Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
A week later, I’m at work standing in front of Lila’s office door. She looks up from her desk and greets me with a smile.
“Hunter! I figured you would have stopped in hours ago.”
I force a smile of my own. Everything seems forced these days, ever since Dani broke up with me. “I actually just got into the office. Otherwise you know I would have been up your ass sooner.”
“And you didn’t even bring me a cup of coffee,” she says playfully, pushing her hair behind one ear as she paces around to lean back against the modern, black desk. “Long night? Filled with booze and women?”
“Not exactly. It’s…complicated.”
“Huh.” She crosses her arms over each other. “Well, if things are complicated then I imagine things are kind of serious.”
I shrug with faux apathy, as if I don’t care. “Doesn’t really matter one way or the other.”
“It matters. You’re different. Something is weighing on you. And that means that it matters, whatever the hell it is.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I look down and see it's a call from Chad Cross.
“You going to get that?” Lila teases.
“Yeah, I probably should,” I say. I step out of Lila's office and answer the call.
“Hey Chad, what's up? Everything okay with Dani?” I ask, knowing full well that it's probably weird to ask that right out of the gate, but I can't help it.
“She's fine, but that's not why I'm calling... Listen, do you still want to sign me?”
“Of course, man,” I say. Normally, this type of conversation would make me giddy, but today, things are different.
“Great. When can I come in and sign those papers?”
We set up a time and I hang up, fighting the urge to ask about Dani some more. She asked me to stay away, I tell myself. I can't hound her brother for news. Especially since we'll be working together now.
* * *
The next morning, I’m preparing for my appointment with Chad on autopilot. I’m not excited. In fact, I’m approaching the damn signing with something akin to dread.
From the beginning, I was so certain Chad was going to sign with me, and yet now that the day is here, something feels off. Like, she should be here with him. She should be here with me.
I miss her. Every minute of every day, I’ve thought about her. Dreamed about her. Thought about picking up the phone to call her or see her, but each time, I’ve stopped myself.
Because I’m scared. Scared that I can’t be the man she needs me to be.
The man that can stick by her forever, no matter what.
When Trisha escorts Chad into my office, I can tell he feels even less excited about what’s going to happen than I do.
“Nervous?” I question as I make my way to my chair across from him.
“Nothing to be nervous about.” He shrugs and exhales sharply. “It’s not like I’m signing away my entire life or anything.”
“That’s a little dramatic.” I reach into a drawer to retrieve a fresh copy of the contract and slide it in his direction. “This is the same contract I sent your lawyer. You should have already read it over.”
He picks up the contract in his hand, his palms shaking slightly. “I have. Do you have a pen so I can sign this thing?”
I pass him a pen across the desk. Watch as Chad glances over the contract again. “I’m a little surprised you’d still sign with me after everything that happened with your sister.”
Chad glances up at me. “Yeah, well I wasn’t going to, given Dani’s miserable.”
His words cause me to stiffen but I remind myself she’d given up on me, not the other way around.
Only because she’d been scared. Unable to believe her inability to have kids wouldn’t drive me away someday. And what had I done to convince her otherwise?
Nothing.
“Dani told me she’s the one who broke up with you.” He bows his head down as he scribbles his name and date on the first of many pages, and then continues. “My sister might be a lot of things—tough being one of them—but she’s always been a selfless person.” He flips over to the next page, signs his name, and continues on. “So many times in our lives, she’s put me ahead of herself. This being one of those times.” He looks up to me, twiddles the pen between his fingers. “She knows she’s going to have to see you and be around you occasionally, and she still was hell bent on making sure I came here to sign today.”
“Your sister is an amazing woman.”
He chuckles as he signs the last page of the contract. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. She has faults—everyone does. But when she loves, she loves hard and she loves forever even after a connection has been severed.” He eyes the contract one last time before sliding it my way and looking me dead in the eyes. “She’s even meeting with our dad. Not for herself. I think she’d be content to never see that man in her life again.”
The knowledge that Dani had given in and seen her father again after all he’d done to hurt her stuns me. It reminds me that as tough as she seems on the outside, she’s one of the most giving, selfless women I’ve ever met. “She’s doing it for you.”
Chad nods. “Because that’s who she is. The woman who gives so much but doesn’t believe she’s worthy enough to receive. Not loyalty. Not love. Not truly. And not forever.”
She is worthy of love. She’s worthy of forever, I think.
Only she can’t have kids, and I want a family.
You can still have a family together. You can still have kids. You can look into adoption. A surrogate. So many options. You want kids someday, but you were happy with Dani. You can have her now. You can have a future together. That’s something you never saw for yourself. Never felt for any woman before. Are you really just going to let that go?
God, I want a future with her. I don’t want to lose her.
I don’t want to give her up without a fight.
She’d shaken me with her news about being unable to have kids. I’d been too stunned and scared to say the things I should have, and then she’d pushed me away. It had been easy for me to give in to my fears. But that wasn’t who I was.
I’m Hunter fucking Kiss. I fight for what I want.
And I want Dani.
“Dani’s wrong,” I suddenly say. “She deserves all that and more.”
Chad smiles. “I know. The question is, how are you going to prove it to her?”