He laughed without humor. “You’re such a hypocrite. You lecture me about choice, but you never gave me one. Not even an option.”
She wanted to argue that she’d only ever wanted to protect her daughter, but he was right. In many ways, she was a hypocrite.
“I can’t change what I did,” she murmured.
He waited. “Would you, if you could?”
She stepped back. “I don’t know.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe this. One minute, I’m just a musician on my own, and the next, I’m… someone’s father.”
“You can still be who you were,” she said quickly. “This doesn’t have to be a thing. We can pretend it never happened.”
“What?” He snapped upright.
“I don’t want anything from you. We can make this disappear. I won’t ask for help or money or—”
“You really think that little of me still?” His voice dropped so low she almost missed it. “You think I’d walk away now?”
“Honestly, I was kind of counting on it. Amelia has a good life. A normal life.”
“I’m normal.”
She couldn’t help it; she rolled her eyes. He lived in the fast lane, in the noise; she lived in carpools and grocery lists. The last thing she wanted was her daughter’s face on a tabloid because of Jameson Kingston’s teenage love affair.
She could already see the headlines. The cameras. The comments.
“Please,” she whispered, panic pricking. “I’m giving you an easy out.” Tears welled. “You could leave. Forget us. I wouldn’t hold it against you.”
He scoffed. “Is that why you’re crying? You think I’d do that?”
She wiped away her tears. “No. I’m crying because I think you won’t.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I want to know my child.”
Daisy’s face crumpled as she witnessed all her fears coming to fruition. “How do we even do this?”
Jameson looked around her office and walked over to her desk. He picked up a picture of Amelia and stared tenderly at the smiling girl. He set it down, tore a sheet from a sketchpad, scribbled quickly, and handed it to her. “That’s my number. You name the time and place.”
She stared at the ten digits. When he reached the door, he paused and spoke without turning. “I will be in her life, Daisy. Starting today and until I take my last breath. Iwillbe in her life.”
Chapter Twenty
DAISY WAS A NERVOUS WRECK, and it didn’t help that nothing was going according to plan that morning. First, her coffeemaker sputtered to a stop halfway through brewing. Then the clasp on her blouse snapped, leaving her wholly exposed. To make matters worse, Amelia refused to wake up before nine, and they were supposed to be at the park by nine thirty.
Daisy noticed the bad omens. In the past, she would have listened. These, in particular, all seemed to say the same thing:
Don’t go.
But she had no choice. She would no longer keep Amelia from her father. She would do right by him and allow him to beinvolved in her life.
Sending that message had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. Even now, she shivered remembering how on edge she’d been a few days ago when she finally reached out.
Daisy: Hi. It’s me… Daisy.
The message was instantly responded to.
Jameson: I was starting to get worried. I was thinking I’d have to make another unexpected visit to your gallery.
