The door clicked shut behind me, and suddenly I was in his space. His home.
“Your date,” I said between my sniffles. “You have a date tonight. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have?—”
“Paige,” he said, his deep voice cut through my spiral. It was firm but gentle. “Stop. The only thing that matters is that you’re here now.”
I looked up at him, and his expression made my chest ache. He wasn’t looking at me as if I were his assistant. He was looking at me as if I mattered and someone worth saving.
Like his friend, maybe.
“Sit down,” he said, and it wasn’t a request.
His hand moved to the small of my back, steering me toward the massive leather sofa. I let him guide me because I didn’t have the strength to do anything else. Lily had started to fuss, picking up on my distress, and I bounced her while my hands shook.
He disappeared into the kitchen and returned instantly with a tall glass of water, pressing it into my trembling hand. “Drink this. Now.”
I obeyed, taking small sips while Lily’s fussing escalated to full crying. I rocked her, bounced her, made the shushing sounds that usually worked, but tonight everything was wrong.
“I can’t even calm my own daughter,” I choked out, getting annoyed at myself. “What kind of mother am I?”
“Stop it.” Derek crouched in front of me, and the intensity in his eyes made me catch my breath. “You’re a perfect mother, Paige. You protected her. That’s all that matters.”
Protected her. The words hit hard. I had grabbed Lily and left without looking back, even when Jack called after me with panic or anger or whatever emotion he had manufactured.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” I whispered. “My parents are in Europe. My sister’s in Texas. And I couldn’t stay there another second. I couldn’t breathe, Derek.”
His jaw tightened and in the dim light, with his wet hair falling across his forehead and his eyes gleaming with protectiveness. He looked nothing like the smooth, charming playboy I knew.
He looked dangerous.
“You did the right thing,” he whispered. “Coming here to me, to my home. You did exactly the right thing.”
Lily’s cries had subsided to hiccupping whimpers. I realized Derek was making silly faces, and despite everything, a small, broken laugh escaped me.
“Is that your solution? Ridiculous faces?”
“Hey, it’s working.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. Then his expression sobered. “You’re staying here tonight. Both of you. This isn’t a discussion.”
“Derek but I?—”
“No arguments, Paige,” he said standing up and running a hand through his damp hair. “I’ll cancel my date. You and Lily take the guest room. My home is your home and tomorrow we’ll figure out the rest.”
Tomorrow. The word felt impossible.
I looked down at Lily, at her perfect little face and her wide, curious eyes.
“Thank you,” I whispered, blinking up at him.
When Derek looked at me, I suddenly couldn’t breathe. This wasn’t just about being friendly to someone you grew up with or helping an employee in trouble. It was something else.
Something deeper.
“Always, Paige,” he whispered, his eyes softening and displaying a different set of emotions that were hard to decipher. “You should have come to me a long time ago.”
I let myself wonder just for a moment. What would have happened if I had?
I blinked back those dangerous thoughts and followed Derek’s voice through his massive penthouse.
The space smelled of leather, wood, and rain. It was clean and masculine in a way that made me hyperaware of how disheveled I must look. Upstairs, he showed me the guest room, wearing a faded t-shirt that stretched across his shoulders, his hair still damp and curling slightly at the nape of his neck.
