Page 95 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

She hadn’t said that, but he’d nailed it. “Yeah. Exactly. Having a baby changed my life. Stevie’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” Once the words came out, she froze. Because he’d get to know his daughter and see how amazing she was.

And he might take her away.

That terrified her.

“Stevie.” He said it slowly, as if testing the name. “Where’d you come up with that?”

“Stevie Nicks. What can I say? She’s an icon.”

“Yeah, okay. I get that.” But he was distracted, gazing into the darkness of the mountains. “We have a kid.”

“We do.” Only time could determine the choices he’d make, so she went with the truth. “And she’s fierce and strong and smart. There isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t impress me.”

He looked tortured. “I have a daughter.”

He didn’t want kids. Was he freaking out about how his life would change?

She wanted to reassure him that she didn’t need his help, that she had it all under control, but at the same time…Stevie deserved a father.

Ultimately, though, she kept her mouth shut because it wasn’t her choice to make.

It was something he had to figure out on his own.

But he surprised her when he said, “And you went through it all alone.”

Here she was worried about him freaking out, when he was concerned abouther. “Not really. Margot, my dad, my brother, my sister, Noa…they’ve all been there for me.” While it was true—she had really good people around her—still, the core of her was so painfully alone. Even Stevie didn’t fill the gaping hole.

“It’s not the same as having a partner to go through it with you.”

It all came rushing back, how well this man understood her. How perfectly he could sum up a situation. “No, it’s not.” Something occurred to her. “Wait a minute.” She waved the note. “Why was this in your wallet? Did you know who I was when you came here?”

“No, of course not. I’ve kept it with me.” He shifted uncomfortably. “Just in case I ran into you.”

“Are you serious?” And that was it. The last remnant of anger and frustration drifted away.

“Like I said, I’ve got a few clients on the Renegades, so I come here a couple times a year.”

She didn’t remember what she’d told him, but she hadn’t owned a house there yet. “You didn’t know where I was from or where I’d wind up.”

This powerful confident man looked nervous. “I held out hope I’d see you again.”

Her knees nearly buckled from the relief sweeping through her. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that. The way you left…I thought you didn’t care. I thought?—”

He touched her arm. “I cared.”

She wanted to say,I thought about you, too, but she hadn’t seen him in two and a half years. Their intimacy was gone. She’d spent her whole life spewing her emotions in her songs and belting them out on stage, but since the betrayal she’d learned to be more careful. More protective. And really, the priority here was Stevie.

“So, what do we do?” she asked. “How do we move forward?”

“I don’t have a clue. But I think it’s best if we don’t tell anybody yet.”

She wasn’t sure why that disappointed her. Actually, she did know. For Stevie’s sake, she wanted a father who was so happy and proud to be her daddy that he’d shout it from the rooftops.

But, of course, this man had literally found out fifteen minutes ago.

“My parents know.”

“Okay, but other than them, let’s keep it to ourselves for now,” he said. “I don’t want anything to distract from the wedding.”

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