I smile. “Yeah, Bren. You’re doing great.”
My body isn’t prepared to watch this handsome, strong, hot beast of a man cradling his daughter in his arms as he looks down at her in awe. My heart squeezes a little at the sight of it. Then Bren’s eyes find mine once again.
“She’s mine?”
I nod. Addy must sense the change of mood in her dad because she starts fussing. The pacifier clinks to the floor, and though she doesn’t cry, she grunts, trying to get out of this stranger’s arms.
“Uh, here.” He hands her back, and I can’t push him any more than I already have, so I take her back in my arms.
His jaw clicks as I look at him again. Bren nods. “And her name?”
“Audrey Michelle Ocampo Reindhart. But we all call her Addy.”
Bren's features soften. “You gave her my name?”
“I thought you might want that...one day.”
Addy starts nodding off in my arms after a long moment of silence. “You think I can set her down for her nap?”
I walk Bren through the procedure as he takes the cushions off his couch and sets them on the floor. When he comes back from his room, he has a blanket, and we make a makeshift bed for Addy on the floor where I can watch her while we talk. And aw, hell . . . watching him tuck her in for the first time in his life is one of the best days of my life.
We walk over to the dining table so we are less likely to wake her. We speak in quiet voices for that very reason, and I thank the stars Addy is here to calm her father for the most difficult conversation of our lives.
“You should have told me,” he says.
“I tried—”
“Bullshit.”
“You disconnected your phone, Bren. You disappeared. I had no way of contacting you. I called Andreas, and his number was disconnected too. I’m guessing you ordered him to do that?”
Bren looks away and out the window at the Kansas City skyline. “You should have gotten lawyers involved. You should have...”
“Bren. Look. You’d made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me after...well, after everything. You didn’t seem to want to be found by me, and I decided to respect that. Maybe I didn’t handle it the best way, but I was dealing with a lot. I had to think about someone other than myself for once, and I was scared. I did the best I was capable of at the time.”
His smile is weak, and understanding washes over his face. I’m such a fucking asshole. All I’ve ever managed to do is hurt this perfect man who never did anything other than love me. This is why I’m not cut out for relationships.
“She’s beautiful,” he says after a long, pensive moment.
I smile and peek over at her sleeping form. “Yeah. She’s kind of perfect.”
Bren gets up and paces in front of me, throwing an icy glare my way every few steps. “I missed out on a whole year.” Another step.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s all you have to say, Sofia? I’m sorry?” He keeps pacing.
“Shhh. You’ll wake her up.”
He glances over at our sleeping child and winces a little, then sits back down.
“We were so careful, Sofia. We always used a condom. How could this have happened?”
I shrug. “You know how it goes. They aren’t always effective. I’m guessing one broke at some point, and we didn’t notice.”
He nods, thinking. This is so much for him to take in. And he found out about it in the most awful way possible. God, I can be such a bitch. All I can do is apologize, but he’s already made it clear he doesn’t want to keep hearing it. Neither would I, to be honest, if I were in his shoes. Those words are weak when such a betrayal happens.
Bren’s eyes glisten as he keeps looking at the top of Addy’s head. I am sure he will burst into tears soon, but he takes a deep breath and reels them in.