Secret Twins For My Ex’s SEAL Best Friend (Billionaire Silver Foxes’ Club)

23. Delia

twenty-three

Delia

The kitchen was an absolute mess. The day before Thanksgiving had always been so stressful in my house, and now I knew why. Cooking was hard. Cooking for Thanksgiving was impossible.

I had been cooking for hours, starting in the afternoon. It was already four, and it felt like I’d gotten nowhere. Flour coated the counters, a turkey breast sat half-thawed in a shallow pan, and the gravy I’d been stirring for what felt like an eternity was still refusing to thicken.

“Smells like progress,” Tyler, my brother, said, as he emerged from the tiny guest room I had stuck him in and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a slice of bread from the counter and ate it plain, just like he used to as a kid.

“Smells like effort,” I muttered, stirring the pot harder than necessary.

He smirked and leaned against the counter. “You sure you don’t just want to let Mom cook when she gets here tomorrow?”

I sighed, glancing at the clock. “It’s not the cooking, Tyler. It’s the fact that I’m doing all of this alone.”

“You’re not alone,” he said, gesturing to himself dramatically. “You’ve got me.”

I gave him a look, but his teasing grin was impossible to resist. “Right. Because you’ve been so helpful sitting on the couch all morning.”

He shrugged unapologetically. “I’m a guest.”

Shaking my head, I turned back to the stove. “It’s just... I don’t know. I wish Mom had come earlier.”

“She’s gonna show up with store-bought pie and a list of reasons you should move back home and leave Seattle,” Tyler said, laughing.

I couldn’t help but smile. He wasn’t wrong. Mom’s enthusiasm for the holiday didn’t extend to the kitchen—or to making anyone else’s life easier. But at least she was coming.

My thoughts drifted to Dad, as they always did around the holidays. I didn’t talk about him much, especially not to Tyler, but the ache of his absence never really went away.

Some small part of me still wished he’d step up one day and show up unannounced with stories about where he’d been and why he’d stayed away.

I knew I was only feeling this way because of the whole pregnancy thing. It was terrifying, and it was shining a new light on my family dynamics.

I felt like I was running out of time to make things right. I also felt like I’d never be able to make things right.

“Earth to Delia,” Tyler said, snapping his fingers.

I blinked, realizing I’d been stirring the same spot in the gravy for too long. “Sorry. I’m just... tired.”

“Why don’t you take a break? Go do something fun,” he suggested.

“Like what?” I asked, glancing at him skeptically.

Before he could answer, my phone buzzed on the counter. I wiped my hands on a dish towel and picked it up.

Join us for a special Thanksgiving meal at the Seattle Library! All are welcome.

It was from the self-defense class I’d been attending—a reminder about the meal they were hosting this afternoon. Normally, I’d ignore something like this, but today, the idea of staying in the house all day felt unbearable.

“I think I’ll head out for a bit,” I said, grabbing my jacket.

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”

“There’s a Thanksgiving thing for the self-defense class I’ve been going to.”

“You’re ditching me?” he asked, feigning betrayal.

I rolled my eyes. “You’ll survive. I won’t be gone long.”

“Maybe I’ll call Jeremy. Did you know your ex has been texting me asking to hang out?”

I knew he was planning on it, but it still annoyed me that he’d actually done it. I know he came to my house acting like we were buddies and everything was okay, but it made my skin crawl to think of him infiltrating his way back into my life through Tyler.

Even as I had those thoughts, the familiar guilt gnawed at me that I didn’t have a right to be angry with Jeremy, not after what I’d done with Robert and what had happened because of what we’d done. Even if the memory made my knees weak. Especially remembering that it had happened in a kitchen…

I sighed. “I knew he was thinking of texting you. Are you going to hang out with him?”

“Yeah, I think I will. It’s been a while since I saw him. Is that okay with you?” Tyler asked casually.

“Fine with me,” I replied back, heading toward the door.

Tyler called after me, “Hey, if you see a pie, bring some back!”

The walk to the library, which really doubled as a community center with all the resources it had, was colder than I’d anticipated. I probably should have driven like usual. By the time I stepped inside, the warmth of the hall felt like a relief.

The room was alive with activity—volunteers darting between tables, children decorating cookies, and groups of women chatting over steaming cups of cider. It was bustling, yet cozy in a way I hadn’t expected.

I scanned the room, and my breath caught when I saw him.

Robert.

He was standing by the dessert table, arranging pies on a tray like it was the most important task in the world. His broad shoulders and calm demeanor made him impossible to miss. Beside him, a young girl was carefully placing cookies on a platter, her red braid swishing as she moved.

I hesitated, torn between slipping out unnoticed and walking over. I had just decided to turn around and walk out when Robert caught my eye and started walking over, his eyes widening slightly in surprise. “Delia.”

“What are you doing here?” I blurted, my eyes flicking over to the pies and planning my escape with a slice of one.

“I’m here every year,” he said, his voice calm. “I started sponsoring these events about ten years ago.”

