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“And Skylar will be staying there tonight?”
“Yes. Now what did you want to know.”
Okay then. I guessed my daughter’s sleeping arrangements for the evening were not up for discussion. “Why didn’t you ask the Salingers for help?”
She twisted in her seat to face me. “It's not an easy thing to admit that you don’t know who the father of your kid is. I mean we didn’t even exchange last names.”
I paused as Shiloh brought our drinks and burgers. As soon as she was out of earshot, I leaned forward. “Everly, those men, that family, will not judge you.”
“I know. I know that in my head. But it wasn’t always like that.”
I hated that she felt that way. “Did your friends and family judge you when you found out you were pregnant and didn’t know how to contact the father.”
“Not my friends. But my parents were hell. They blamed it on the industry.” Something dark crossed her face.
“Is that why you left?” I had looked for her online often over the years, and she never did anything after her debut album.
She nodded but didn’t meet my eyes. “I knew I needed to be there for her no matter what. And my career took a bit of a pivot.”
Everly didn’t elaborate and I didn’t push. Instead, I asked the one thing I wanted since I found out I had a daughter. “When can I tell her that she’s my daughter?”
“Let’s take tonight. We can go back to the picnic. Someone pelts me with a water gun, and Sky can go to her sleepover. Tomorrow we will change her world.”
6
EVERLY
As it turned out the world was changed the following morning. Just not in the way I expected it. My best friend, Cassie, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Brie and I had stayed with her at the hospital.
Jacob, her husband, had gone to get us each a coffee, leaving Brielle and I alone with his wife.
Cassie looked up from the tiny bundle she was nursing. “So, they found Noah.” Her smirk darted between me and Brie. “I didn’t even know they were looking.”
Brie retied her wavy brown hair into a messy bun but glared at Cassie. “I told you I was going to ask Mason.” Mason was her boyfriend, another Salinger sibling working at the same company. “I asked a few weeks before they went on that rescue mission. I’m not sure what all happened. But things went south after that, remember.”
I did remember. Two of the wives had been kidnapped. Brie was taken too, but she was taken to her father’s place. Cassie had been run off the road that same day. It was all part of some big master plan that involved revenge against the Salingers. Fortunately, it all worked out okay and apparently, Noah and histeam had helped. I was off dealing with a family emergency and knew nothing about what had happened.
“So, you told Cass you were going to ask your boyfriend to look for Skylar’s dad, but you couldn’t offer me the same courtesy.” I was a little irritated. More than a little, actually.
Brie let out a breath, regret written all over your face. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up. What if they couldn’t find him? Or worse.”
I stifled the shudder that threatened as I thought about what she meant byor worse.“What exactly was I going to do to get my hopes up for?” My voice rose and I lowered it to a harsh whisper. “That I’d dream about finding my baby-daddy and wish for a happily ever after? “
Brie’s brow rose. “Well, yeah.” She stood from the chair at Cassie’s bedside. “You never spoke about your weekend with him. We guessed that was because he was more special than you anticipated.”
“He was special, Brie.” That was an understatement. “He made me feel things… It was different with him. I won’t deny that. But that was thirteen years ago. I am a thirty-five-year-old woman now, for crying out loud. My days of wishing for happily ever afters are long gone.”
“What?” Brie looked outraged.
Cassie was not much better. “You cannot possibly believe that.”
“Why not?” Did I want a happily ever after? Of course I did. Did I picture that with Noah? Certainly. But I was also a realist. “If it was meant to be, we would’ve found our way to each other a long time ago.”
Brie frowned and I knew I wasn’t going to like what she had to say. “I found the love of my life at thirty-three. Cassie was thirty-four. I don’t see what our age has to do with it.”
“Oh, please.” Found the love of their lives was over simplifying things. “Both of you resisted love for as long as you could.”
Cassie lifted her daughter off her breast and righted her dressing gown. “I was Jake’s superior, it was against regulation. That wasn’t resistance, it was preservation.”
