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I haveno clue how I got here—at Live, Love, Dance—the dance studio Ellie bought for Sienna years ago when she found out she was rich, thanks to her dead sperm donor. But here I am, watching Ellie dance her heart out. She’s strong yet graceful as she moves to the beat, having no clue that she’s no longer alone.
When I arrived, Samantha was confused to see me, which makes sense, since the only time I come here is when my nieces ask me to come watch them, and neither one is here today. She was even more confused when I asked where Ellie was—which tells me Ellie hasn’t told anyone I’m her baby daddy yet.
Fuck, I’m someone’s baby daddy.
She pointed me in the direction of studio B, where I found Ellie immersed in the beat of the music.
When her eyes lock with mine in the mirror, she stills, then turns around and cocks her hip, her telltale sign she’s about to give me shit.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, her full lips forming a sexy pout. Fuck, no, not sexy. She’s not fucking sexy.But she really is.
As she sashays over to me, I can’t help but rake my gaze down her body. Her eyes are bright green and expressive today. Her slim neck is exposed, thanks to her hair being pulled up in a messy bun. Droplets of sweat are trailing down into the small sports bra she’s wearing, and my thoughts immediately go back to the night we spent together. I couldn’t see her well in the dark, but I remember after the third time we fucked, tasting her salty flesh. She had passed out from exhaustion, and instead of waking her up, I spent several minutes memorizing every inch of her body, knowing we’d part ways once she woke up, and I’d likely never see her again.
“I asked you a question,” she repeats. My eyes are currently on her toned legs, and when my gaze begins to ascend back to her face, I stop at her tiny bump. The bump that’s there because she’s carrying my baby. A baby we created during a night filled with passion.
And then I spent months searching for her...
“The girls are sick,” I blurt out, shaking myself from my thoughts. It doesn’t matter how attracted I was to her—okay,still am—this is Ellie, and I have to remind myself that she’ll always be off-limits, despite being pregnant with my baby.
“Oh no,” she says, moving past me and grabbing her phone. “I had my phone on silent, so I missed Sienna’s calls and messages. She just sent me one a few minutes ago, saying the girls are throwing up and running fevers. Poor things.” She types back a response and then says, “Shoot, it’s a good thing you interrupted me. I need to get ready to go to my appointment. I didn’t realize I had been dancing for so long.”
She grabs her stuff and is about to head out of the room when she realizes I’m still standing here. “Umm, thanks for letting me know about the girls.”
“I was actually thinking I could go with you to your appointment,” I mention. I wasn’t sure until I got here what I was going to do. Yeah, the baby is mine, but until he’s born, I figured it wasn’t really necessary to be actively involved. It’s not likeI’mcarrying the baby.
But as I stand here, taking her in, I realize that despite how fucked up this all is, I want to be involved.
“That’s not necessary,” Ellie says. “I’ve gone to all my previous appointments alone. It’s all good. I promise.”
“I know. You’re strong and independent, and you don’t need anyone.” I don’t mean for it to come across mockingly, but I can see how she’d take it that way.
With her brows furrowed, she cocks that hip out again. “That’s right, I am. When you’ve lived the life I have, all you have is yourself.”
“Actually,” I say, stepping closer, without realizing what I’m doing before it’s too late and we’re only a few inches apart. This close to her, I can smell the vanilla, a scent I’ve been fantasizing about since the moment I smelled it on her that night at Elite. “You have other people. You just choose to push them away, starting with your sister.”
“I’m pretty sure she’s at home with her daughters,” she argues. “As she should be.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. You’ve been gone for four damn years, Ellie. You chose to go away to school. You chose to keep her at arm’s length. And now you’re doing it with me.”
“What?” she scoffs. “How do you figure?”
“Before you even gave me time to process the bomb you dropped on me, you were throwing shit at me about terminating my parental rights. After you’re the one who fucked up...Liz.” Yeah, the moment I realized she gave me a part of her real name, I wanted to slam my fist into a wall. Looking back, so many signs were there flashing at me, but I didn’t see them because Ellie wasn’t on my radar.“Well, guess what,Kitten? I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. You can try to push me away all you want, but I won’t budge. That baby you’re carrying is half mine, and I plan to be in his life, starting with this appointment.”
Her eyes widen, and then for a brief moment, they seem to soften, before they turn hard again, hiding whatever emotion she almost let slip. “I need to rinse off,” she mutters, stalking past me.
The drive to her doctor’s office is filled with awkward silence. When we arrive, the receptionist at the front desk gets her checked in, wishing her a happy birthday as she does so, reminding me of what day it is and that Ellie just turned twenty-two. At her age, I was usually partying with my friends and only working when Micah and my father insisted on it. Ellie, on the other hand, just graduated from college and is expecting a baby. I talk shit about how young she is, yet she’s more mature than I ever was at that age.
We’re brought back to a darkened room, where a woman by the name of Nayloni introduces herself and says she’ll be conducting the ultrasound today.
Ellie lies back, and Nayloni asks her a few questions, inputting her answers into the computer. When she rattles off her date of birth, Nayloni says, “Happy Birthday.”
“Thanks,” Ellie says softly. “I can’t think of a better gift than getting to see my little blob today.”
Nayloni chuckles. “Blob, huh? That’s a new one.”
She lifts Ellie’s shirt and squirts blue shit onto her stomach. A few seconds later, the screen fills with a black and white image of a tiny baby.
“Yep,” Ellie says, “best present ever.”
