Just like that, he was back in that perfectly white room hearing the woman condemn him with a few well-placed words. You love your guilt more than you love my daughter. It merged with the look of betrayal on Hope’s face right before she walked out of his life. He rubbed the heel of his hand over his chest. “I don’t know where it went wrong.” He continued before Adam could tell him he’d fucked up again. “No, that’s a lie. It went wrong right around the time I got behind the wheel thirteen years ago.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Adam took a swig of the beer and set it aside. “You’re the one who gave me the kick in the ass I needed to stop being a self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t realize we were going to have to switch roles.” Adam reached over and scratched Ollie behind her ear. “That accident fucked us all up. Every single one of us. But let me ask you something—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Daniel pushed to his feet, driven by the pent-up tangle of emotions poisoning him. “This shit… I keep hurting her, Adam. It doesn’t matter what I do or how I do it, I keep hurting Hope.” What if I hurt our baby the same way? He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe it’d be best if I just got the hell out of everyone’s lives.”
He opened his eyes at the sound of clapping and frowned at Adam giving him a standing fucking ovation. “What the hell?”
“Are you done with your pity party?”
“It’s not a fucking pity party. It’s the truth.”
“It’s the truth you’re forcing. Once upon a time, you told me that I just needed to break the cycle. Well, man, look in the mirror.” With one last pat of Ollie’s head, he started down the porch steps, delivering a parting shot over his shoulder. “But are you really going to be okay with Hope settling down with some other guy and your baby being raised calling someone else Daddy? Because that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t pull your head out of your ass. She might love the shit out of you, but Hope lands on her feet. This time won’t be any different. The only choice is whether you’re at her side when she does.” And then he was gone, climbing into his old truck and taking off down the driveway in a cloud of dust.
“Bastard always did like to make an exit.” Daniel dropped back into his chair and stared at the horizon, his thoughts tumbling over themselves and getting nowhere. He wanted to call Adam and rail at him, to tell him that he had no fucking idea what Daniel was going through. But it would be a lie. Out of his two friends, Adam knew better than Quinn. He always had. They both had a vein of guilt that ran deep, though the source wasn’t the same. Adam had managed to put his aside.
Daniel wasn’t sure he could.
Hope deserved better than him. He’d known it from the time he was a teenager, and that hadn’t stopped him from pursuing her then. Hell, it hadn’t stopped him the last few weeks, either.
Ollie whined, and he scratched her behind the ears, earning a lick. “It’s not that easy.”
But the truth of it was, he was the only thing standing in his way.
Hope had already proven that she was willing to set aside the past and give him the benefit of the doubt. Her mother might not, but he wasn’t trying to have a relationship with her mother. That said, Lisa Moore had some good fucking points. He sighed.
The thing was, he didn’t totally see his baby as a way to recoup what was lost. Or at least, that wasn’t the driving force behind his pushing for Hope to give him another shot. Not when he really thought about it.
The truth was he wanted her in his life and in his bed. He loved her. Fuck, the last few days since they told their families about the pregnancy had been the happiest of his life. He’d actually wanted to cook for her, and he’d spent the days looking forward to coming home and finding her there, working or cooking or doing her yoga in the backyard. His shitty little house had started to feel like a home, and it was all because of Hope.
And he’d gone and fucked it up.
Daniel pushed to his feet, startling Ollie. “Sorry, girl.” He reached for his phone and then hesitated. A call wasn’t going to cut it. He’d let Hope Moore slip out of his life thirteen years ago, and he couldn’t live with himself if he did it a second time.
He just had to prove to her that he was all in.
Chapter Seventeen
Hope rolled out of bed at nine, which was the latest her pride would allow her to sleep in. As tempting as it was to hide in bed all day, there were too many things waiting for her attention, not the least being her plan for the future. She combed her hair and put on her brightest sundress, needing to feel in control of at least that. She glanced at her phone, hating the little thread of disappointment when the notifications showed no missed calls or texts from Daniel.
He didn’t call last time, either.
God, she was so sure she’d moved past all of that. All it took was one fight and she was right back in that dark place, calling and calling and never getting any answer. She wouldn’t do that again. She couldn’t. There was more than herself to think of now, and wallowing in despair couldn’t possibly be good for the baby.
That’s the only bright spot in this disaster, which is damned ironic.
She pressed her hand to her stomach. “It’s just me and you, little bit.” Except it wasn’t. There would be no cutting Daniel out of her life for good, not when the baby was half him. As much as it made her sick to think about, she had to face him, and soon. They had to hash out some kind of visitation setup before she left town, because she had no intention of setting foot back in Devil’s Falls. This town had done enough damage, and it didn’t matter if her pain wasn’t actually the town’s fault.
