Page 95 of Time Out

This was the kind of guy who would always be there for me. He’d move heaven and earth to make sure I was happy and taken care of. He’d do more for our child.

I’d be a fool to not give him back everything he was giving me, and maybe it’d only been a couple weeks. Maybe we barely knew each other, but every time Davis grinned down at me, teased me, laughed with me, or held me… I saw something more than a good guy doing a good thing.

He was my guy taking care of me, loving me so easily and effortlessly I wasn’t even quite sure when it happened… when I realized I was falling in love with him.

It could have been that first night we spent together.

The way he smiled when I first reappeared at his door on Christmas Eve.

The way he’d taken all of this in such an easy stride, no matter what I kept throwing at him.

I would need to find a way to repay that, ensure he received everything from me he was giving to me, and with Davis, that would not be a hardship.

Falling in love with him was as easy as breathing. It happened without thought or plan.

My phone rang in my hand, and I tossed the clothes on the bed, grabbing it. It fumbled in my hands and fell to the floor.

“Shit.” I dropped to my knees, dug it out from where it slid beneath Davis’s bed, and then groaned.

“Hey Belle,” I answered.

“Well gee, don’t seem all that excited to hear from me. Probably tired after your big night, huh?”

“What?” I fell to my backside and rested against the foot of Davis’s bed. “Do you mean meeting Davis’s family?”

“Ha! As if, silly. You know a video of you posted on YouTube already has five million freaking views? You’re going viral everywhere!”

There was excitement and nerves mixed in her statement.

“I didn’t know it’d gone viral,” I admitted and pushed my feet straight out in front of me. “It’s been a wild morning.”

“Well, it’s about to get even more wild because my dad was forwarded that video first thing this morning, and after he yelled at me for not telling him how talented you were, he told me I have to offer you a contract to get your ass in the studio, or I’m disowned and fired.”

“What?!” I shrieked.

She was joking. Had to be.

“You’re lying,” I accused her and she burst out laughing.

“The hell I am! I’m not lying about any of it.”

“Belle… I’ve always said….”

“Uh-uh. You said you didn’t want my help, which was still stupid, by the way, and because of that, I never said a word to my dad. He didn’t know anything, and this isn’t help. Technically, I’ve been given a task to do for the CEO of my company and I must carry it out.”

My head thumped against the footboard, and I flinched, rubbing the back of it. “I can’t think about this right now.”

“Well you’re going to have to because Dad and Mom want you over here for dinner this week to talk about it. I told them I’ll have to figure out when you’re working and let them know. But if you don’t come to dinner, Dad told me to drag you here kicking and screaming anyway, so…”

“Thursday,” I said without thinking. “I don’t work Thursday.”

“Perfect. So what made you go singing last night? Things not go okay with dinner?”

“It was fine. I just needed to sing.”

She understood. I’d told her how it was my way to release stress and deal with my problems.

“So why don’t you sound happy? What’s going on?”

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