Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Dylan
He took his time, stopping to pick up Sam’s favorite sodas as well as Ethan’s favorite chips to go with the pizza.
A peace offering couldn’t hurt, he figured, though he wasn’t sure salt-and-vinegar chips were really enough to make up for seeing your best friend eating out your mom on your living room couch.
But it couldn’t make things worse.
Right?
Carrying the pizzas and accompanying snacks, he made his way up to the house and pushed open the door, pausing at the threshold to listen. No raised voices, which was a promising start.
And then he heard his babygirl’s laughter, loud and bright and happy, and the knots in his stomach immediately loosened. Regardless of what happened between him and Ethan, at least Sam’s relationship with her son was intact, which was the most important thing.
Shutting the door behind him, he strode toward the kitchen where he found them seated at the table, each with a beer in hand. And judging by the slightly glazed look in his Little girl’s eyes, it wasn’t her first.
If they’d been alone and he’d come home to find her sneaking drinks, especially in the middle of the day, he would have taken the beer from her and given her a very stern lecture about following the rules.
And as soon as she was sober enough, she would have gone over his knee for another reminder about the importance of obeying her Daddy.
But they weren’t alone, and Ethan was already watching him with a mutinous expression, as if daring him to step one toe out of line.
Fucking hell, this was complicated.
Deciding that for now discretion was indeed the better part of valor, he placed the pizza boxes on the counter along with the drinks and chips. “Lunch is served.”
Ethan’s gaze flicked toward the pizza and back again. “No thanks. Not hungry.”
Temper sparked in Dylan’s chest, but he did his best to smother it. “That’s fine. How many slices do you want, Sam?”
Looking more alert than she had when he’d first gotten home, Sam shifted in her seat, her gaze flicking nervously between them. “Um, I can get it.”
“I’m already up. What do you want, babygirl?”
He deliberately used the endearment to remind her that even with everything that had happened, even with her son sitting at her kitchen table, she was still his babygirl and he was still her Daddy.
As far as he was concerned, nothing had changed between them in that regard, and he was going to continue taking care of her just like he’d been doing since she’d first agreed to be his.
Pink blossomed on her cheeks, letting him know his message had landed. “One of each?” she asked, her tone slipping into that of a hopeful Little girl and he had to bite back a smile.
“Of course. Do you want to eat at the table or are we going to continue our movie marathon?”
In his peripheral vision, he saw Ethan narrow his eyes, and he swore he could feel the weight of his friend’s judgment sitting heavy on his shoulders.
“Ah…” Judging by the way Sam was still looking between them, she’d picked up on it as well. “The table is fine.”
He wanted to push. They’d had a plan for the day and he knew she’d be disappointed if they didn’t finish their movies.
But he was already treading on thin ice, so he simply nodded and turned away to pull two plates down from the cabinet.
He slid one slice from each box onto her plate, then made her a cup with the soda he’d picked up just for her and plenty of ice, just the way she liked it, and carried both over to the table.
“Thank you, Da… Dylan.”
The color on her cheeks darkened adorably and he had to fight back a chuckle as he leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re welcome, babygirl.”
Ignoring the weight of Ethan’s stare on him, he made his own plate and drink before joining them at the table.
What the hell was he supposed to talk about? All of the questions that came to mind felt too “stepdad” coded, even though they were exactly the questions he would have asked under any other circumstances.
Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how he looked at it—Ethan didn’t seem to be suffering from any form of indecision.
“So, when exactly did you decide you wanted to fuck my mother?”
“Ethan Samuel!”
All right. Apparently they were just going to get it all out in the open. It was for the best, probably. Carefully chewing and swallowing the bite he’d just taken, Dylan set his pizza down and met his best friend’s gaze head on. “Pretty much the first time I met her.”
That same fury from earlier sparked in Ethan’s eyes. “So you were just, what, pretending to be friends with me to get into her pants?”
“Ethan,” Sam hissed, shooting him a heated glare.
Dylan didn’t take his eyes off Ethan. What they had, what they’d shared over the last six years was too important not to look him in the eye. “No. Our friendship is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I should have been honest with you about my feelings for your mom from the start.”
“And what, exactly, are those feelings?”
“I love her and plan to spend the rest of my life making her deliriously happy. If she’ll have me, of course.”
The silence that fell over the kitchen was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Determined to pretend like his heart wasn’t threatening to beat its way right out of his chest, Dylan picked up his pizza again and took another bite.
It tasted like ash on his tongue, but he forced himself to chew and swallow anyway.
Ethan recovered first. “I figured this was some kind of summer fling.”
“Nope. I’m in it for good. My boss is pretty confident he’ll have a position for me once the internship is over, but if not, I have other options in Atlanta.”
“Better options other places,” Ethan said, his mouth dipping down into a thoughtful frown. “You’d have your pick of jobs if you came back to Maryland.”
“I know. But there’s no sense in asking Sam to uproot her entire life when there are plenty of jobs to choose from right here.”
Nodding slowly, Ethan tapped his fingers against the table, his tell that he was really thinking about something. “You’re really serious about this?”
“I am. And I know it’s going to be a big adjustment, but I’m not going anywhere, Ethan. She’s it for me.”
“Was anyone planning to ask me what I want?”
