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

38. Robert

thirty-eight

Robert

“Okay, wait here!” Delia said, transferring Corinne’s hand to mine a few feet away from the car. She rustled around in the backseat for a minute, then emerged holding out a bouquet.

“Here you go.” Delia walked back to us and held out the flowers to Corinne. “These are for you. You were amazing up there.”

Corinne’s face lit up, her hands flying to her mouth as though Delia had handed her a treasure. “For me?” she squeaked.

Delia nodded, crouching down so they were eye level. “Of course. The best dancer deserves flowers.”

Corinne took the bouquet and said in her small voice, “Thank you, Delia.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” Delia replied gently, brushing a curl from Corinne’s face. She stood up and glanced at me, something soft in her expression that made me feel stripped bare. “She really was incredible.”

I managed a nod, but my throat felt tight. I looked down at Corinne, who was now cradling the flowers like they were the most precious things in the world. It hadn’t even crossed my mind to get my daughter flowers for her big night.

It hit me like a punch to the chest that Corinne needed someone like Delia. She needed a woman’s touch, someone with the instincts and warmth that I didn’t always have. I loved my daughter fiercely, but there were moments, like now, when I realized how much I didn’t know . I couldn’t be everything she needed on my own.

“Let’s go grab some dinner, huh?” I said, forcing the roughness out of my voice as I ruffled Corinne’s hair. “We’re celebrating.”

Delia turned to go back to her car, but I stopped her and said, “Drive with us, come on. We can come back for your car.”

Delia smiled and looped her arm in mine, shivering against my body. Corinne skipped ahead, her arms wrapped around the bouquet like she thought someone might take it from her.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said quietly, glancing at Delia as we walked.

She shrugged, hands tucked into her coat pockets. “It felt right.”

I hesitated, looking at her profile in the dim glow of the parking lot lights. “You’re…good at this.”

“Good at what?” she asked, looking over.

Before I could answer her, Delia grabbed Corinne’s hand and yanked her the other way, saying, “Let’s go find that little boy you have a crush on. What’s his name again?”

I looked around in confusion, but then I saw what she had seen first. Jeremy, in his own car, looking at us with a hard stare.

“Benny,” Corinne said happily, but looked back at me, “Daddy, are you coming?”

Jeremy emerged from his car, walking with purpose toward us. He turned to look at me and Corinne, Corinne holding the bouquet, ridiculous now, and he spread his arms, calling out, “Congrats, Rin-Rin!”

“Jeremy!” Corinne called out and ran toward him to hug him around the middle. I felt a lead brick in my stomach seeing him hug my daughter. I knew that he wasn’t here to congratulate Corinne.

“Jeremy,” I warned, my voice low, dangerous. That feeling of needing to fight for my life was building inside me, and I didn’t want to make a scene. Not here. I couldn’t ruin Corinne’s moment.

“See, I knew something was up,” Jeremy said angrily, holding my daughter hostage. Fire burned through me, the fear that this might go haywire any second. “You’re supposed to be my best friend.”

“I am your friend,” I told him, standing my ground, “but I’ll put you down if I need to.”

“I’m sure that’ll show her what a stable choice you are. Go ahead, Robert, punch me in the face to prove that she should choose you. Ruin your daughter’s night.”

He put his hands behind his back and leaned forward, showing me his chin, and Corinne stepped away from him quickly, running to Delia and clinging to her.

I stared at Jeremy’s chin. I’d already bruised that chin once. When I didn’t move, he continued, “That’s what I thought.”

“How did you even get here? Are you following us?”

He sucked his teeth in reply, and that was all the answer I needed. “Why? You broke up with her.”

“Because you told me to! If I had known it was so that you could get in her pants…I should have known, but I thought better of you. Now I know the truth. I came to see Corinne’s recital, saw it in the local paper. I thought we could make up. I haven’t seen you around the clinic since that heroic night of yours at the bar. I thought maybe you were in a bad state… that you regretted it all and needed some time… space to get your grasp of reality back. But now I see what you’re occupied with. You got the girl, so you’re done with me. Well played.” Jeremy’s face was reddening, his eyes deader by the second.

“No, it wasn’t like that. I promise. You know how much you mean to me. I wasn’t trying to betray you,” I protested, my voice sounding tinny even to my own ears.

“You’re pathetic, man.”

I could feel my grip on the situation loosening. My head started to get fuzzy, and I stuck my palms to my temples, willing myself to go through the grounding exercises I knew.

Name five things I can see. Number one, Jeremy… Through gritted teeth, I said, “Let’s not name call. We can talk like adults.”

“No, you always have been. You knew she wouldn’t choose someone like you, so you had to steal her. And you’re right.”

As he talked, my vision blurred, and the distinct outlines and colors that made Jeremy darkened. I started to sweat, a cold sweat that felt like the onset of nausea.

Jeremy continued, his voice sounding deep and distant, “Delia might convince herself she wants to be with you for a few years. She’ll need you. But that can only last so long. She likes men that are a little more…put together.”

“Tell that to our baby,” I told him, setting my jaw.

Jeremy barked out a laugh.

“ Your baby? That baby is yours? ” He turned to Delia with a condescending smile. “I thought so much better of you, Dee. Running right into the arms of your ex’s best friend wasn’t enough. You had to get pregnant by him, too? Seriously? He’s almost as old as your dad, for God’s sake. On top of everything else, he's a veteran. You, of all people, know how they are. He’ll never be able to support you, not really, not the way I can.”

“What?” Corinne’s voice cut through Jeremy’s tone. My neck whirled to face her, and I could see tears wobbling in her eyes.

She looked up at Delia with a face of betrayal. “You’re pregnant? With…?” She looked back at me, and I took a step toward her, but she shook her head and ran across the parking lot, her tutu bobbing behind her.

“I’ll get her,” Delia told me with fire in her eyes. She looked at Jeremy and spat out, “Why would you come here? Why can’t you let go?”

Jeremy moved forward, advancing toward her, and I stepped out in front of her. “I think you should step back, Jer,” I said, smiling at some parents passing us in the parking lot.

“So she banged one out with you while she was missing me. It happens. But I think you need to get through a couple of weeks without a nightmare before Delia will consider a serious relationship with you. I doubt she’s interested in unlocking your handcuffs in the mornings.”

His figure darkened so much that it looked like a shadow before the darkness entirely swallowed me. His face was decaying, his mouth opening wide into a sea of teeth that dropped one by one. His eyes were just sockets in a face with sloughing skin.

I felt that prickly fear all over my body, shuddering through me in waves. I tried to breathe through it, to remind myself it was just Jeremy. But I felt a hand on my shoulder, and before I knew it, the bone in that hand was crumbling underneath my grip.

Jeremy came into focus again, and I saw myself out of my body, holding his arm behind his back as sweat from the pain rolled down his face.

“Go ahead and hit me, but you know deep down that you can’t take care of her the way I can. You can’t even take care of yourself. You’re damaged.”

For the first time since I could remember, I had pulled myself out of a flashback. I let go of him, and he jumped back. While he cradled his hand, and walked backwards toward his car, he spat out, “I hope you two have fun. With her daddy issues and your savior complex, you should make a perfect pair.”

I watched his retreating form, something I hoped to never see again, before turning to find the two most important people in the world to me.