“Uh, Hope?”
She jumped and then felt guilty for jumping. She was in Jessica’s home, after all. It only stood to reason that the woman had come to check on her. “Yeah?”
“I think you’re going to want to come see this.”
She opened the door and started down the stairs, wondering at how strange her friend sounded. “What’s wrong?” When she got no answer, she picked up her pace, though she kept a hand on the railing. The last thing she needed was a tumble, especially when she was already feeling so off balance. She froze at the bottom of the stairs, not quite believing her eyes. “Danny?” She took a step toward him and then stopped, registering that both her parents were on the other side of the living room, and Jessica stood next to them, and all three of them were staring at her and Daniel with varying degrees of expectation.
“Hey, darling.” His face didn’t give anything away, didn’t give any indication of why he was here.
Painfully aware they had an audience, she bit her lip. “Maybe we should talk privately.” Judging from the way Jessica was practically salivating, anything he said would spread like wildfire through town by lunch. Hope couldn’t even blame her. It was just the way things were in this town.
“No, I don’t think we should.” He moved toward her, and she belatedly registered the flowers in his hands. Daisies. Her favorite.
She took them, not sure what to think. “You remembered.”
“I remember everything.” He took her hand, and for one breathless moment, she thought he was going to go down on one knee, but Daniel met her gaze, the naked longing in his eyes drawing her in despite herself. He squeezed her hand. “I fucked up. I fucked up when I put myself before us thirteen years ago, and I fucked up again last night by letting the past get a stranglehold on me. I’ve been so focused on everything that went wrong all that time ago, I forgot to focus on everything going right.”
“Danny—”
“Let me finish.” There was no heat to the words—just quiet strength. “I love you, darling. I’ve always loved you. The last few days have made me so happy that it scared the shit out of me, and so I went and poked it until it exploded. I was wrong, and I’m so damn sorry.”
He was saying everything she’d ever wanted to hear, but she couldn’t help waiting for the other shoe to drop. “We tried. We failed. Some things just aren’t meant to be.”
“You?
??re right.” He continued before she could fully process how her heart dropped at his agreement. “Some things aren’t. But we aren’t some things. A love like ours doesn’t come around more than once in a lifetime, and the fact we get a second chance to do it right is miracle enough. I don’t deserve a second chance—or third or fourth or whatever number chance we’re on now—but I’m here asking for it all the same.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Except she knew what she wanted to say. Hope opened her mouth, forcing the words past her pride demanding she stay silent. “I…I need my own place.”
He didn’t blink. “I suggest you rent.”
“Uh, what?”
“I’m going to marry you, Hope Moore. It can be on your timeline, but it’s going to happen.” He glanced at her parents, watching the whole thing with unreadable expressions on their faces. “I know I’m not good enough for your daughter, but I’m going to spend the rest of my life working to be.” He squeezed her hand again. “I know it’ll take time, but the beauty is that we have the rest of our lives to work up to it.”
She’d woken up this morning on the very edge of despair, sure that history was repeating itself, and yet here he was, proving her dead wrong. It felt too good to be true.
But, as she looked up at him, she realized it was really happening. “My timeline?”
“I can’t promise I won’t be pushy from time to time, but I’ll respect whatever boundaries you put into place.” He reached out and tentatively touched her stomach, as if expecting her to slap his hand away. “Whatever it takes, darling. I’ll do it. Just name the price.”
Price. For the first time, she understood. That was what he’d never been able to get past before. He was trying—he wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t—but part of him still expected her to reject him and cut him out of her life. She lifted her chin. “Kiss me.”
Daniel’s slow grin did a number on her stomach, just like it always had. “You’re going easy on me.”
“I figure there’s a mighty good chance I’ll spend the next seven months putting you through the wringer.” She covered his hand on her stomach with her own. “Then we have the rest of our lives catering to the whims of this one. And the others.”
“Others.”
“Danny, you know very well that I want a whole handful of kids.”
He smiled so wide, it made her heart leap, because the shadows that never seemed to leave his face were gone. “I guess I’ll have to get a few more dogs like Ollie and teach them all to herd so the kids don’t run us ragged.”
“I guess you will.” Was it possible for a person’s heart to burst from happiness? Because she was reasonably sure that hers might in that moment as he pulled her into his arms. He paused and looked at her parents again. “While your blessing isn’t strictly necessary, I sure would like to have it. On account of the grandbabies.”
Hope’s dad opened his mouth, but her mom put her hand on his arm and spoke first. “Do right by our daughter, Daniel.”
“I plan on it, ma’am.”