“Why?” Liv asked, pulling back to look at me.
“I think you know why,” I said, brushing the hair that clung to her wet cheeks off her face.
She looked at me sadly. “Is he as good of a guy as I think he is? As I need him to be?”
“Yes,” I said confidently.
She sighed and seemed to relax at my assessment. “I really liked him,” she said. “If things had been different, I would have told him about her. I wasn’t trying to keep Kaylee to myself and Kayden meant something to me.”
“I know, Liv,” I said.
“Do you think he’ll forgive me?”
“I think he needs time to process, just like you did. I don’t think he’s going to blame you for not tracking down someone you knew nothing about.”
She nodded and wiped her cheeks, standing up straight. “Well, this was not how I wanted to tell him, but at least he knows. I guess the next step is up to him.”
I took in a breath through my nose. “It is, but you also need to decide how you want to handle whatever he wants next. Eventually he’s going to want to meet her, Liv.”
She nodded and fingered her nose ring. “Then I guess I’ll start making peace with that.”
“I’ll be right here, just like I promised,” I said, squeezing her hand.
“For me or for him?” she asked sadly.
“Forallof you,” I said, pulling her into another hug. I held her close for several minutes before she stepped back.
She opened her mouth to speak but before she could Kaylee came out of my office with a sigh. “I’m hungry. I want to go home.”
“Let me take you both out,” I whispered to Olivia.
She nodded imperceptibly.
“Let’s go get pizza!” I said, forcing enthusiasm into my voice for the little girl I wanted to protect from this for just a little bit longer.
“Yeah!” Kaylee yelled.
“Thank you, Jace,” Liv whispered.
I put my arm around her shoulders and gave her a side hug. “I’m not going anywhere, Liv.” I kissed the side of her head. “Let me go get my stuff.”
I forced myself to let go of the last thirty minutes as I ran to Kaylee and lifted her up on my shoulders while she giggled loudly, blissfully unaware of how much her life was about to change. I set her down and grabbed my coat off the back of my office door, shrugging it on and realizing that I’d just made Olivia and Kayden the exact same promise.I meant it. I’m incapable of letting either of them go, even if I have no idea what that means for all of us.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jace
“What are you thinkingabout?” I asked Olivia.
Kaylee was playing on the indoor playground at the pizza place, and I was keeping an eye on her because Olivia seemed too lost in her thoughts for much else right now.
“I was an ass, Jace. To Kayden.” She put her head in her hands and groaned. “He’s a really good guy. Iknowhe’s a really good guy. I’ve been thinking about the night we met all week, and I don’t know why I let myself forget how amazing he was.”
I grabbed her hand and squeezed, and she lifted her head with tears in her eyes again. “It doesn’t take longer than one night with him to realize that, does it?”
She shook her head. “I wish I’d been more compassionate. He’d just found out he had a daughter, and I was too terrified about how that would affect me to really think about how it affected him. He must be terrified.”
I nodded, gently agreeing with her without trying to make her feel worse. “That was not the situation you planned for, Liv,” I reminded her. She’d told me about Carl’s medical situation and Kaylee’s sudden drop off when we got here and I knew she’d been more shaken than she’d hoped to be during her confession. “Don’t judge yourself too harshly.”
