Everly

I woke to an empty bed.

My heart fell, even though I should have expected it. He has Piper. Mack probably had to go to work.

Still, as I ran my hand over the empty pillow, the white empty space beside me that suddenly seemed not just big but uncrossable, the bitter taste of disappointment flooded my mouth.

I took a shower, memories of our hot sex flooding my mind. As I slathered soap over areas he’d paid such savage attention to the night before, I took a deep breath and sighed a breath of happiness. No matter what happened next, I would fight for him. He couldn’t run from his feelings anymore.

With that thought in mind, I twisted my hair into a top knot and threw on some cut-offs and a tank. Maybe I could visit Giselle again. There had to be something she wanted so badly she’d give permission for us to do the test. But what could she want more than Piper?

I walked into the kitchen to the sound of the Australian summer—crickets singing outside—as I racked my brain for an answer. “Morni—”

Oh.

Oh.

There at the bench stood Bentley, a cup of coffee by his side. Cameron sat at one of the stools, sipping from a large white mug.

My ex and my love in the same room.

Together.

Drinking coffee.

“Morning.” Bentley winked, and looked toward the cup next to him. “Coffee’s up.”

Mute, I nodded and walked to my drink. I needed a caffeine hit, and I needed it fast.

“Hey.” Cameron leaned back in his chair. He held out his arm, inviting, and I sunk into his embrace.

“That’s cute,” Bentley said. “But next time, if you’re going to fuck in close proximity to me, maybe you could keep the panting and moaning to a minimum.”

“Bentley!” My jaw dropped.

“Couldn’t help it.” Cameron pressed a kiss to my cheek. His rough stubble scratched my skin in the most delicious way. His mouth moved to my ear, where he whispered, “Your ex is living with you?”

Lord, could this situation get any more awkward?

I took a deep breath. Suck it up, princess. Make the best of it.

I turned to Cameron first. “Cam, Bentley broke up with his girlfriend, and I told him he could stay with me for a few days but he’s moving out. Today. He’s the one offering you free legal advice because, let’s face it, he owes me. Big time.” I glared at Bentley. “And Bentley, it wasn’t the most considerate thing for me to do, but I can honestly say that last night when Cameron came around, you were the last thing on my mind.”

Bentley’s face blanched of colour. What did he expect?

Trying to keep things moving, I turned to Cameron. “Have you discussed your case with him?”

“No. I got up to make you a coffee, and then …” He shrugged, gesturing to the lawyer in the room. He seemed okay—a little frosty, but okay. “Bentley was ready to play host.”

And you didn’t run.

It meant the world to me that he had stayed. I meant something to him.

“Okay. Bentley, what do you need to know from Cameron?” I folded my arms, staring my ex down and willing him not to be a douche.

“I need your full name, your partner’s full—”

“She’s not my partner.”

“The name of the mother of the child, plus any details you have on her incarceration that might help us when it comes to casting doubt on her character.”

“The fact she’s in jail for dealing drugs good enough?” Cam snorted.

“That, and anything extra. Has she been arrested before? Has the Department of Community Services has ever visited her, and has she always been the child’s primary carer? Hopefully, we can build a solid case that then forces your ex to agree to the paternity test so you can prove you’re the father and file for full-time custody.”

“I … I only wanted part-time.”

Bentley raised his eyebrows at Cameron. “You’re telling me this woman might be lying about the paternity of this child, that she’s in jail for dealing drugs, and you’re okay with your baby being raised by her fifty percent of her life?”

Cam’s coffee mug slammed down on the table. The muscles in his forearms were taut. “First, don’t stand there and judge me on my attitude toward women, you cheating piece of shit. Second, she said the drugs thing was a one-off, and since it’s the first time she’s been convicted, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Third, whether I’m the dad or not, Giselle is the mother, and she might have been a junkie once but now she loves that little girl, and Piper loves her. I don’t want to be the one who ruins any chance at a normal relationship with a mother figure my daughter might have.”

The crickets outside reached ear-splitting pitch.

It was the only sound in the room.

I tried not to be hurt by his words. I will never be Piper’s mother figure.

I was sure he didn’t mean to offend me. It wasn’t as if we’d sat down and had the traditional ‘morning-after’ talk where we discussed the possibility of a future relationship. Instead, coffee and custody with the ex were on the table, and that was how it had to be.

“Well, now you’ve made those few things clear, I’m going to work.” Bentley shot me a look that clearly said we’ll talk later. I didn’t look forward to it. “I’ll leave a card out for you, Cameron. Make sure you email me what I need so we can get the ball rolling.”

