Chapter 21
TALK TO HER
Declan
I glared at the three diamonds settings propped on my desk.
After an hour of doing the same at the jewelry store, I had decided to bring my final choices back to the office and make a decision alone.
Canceling all my morning meetings didn’t help, either.
The rings were all wrong, even the delicate velvet boxes felt wrong.
But in my gut, I knew marrying Harper was the right thing to do—not just for her, but for Joey as well.
Harper needed me. All night, I had dreams of her sitting alone on the bed crying because she was afraid she wouldn’t live long enough to see Joey grow up. Or that he would grow up not knowing who she was—just like I had done with my own dad. I didn’t want that for him.
I closed my eyes and let his sweet baby scent and giggles fill my senses.
He’d been gone for only a day, and I already missed him something fierce.
What if he wasn’t mine? Could I really go on with my life and never see him again?
I rubbed my chest, inhaling deep to ease the odd tightness I’d had there since Harper came over to my flat to take him home.
The little guy had been so happy to see her.
Seeing him go broke my heart. But there was no question about it, he belonged with his mother.
“Lisa.” I lifted my gaze toward my office door. “Get Doctor Condren on the phone, would you?” I was done waiting for his call. Not knowing if Joey was mine was killing me.
“Right away.” She nodded from behind her desk, grabbed the phone and wedged it between her neck and shoulder. “I got his office on the line. I’m on hold.”
“Put them through. I’ll wait.”
When she did, I pushed the speaker button and sat back. Static along with some terrible jazzy tune made my nerves stand on end. I hated waiting.
“These are beautiful.” She gestured toward the rings.
I snapped my head up and blinked to focus on her face. I hadn’t realized she had joined me. “They’re all wrong.”
“Maybe it’s not the ring that’s wrong. But the bride.” She shrugged. When I furrowed my brows at her, silently asking her how the hell did she know I wasn’t marrying Isla? She smiled and showed me her phone. “You’re trending again.”
“Fuck me.” I braced my elbow on the armrest and rubbed the creases on my forehead. “What are they saying now?”
“Mostly how Isla’s plan backfired because you’re marrying a mystery woman instead.” She tapped on her screen then showed me a picture of me inside Tiffany’s.
“How do they even know?” I shook my head.
“They’re making it up as they go.”
“They got it right this time. How is Isla? Have you seen her?”
“She called in sick.” She offered me a kind smile.
Great. Now my admin was feeling sorry for me. “Did she say when she’d be back?”
“She said maybe tomorrow.” Lisa pressed her lips together as if it were taking a great deal of effort to not ask more questions about what had happened between Isla and me.
“Thanks. That’s all.” I motioned toward the door. I needed to be alone.
The automated voice on the speakerphone came on and informed me I was next in line and that my wait time was ten minutes.
I uttered a string of curse words, then turned my gaze back to the rings.
Though my mind went straight back to Isla and all the nights we’d spent together in the flat that now felt more like home than any other place.
“What did you ask for, Declan?” Her question from days ago echoed in my head.
She was convinced the law of synchronicity had brought Joey to me.
I hadn’t asked for a baby. But now that I thought about it, I realized that not long ago I had asked for one thing: a place that felt like home.
I was tired of traveling, wandering from one city to another alone and without any real purpose—drifting.
Making money no longer felt like a valid goal to have. I wanted more, so much more.
I wanted Isla. I wanted a home with her and Joey.
I missed the way her energy filled every nook and cranny in my life.
I missed her laugh and the way she looked at me whenever I did something she found impressive.
I missed the sweet kisses she planted on Joey’s head every time she put him down for his nap.
When she lived with me, when I had a family of my own, I felt whole—happy.
Why did it have to end? That was just it, wasn’t it?
The real problem with this entire situation was that I didn’t want my time with Isla to end.
I wanted the family she and I had managed to put together when I thought my life as I knew it was over because of a little baby.
“Mr. Noble?” A female voice snapped me out of my reverie. “Are you still there?”
“Yes.” I sat forward, bracing my hands on the desk. “I’m here.”
“I apologize for the wait. Doctor Condren has your results. I’ll transfer you now.”
“Thank you.” I stared at the phone with my heart thrashing in my ears.
“Declan. How are you?” Doctor Condren came on the line.
“Good.” I wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. “Do you have my results?”
“Yes.” He paused, letting the static grow louder in the room. “I’m afraid it’s not good news. I’m sorry. These things happen, you know?”
My stomach churned. In my head, I saw all those days I had with Joey play on a TV screen as if it had happened to someone once. The image faded and left me empty, numb. I wanted to hear him say it, though. Joey isn’t yours. The family you thought was yours doesn’t exist.
“Go on then.”
“The paternity test confirmed a ninety-eight percent match.” He blew out a breath.
“What?” I shot to my feet. “What?”
“The baby is yours.”
“Why in the hell would you say it like that?” My pulse spiked but in a good way this time. “Jesus.”
“I’m sorry. When you were in here, I thought you didn’t want to be a father. No offense.”
“None taken.” I laughed.
Who cared what Doctor Condren thought I could or couldn’t be.
To an outsider looking in, my life consisted of parties, women, and work meetings.
In short, the version of me the tabloids had created.
A version of me, that if I were being honest, I let myself be because I was too afraid to want more out of life—something as easy, and incredibly difficult, as a family and a home.
“This is brilliant news.” I raked both hands through my hair, pacing up and down the length of my office. “He’s mine.”
“Yeah.” He laughed along with me. “Wow, I’m glad you’re happy.”