My eyes widened. “Wait, you’re the sponsor?”

He nodded, his gaze steady. “I told you what happened to Quinn. Holidays can be tough for women with dangerous home lives. It’s important to me that they have a place to come.”

Before I could respond, the redheaded girl ran over to him and tugged on his sleeve. “Daddy, can I have a cookie now?”

Robert’s expression softened as he turned to her. “Go ahead, baby girl.” I suddenly felt like I was intruding, being so close to his daughter.

I looked at her closely before she turned and walked away. She was beautiful, and her eyes were bright. She looked like she adored him, and he looked like he adored her right back. I wondered if he’d adore our child like that. Our child that he didn’t know existed.

Robert turned back to me. “Are you staying for dinner?”

I stared at him, all the unsaid things between us. “My brother’s waiting for me back at the house. And so’s my uncooked turkey.”

He nodded, his eyes lingering on mine for a moment. “Well, you came here, so you must have been expecting to stay a little bit.”

“I guess so,” I shrugged. “Was that your daughter?”

He nodded. “That’s Corinne.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“Isn’t she? She looks a lot like her mom.”

“I bet Quinn was beautiful, too.”

“Quinn was a dream.”

I expected to feel jealous, but I didn’t. I understood where he was at with that. He cleared his throat. “Do you want to come sit with us?”

“Um,” I looked back at the door, still contemplating leaving. I didn’t want to get sucked up into it with Robert again. I had already felt how painful that could be. He didn’t seem to be able to connect with people. “Sure.”

“Come on.” He held out his hand for me to take, and as I slipped my fingers between his, I was surprised to see how comforting it felt. His hand was worn and warm, calloused, though I didn’t know from what.

He led me to his table, where the older woman from the first day of class, Heather, sat, along with his daughter, who was scarfing down as much dessert as she could before her dad saw.

“Corinne,” he said firmly, in a voice that warned her. She swallowed hard and looked up at him with big, brown eyes. “Did you put any of the vegetables on your plate?”

“She ate a plate full of broccoli. I saw it myself,” Heather said, winking at Corinne.

“I don’t appreciate you lying for my kid,” Robert scoffed, as he pulled out my chair, seemingly without even thinking of it.

“Come on, Robby, lighten up. She’s eleven. Let her eat a plate full of crap,” Heather said jovially, nudging Corinne with her elbow.

Corinne smiled at her, but her smile was strained. “Sorry, Daddy. I’ll eat some vegetables, I promise.”

“I was the same way,” I interjected shyly. “I never wanted to eat my vegetables. That’s why I’m so puny now.”

“Now, come on, I saw that knee you gave Robby your first day of class,” Heather said with a sly smile. “I wouldn’t call you puny. Seemed like there was some anger there.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Maybe I have some unchecked issues.” I looked over at Corinne and teased, “Probably because I didn’t eat my broccoli.”

Corinne giggled shyly against her hand, her sleeve so long that it covered it. I remembered being her age, all the embarrassment I felt for just existing.

The hour passed by quickly, and I watched as Robert managed to somehow fit in perfectly and say all the right things to his daughter, to me, and to Heather.

He didn’t seem like a man who had just a few weeks ago fucked me mindlessly and then sent me home cold and filled with cum. Either he was an extremely adept conman, or I had misjudged him, and something else was going on.

My phone buzzed, my brother texting me that he was there to pick me up.

“Well,” I said, “I’ve got to go. My brother’s here. Any way that I could take some pie home with me?”

“You could always wrap it in a napkin and sneak it out in your purse. That’s what my grandma used to do with Red Lobster biscuits,” Heather said, her eyes darting toward the napkins on the table.

“Actually, I’ve got something you can use,” Robert said, standing up and walking away. He came back, pulling a wagon, to my surprise, and pulled a beautiful piece of stoneware out of it. “Here, take this.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed. “Is this an antique?”

Robert laughed a little. “It is. Good eye. But seriously, take it. Put some pie in there and take it. This one picked out like seven pieces of cookware at the store, and now we have far too many.” He looked at Corinne, who grinned a little deviously.

I turned the piece around in my hands, looking at the intricate gold leafing embedded in it. “Well, thank you. It’s gorgeous.”

“Sure,” he said simply, shrugging. He was standing so close to me, his hands awkwardly at his side, as though he were considering hugging me.

I leaned forward slightly and then gave up, my mind a whirlwind of all the things that we’d been through. And what he didn’t know.

“Okay. You all enjoy your dinner. And you, little lady,” I looked at Corinne, “It was very nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you,” she said, in a voice that was so sweet it melted me.

I felt my heart pounding in my chest. It was so strange to see Robert. I had halfway thought that I never would again. I had started to feel like that one night was all we would ever get.

I was about to walk out when I glanced out the large windows of the library and saw that it wasn’t just Tyler in the car. Jeremy and Tyler were sitting inside together, chatting like old friends. Jeremy got out of the car with a big smile stretched across his pale face.

My stomach twisted.

I looked back at Robert just in time to see that he had noticed.