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“I’m alone with, um...tell Andreas he needs to get a car seat.”
A long breath from Bren filters through the call. “Right. Make it thirty minutes.”
* * *
The operation toget us out of my house is swift. Andreas and the second security guard do their best to shelter us. Andreas shields us from the cameras with his body as much as possible while the other guard pushes people back, making a line for the car door. But the shouting and chaos are too much for Addy, and she starts crying in my arms. I want to claw some eyes out for scaring her, but I just keep my head down, saying nothing.
My heart races as I look out the back window at the trail of vans and cars following us now. Luckily, the garage in Bren’s building is secure, and we won’t have to be shouted at again.
Addy is back in her sling on my chest as we ride the elevator up to the penthouse. I start bouncing a bit on my feet as I pat her back, but really, the fidgeting is more for my nerves than to soothe her.
Bren stands in the main living room, watching me leave the elevator. He tips his chin at the guards behind me, and the elevator doors shut, taking away my two protectors and leaving me more nervous than ever.
Bren’s eyes are cold, his brows knitted together firmly, but his eyes freeze on that tiny bundle strapped to me.
Someone clears their throat, pulling my attention past Bren to Fritz. He is leaning on the back of the couch, his legs crossed at the ankles, hands in his pockets. “Hello, Sofia,” he says.
“Hi—”
“Fritz, you need to leave,” Bren says, his voice stern.
“I’m not going anywhere. Don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret.”
Bren turns to his friend. “You think I’d hurt a woman and a baby?”
“No. I don’t think that. But you’re really angry, Bren. Don’t do or say anything stupid. Get all the facts first.”
“Get the fuck out of my house,” Bren hisses with such anger, I tighten my grip on my daughter.
“No can do.” Fritz shakes his head, standing there—cool as a cucumber—and I desperately want some of his level-headedness right now. “I’ll go to the guest room so you can talk. Sofia? Call for me if you need me.”
“Thank you, Fritz,” I say with a weak smile.
His footfalls disappear down a long hallway, and the sound of a door closing brings Bren’s eyes back to mine.
He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “How—how old is—is...”
He can’t get the word out. “She just had her first birthday.”
“She?”
I nod and smile as I unwrap the sling from me, revealing her straight black hair. A sprig of hair shoots straight upward from a blue sunflower clip I used to try to gather her hair into some sort of ponytail. The result is comical but adorable. No way Bren won’t fall in love with this sweet little thing. “Would you like to meet her?” I ask.
Bren takes a scared step back. I look down at Addy, who is awake and alert, looking up at me, her pacifier twitching slightly. I smile down at her. She’s acting as a buffer. Her presence alone placates Bren, and he wouldn’t dare shout with her present, even though everything about him tells me he wants to. From his taut muscles, veins popping over his forearms, all the way to the fisted hands at his sides as he clenches and releases them over and over.
“Were you going to tell me?” he asks, accusing.
“Yes. I started to so many times yesterday, but then...I have no excuse, Bren. I decided to tell you tomorrow when I’d had time to think, but then, well, those jerks beat me to it.”
Bren takes a step forward then stops. His hesitation is almost funny, the way he approaches us like some scared little animal.
I take several long steps to get close to him, not faltering, hoping my confidence will bring out his. “Here,” I say and hand Addy to him before he has the chance to voice any protest. “Her name is Addy.”
He holds her away from his body at first, looking her up and down. Addy squirms a little in his hands. “Uh, she doesn’t like me,” he says.
“She’s not used to strangers. Give her a minute.”
He brings her closer to his body and then looks up at me. “Am I doing this right?”
