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The doorbell rings, and I stop and stare at the door.
Who can that be?
Then it clicks. “The food I ordered is here. I’ll call you later, Lani.”
“You better call me later!”
Ending the call, I go open the door. And I nearly fall on my ass.
His smile, pearly white and breathtaking. His eyes, lacking the makeup that had coated them the other night. And his hands, full of a gorgeous bouquet of red roses. “Surprise!”
“Um, no.” I don’t know what else to say as panic rips through me. My daughter, our daughter, a daughter he knows nothing about is sleeping in my room and will wake up any minute now. He needs to be gone. Now. “You can’t be here. How’d you find me? What the hell is going on?”
“I know it’s been a while, Lucy, but the proper response is nothing of what you’ve just said. You should be taking these flowers, hugging me, and saying how sorry you are about ditching me the other night.”
“What?”
Holding out the flowers, he shakes them. “These could use some water.”
“I look behind me to where my room is, hoping and praying Aurora sleeps through this. “Apollo, you shouldn’t be here.”
“Come on, Lucy. It’s been years and I miss you. I want to apologize to you, and I was hoping we could catch up a bit.” He shifts his weight, looking at me like he wants to push past me to get inside my apartment.
“How’d you find out where I live?” I’m going to kill whoever gave him my address.
“You know these days you can find almost anything online.”
Of course, he is right. Doesn’t make me any happier about him standing here right now. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do this right now. The house is a mess.” I run my hand through my hair. “I’m a mess. This is just a real bad time for me.”
“I’m sorry I came at a bad time. I can come back if you want.”
I don’t want him here at all, but if I can at least get him to go away for a bit, I can ask Lani to take Aurora for a while. “If you give me an hour or two, then I’ll be happy to talk to you. I can meet you somewhere for a cup of coffee.”
He nods before looking inside my house. “Is there anyone else here? I mean, you were on a date with a stranger the other night, so I figured you don’t have a boyfriend hanging out in here. Do you?”
“Of course not. I thought you knew me better than ask that.” My panic gets to take a backseat for a second. How dare he think I’d be on a date while I had someone home waiting for me?
He nods, and his eyes go down, and he frowns.
I follow his eyes, and my body freezes all over.
Aurora.
She crept up on us and is now looking intently at Apollo.
“Hello,” she says, wearing a sweet smile.
My mouth drops open, but I have no idea what the hell to say.
Apollo smiles at her. “Hi. And who are you, little miss?”
“Aurora,” she says with a shy smile, hugging my thigh.
One word. Her name. Yet, it is enough to know he now knows what I have been hiding for the last four years.
Apollo kneels to get on her level, and he can’t seem to take his eyes off her. He reaches out to touch one of her blonde curls. “I like your curls.” He looks up at me with watery eyes that carry so many emotions before looking back at her.
His words come out with a gentle tone to them. “Your hair is just like mine.”
