Daisy chuckled at his statement but didn’t say anything.
“You all looked chummy. I didn’t realize…”
“She knows.”
His eyes popped. “How?”
“She figured it out. Last night.”
Matt just shook his head and grinned. “That kid—nothing is ever lost on her.”
“She’s too smart for her own good.”
“Was she upset?”
“A little. Jameson took all the blame at first, and I almost let him, but then the remorse set in. After we got home, I told her the PG version of everything.”
Matt nodded, then got a puzzled look on his face. “Where were you last night?”
Daisy grimaced at her slipup. “At his mother’s house.”
“Jameson’s?”
“Yes. We were all together, and then he got a call that his mother had an accident, a dog bite. We rushed over there and, thankfully, she was fine but then wanted us to stay for dinner.”
Matt swallowed hard and leaned against the kitchen island. “So this is real? He’s actually sticking around this time?”
Daisy lowered her eyes and nodded. “He really wants to try.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“What choice do I have? I’m the bad guy here, the liar. The least I can do is give him a chance.”
Matt stretched his neck from side to side, contemplating her words. “I just don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“Me neither,” she concurred.
Matt reflected again, not at all liking the fact that Amelia’s father was now taking a more active part in her life. For over three years, he had been the one, her stand-in dad, the steady presence at school plays and dance recitals, the one she called when she had a nightmare or needed someone to brush her hair when Daisy was rushing out the door. He had been woven into the fabric of their days, into the rhythms of their little family.
And now he was supposed to take a step back. To smile and nod while Jameson Kingston—rock star, legend, and absentee father—slipped into a role Matt had quietly carried.
He wouldn’t admit it to Daisy, but it hurt more than he thought possible. It was the type of hurt that left a hole in his chest, a place where resentment could easily grow if he let it.
But Matt wasn’t built that way. At the end of the day, he loved them, both of them, more than he loved his pride.
So he only said quietly, “Okay then. Let’s just hope for the best.”
“Let’s hope,” Daisy echoed.
Dinner with Matt was different. The easy banter, the flirtatious looks across the table, they were gone. From the moment he’d walked into her apartment and seen Jameson filling the role he’d played for years, a strain had settled between them.
Matt smiled and carried on as if nothing had changed, but Daisy couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all a façade.
Her gut told her she was right.
There was no way a man like Matt could see another man step into Amelia’s life and not feel it. She would have told him everything if he hadn’t been out of town, but with their rule of silence while he traveled, it had slipped further and further down her list.
Thankfully, Amelia blurred the tension, talking a mile a minute to catch him up. He’d been gone a while, and she had plenty to fill in, most of it now centered around her “new dad.”