His adorable babygirl had disappeared completely, replaced by a calm, reasonable woman who sipped her beer as she eyed the two men at the table with her. The loss of her made him ache, even though some part of him recognized this was a conversation for that more grown-up side of her.
“Of course, babygirl,” he said easily, reaching under the table to lay a hand on her thigh, unable to bear not touching her a second longer. “None of this happens without your consent, you know that.”
“Could have fooled me, considering you two are talking about all this like I’m not even here.”
Hurt and annoyance turned her voice sharp, but he couldn’t really blame her under the circumstances. “You’re right and I’m sorry, Sam. So tell me what you want.”
Tell Daddy everything.
Little Sam would have dropped her gaze, probably picked at her pizza while she pouted her way through the conversation. Big Sam, however, just met his gaze head-on, cool and collected. “What I want is to not feel like the reason you’re settling for less than you deserve.”
“I won’t be. ATLantis Biomed is one of the top twenty-five companies in the world, not just for innovation but for how they treat their employees as well.
And even if I can’t get on with them at the end of the internship, there are plenty of places here that are just as well-funded and competitive. ”
“But Ethan said you’d have more options back in Maryland and I assume DC.”
“I would. That doesn’t mean they’d be better options.”
“Dylan.” Her tone and look were all “mom” now, and amusement rippled through him at the change. “You can’t possibly want to stay here.”
You can’t possibly want me. That was what she really meant.
He flicked his gaze toward Ethan who was watching them with a carefully blank expression. “Can you give us a few minutes?”
“Mom?”
“I’m fine, honey.”
“All right.” Not looking at all happy with the request, Ethan picked up his beer and headed for the living room.
“Eyes on me, Samantha Kay,” Dylan said as soon as he was certain his friend was out of earshot.
Sam obeyed, though there was no mistaking the annoyance flaring in her eyes. “Yes?”
“Good girl,” he murmured, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“I want you to know that I had planned to talk to you about all of this, closer to the end of summer. This wasn’t me making decisions without you, this was me trying to give you the space to come to terms with the fact that I am wildly, hopelessly in love with you. ”
A dozen emotions crowded her gaze. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do, Sammie-girl. You’re it for me, baby. But I understand if you need some time to accept that. I’ll be right here, loving you through it until you’re ready.”
“Dylan. Be serious. I’m over forty years old. I have no intention of having more children. I’m very settled in my life here. All in all, I’m the worst possible choice. You deserve someone young and unattached. Someone who is willing to go wherever your job takes you.”
“First of all, I don’t want kids. I never have.
Second of all, I don’t want an accessory.
I want a woman with her own life, her own hopes and dreams. Even if that woman was my own age, I wouldn’t expect her to just drop everything to support me with zero regard for her own future.
And I’m honestly a little disappointed in you for thinking that’s the kind of man I am. ”
Color bloomed on her cheeks, but she still didn’t drop her gaze, which filled his chest with pride. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not. I know what kind of man you are, Dylan. Which is exactly why you deserve to live the best life possible. Not to just settle for someone else’s leftovers.”
There it was. The real reason she was trying to keep him at arm’s length.
“Listen to me, little girl.” He put every ounce of “Daddy” he could summon into his tone, and her eyes went round at the change.
“You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever known.
You’re strong and smart and hilarious and loving and kind.
And if I ever hear you refer to yourself as ‘someone else’s leftovers’ again, I can promise you won’t sit comfortably for a week. Am I understood, Samantha Kay?”
“That’s not—”
“Am I understood?”
Swallowing so hard he could actually hear it, she nodded. “Y-yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Now, you sit here and finish your pizza. I’m going to let Ethan know that we’re tabling this discussion for the time being and that any decisions about our future are between the two of us.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Rising to his feet, he leaned down, dropping his voice to a low growl. “And tonight, you and I are going to have a discussion about naughty Little girls who think they don’t have to follow Daddy’s rules just because we have company.”
Her breath caught, an audible hitch that had him grinning as he made his way out to the living room.
Ethan looked up as he entered, his expression still unreadable. “Come to lecture me, Dad?”
“Nah. Figure you know you were kind of an asshole, you don’t need me to tell you.”
Silence stretched between them for several long moments before Ethan sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I was. It’s just really fucking weird, Dyl.”
“I know. And I am sorry I didn’t tell you before.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Lots of reasons. I was worried about your reaction, but I also didn’t see any point in poking the hornet’s nest if I got here and Sam turned me down flat.”
“Which she clearly didn’t, and you still didn’t tell me.”
He hadn’t, because Sam had been adamant about not telling him. But he wasn’t about to put that on her shoulders. “No, I didn’t. And maybe I should have, but I can’t go back and change it. So I’ll just say I’m sorry and I hope you can forgive me for being an asshole.”
More silence, thick and strained. “You really plan on sticking around?”
“If she’ll have me. But that’s between me and her. All I can promise you right now is I have no intention of hurting her.”
“More than I can say for my actual dad, I guess.” Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to like, try and give me gas money or offer to teach me how to change a tire and shit, right?”
“Afraid you’re on your own there, son.”
As he’d hoped, the wisecrack broke the tension and a pillow came flying at his face a moment later. Their laughter filled the air and for a moment they were just two goofy best friends cracking jokes and ragging on each other.
Then Ethan sobered again, his expression fierce as he looked up at Dylan. “If you break her heart, we’re done. I mean it, Dyl.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“All right, then.”