’d find my three men, the three gorgeous guys who had turned my life upside down five years ago and then come back to turn it inside out this time, standing outside of the door. And that was exactly what I found.
I struggled to catch my breath for a long second, and the guys apparently were waiting for me to speak first. After a silence, our words crashed together, four voices trying to speak at once.
“Sorry,” Luca said. “You…you should talk first.”
“But we’re literally here to apologize,” Gavin rebutted.
“To grovel,” Cade corrected, and it was definitely the hormones, but I could feel myself starting to well up even as I laughed at their silliness.
“I was just going to say that I missed you guys,” I told them. “That…I don’t want space. I just want you.”
Their smiles were enormous. Kids in candy stores had nothing on my guys. I was laughing through my tears as they scooped me up into their arms, a group hug that warmed me to my bones. But soon they broke away, and Cade’s blue eyes found mine, a serious air falling over his face.
“I’m glad you want us. We want you too. But we kind of had a gesture planned.”
“A gesture?” I asked, and Luca nodded.
“A, um, grand gesture,” he explained, and my grin couldn’t be contained.
“Okay,” I said. I stepped back, urging the guys further into my apartment. I sat on the couch—the very one where Luca and I had first made love, which he seemed to notice at the same time as I did, if his blush was any indication. The guys stood before me, and it was then that I noticed Cade was wearing a backpack. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he took it off his shoulder, unzipping the pocket to take out something small.
“I…before you told me about Daphne,” he started to explain, and I watched his face instead of looking at the unknown object. He was beautiful, and the soft openness in his face only amplified it. “I started making something. I didn’t know she was my kid, but I knew she was yours. And now…I don’t know, Allie. She feels like all of ours, somehow. So I wanted to show you this, and get you to give it to Daphne. You’re still her mom, and you’re always going to be number one in her life, but I’m hoping I can…carve out a space for myself beside you.”
“Corny,” Gavin quipped, which made me laugh, even as my tears picked up with Cade’s lovely words. Cade didn’t acknowledge his friend’s teasing, just handed me the little wooden object, pressing it into my palm.
The little hand-carved giraffes were so precious, so delicate, that it was hard to believe Cade’s big, capable hands had made them. But I could feel him in every curve of the wood, and even if I wasn’t pregnant, I would have been crying now. I looked up into Cade’s eyes.
“Daphne is gonna love this,” I tried not to blubber. “But you have to give it to her yourself.”