Cam nodded. “Thanks.”

“No problem. I’d do anything for Everly.” Bentley looked into my eyes, and I could read the unspoken message loud and clear. Would Cameron do the same? “So don’t screw this up.”

The door slammed as he left. Just me, Cam, and the crickets.

“You didn’t tell me he was here.”

“You didn’t want to speak to me. Was I supposed to send you a formal letter? Hire a plane to write it in the sky?” Anger shot through me, only I knew it wasn’t about his lack of communication.

“You could have mentioned it the other day when you told me about the hotshot lawyer who was swooping in to save the day.”

“And you could have let me in to more than just the surface level of your life, but you didn’t, and look where we are now.” I held my hands out wide. “We’re angry, Cameron. We’re angry, and we had something …” My voice shook, and I took a deep breath to control it. “We had something I thought was worth fighting for.”

“What makes you think I don’t agree?”

“The fact that you won’t give me a chance. You came around here last night, and I thought it was to talk and that perhaps things just got carried away. Now, I see it for what it was—sex. Pure and simple.”

“It was never just sex for me,” Cam growled.

“Yeah? Then how come you said Piper would never have a mother figure if Giselle lost custody?” There it was—the real reason I was upset. I clapped my hand to my mouth. I’d said it.

Cam had the grace to look uncomfortable. He shuffled in his seat, then pushed back from the counter, wiping his hands of this whole situation on the sides of his jeans. “It was something I said in the heat of the moment. You and I had sex, Everly. Great sex.” And there was his gorgeous, cocky smile.

My shoulders relaxed.

“We haven’t had a chance to discuss what that means for us yet because your ex was here, playing barista when I woke. I didn’t think that was all this would be. For hell’s sake, Everly, I trained with you every night for weeks. I let you feed me all kinds of food that probably shortened my life by a solid month. I … I let you close to Piper.” His voice softened. “To Dad. To everyone important in my life. At what point have I given you reason to believe all I was interested in was sex?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “Only just now. Only just then.”

“I can’t predict the future. I don’t want random women floating in and out of Piper’s—no.” He shook his head. “It’s not just that. I don’t want random women floating in and out of my life either. As for you, as for us—I love how you are with her. I don’t want that to change. But I’m also not presumptuous enough to think you’d like to become parent to a child who isn’t yours.”

“But all I’ve ever wanted—”

“All you’ve ever wanted is a child of your own. And as much as down the track, if things worked out, I’d want to share Piper, share her love—deep down, you’d know she wouldn’t be your flesh and blood. Giselle would always be her mother. Could you handle that?”

I stepped back from him, slowly. The truth was, I didn’t know. Maybe that was partly why I was so keen to help Cam gain custody—because I needed Piper as much as he did. Maybe I saw her as a solution to a problem nature couldn’t fix.

But how did I know that one day, it wouldn’t become an issue? That her calling Giselle ‘Mum’ and me ‘Daddy’s special friend’, or whatever-the-hell crap name we came up with, wouldn’t start to take its toll?

In my fantasies, I was her mother. Giselle wasn’t in the picture.

But life didn’t often work out as we dreamed.

Bella’s death was proof of that.

“I’m sorry.” I stepped in again, placing one hand on his arm. “I guess … I guess I didn’t think it all through.”

Cam ran a hand over his jaw. “I haven’t yet either. I can’t believe we’re, what”—he glanced at the digital clock on the oven—“not even twelve hours into our relationship and already we’re discussing your parenting role in Piper’s life. If she’s even—”

“She’s your daughter.” I placed my hand over his, linking our fingers together. “There’s no doubt about that.”

“We’ll see.”

I took a deep breath, readying myself. I had to bring it up. As much as I didn’t want to, I needed to tell him the truth—the secret that had burdened me since I saw him at the beach that day. “We need to talk about Bella.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t move a muscle. “We … what do you mean?”

“I mean I want to tell you how I knew her. How …” How it was my booking you guys took. How it should have been me who died. How on earth could I work up the courage to say that?

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he gritted out.

Cameron had avoided the media after the accident—he didn’t want to talk about her, about what had happened. Ever since we’d connected, the past hadn’t been something he’d willingly revisited. So why had I thought now would be any different?

I just wished his refusal to talk felt less like a reprieve. Less like I’d just put off something I truly didn’t want to do.

“Another time then,” I said, busying myself by taking Bentley’s dirty coffee cup and placing it in the sink.

“Another time.”

His words sounded as hollow as my chest felt.