“No worries at all.”
“Good luck then.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I hit the speakerphone button to end the call.
Joey was mine. I had a son.
My gaze slowly shifted back to the rings. Suddenly, the answer was simple. Or rather, fear was no longer part of the equation. I wasn’t afraid to want this family life anymore. The realization hit me like a runaway train. I wanted a family with Isla and Joey.
I got up and darted out of my office. I needed to see her. I got as far as the hallway then remembered Isla had called in sick.
“You look lost.” Nicolas pointed at me as his gaze moved from Lisa’s empty desk then back to me. “Are you okay? You’re walking in circles.”
“Am I?” I rubbed the nape of my neck, then noticed he wasn’t alone. “Hi, there.”
“Oh, right. You haven’t met my daughter.” Nicolas proudly hugged the little girl standing next to him. “Declan, this is Chloe. Chloe, this is my friend, Declan.”
“Nice to meet you, Chloe.”
“He talks funny, Daddy.” She giggled, shoving tresses away from her pretty face.
“You’re the first one to think so.” I smiled at her.
The resemblance between the two could not be denied.
Last year, Nicolas had found out he’d conceived a daughter with his ex-wife.
A daughter that for four years thought someone else was her dad.
In spite of the years he had lost, he hadn’t rushed to re-marry his ex.
Instead, they worked out an agreement so Chloe could be with both parents.
The result? Now Nicolas was happy with Louisa, his baby boy, and his daughter.
Would Harper understand if I told her I couldn’t marry her? Lisa was right. These rings were not wrong—the bride was. Harper would always have my unwavering support, financially and as a partner. But I couldn’t marry her—not while my heart belonged to someone else.
The room swayed, and I had to sit down. I let the images of Isla play in my head like a movie trailer. Over and over, I watched her smile at me. I watched her become undone in my arms. I watched her showing me how much she loved me, too.
“Are you okay?” He gripped my shoulder to get me to look at him.
My eyes widened in surprise because how could I be so stupid to not realize this before? “I’m in love with Isla.”
Bloody hell. I was in love with Isla Vendetti.
“Please don’t.” He shook his head, blinking slowly. “The tabloids were right?”
“No, that story was all warped. Well, they got the baby thing right.”
“Wait, what?” His eyebrows shot up. “You have a baby?” He looked down at his daughter. “Crap, with Isla? No, that can’t be.”
“No, not Isla. She was helping me while I found a nanny for my son. It’s a long story.” I waved my hand in dismissal. “But let me ask you something. Are you happy?”
“I am.” He took in a breath. “What’s going on?”
“Short version? About a month ago, I found a baby at my door. Turns out, the mom is a woman I had a one-night stand with almost two years ago. Her name is Harper. She was in trouble. But now she’s back.
Being the asshole that I am, I more or less proposed to her with Isla standing next to me.
” I waited a beat then added one huge detail that Nicolas didn’t know.
“Isla and I are together. Or we were a few days ago. Now she probably hates me.”
“That’s why she was at my place when I came home from my trip this morning.” His scowl deepened as if he was finally putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
“I should’ve come to you when I realized I had feelings for Isla. It all happened so fast, though.”
“You effed up. Royally.” He covered Chloe’s ears. “My house is like a war room right now. Operation: Forget the Bastard. Isla is looking for a new place and a new job.”
“No, she can’t do that. She can’t move on. I want to be with her. She can’t leave me.” I shook my head as if that small act would make her change her mind about me.
“I never thought I’d be giving the Fixer advice. But here we go—talk to her.” He squeezed my shoulder. “But before you do, get your life in order with Harper. You don’t have to marry her. Trust me, you can work out a schedule that makes everyone happy.” He dipped his head toward his daughter.
“You’re happy.” I wasn’t asking.
He was living his happily ever after like in some fairytale. It was written all over his face and in the way he held his daughter close, the way he looked at his wife when she entered the room.
“I am.” He nodded once.
“Thanks for the kick in the bum. I needed that.” I patted him on the back then waved good-bye at Chloe. “It was nice meeting you.” I headed back to my office.
“What are you going to do?” Nicolas followed me in.
“The only thing I can do. I’m going to get her back. Operation: Get Isla Back.” I picked up the phone and dialed Isla’s number. After four rings, I went to answerphone, I hung up and lifted my gaze to meet Nicolas’s.
“When you get sent to voicemail, it means the other person doesn’t want to talk to you.” He immediately caught on to what I was asking for. “No, I can’t get involved.”
“Isla is with Louisa, right?”
“Yes.” He pursed his lips then shot a quick glance over his shoulder to Chloe, who was sitting at Lisa’s desk shuffling papers around.
I had no idea what was going through his head.
But I knew he wanted to help—not just me, but Louisa’s sister as well.
Wasn’t that how Isla ended up working for me?
He cared about his wife’s family. A beat later, he fired off a bunch of numbers.
“Lovely.” I dialed quickly and waited for Louisa to answer. The mere thought of getting Isla back made my chest buzz with excitement. How did I even think I could stay away from her?
“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Louisa’s voice filled the silence in the room and even managed to soften Nicolas’s features. Jeez, that guy had it bad.
We both did, I supposed.
“I messed up.” I inhaled while I considered my options. Yeah, I had messed up big time, but Isla loved me. I refused to believe she had magically stopped having feelings for me. “Just need to know one thing. Please.”
“Fine. What is it?”
“On a scale from one to ten, how annoyed is she?”
“What?” She mumbled away from the speaker as if she were talking to someone else. “One hundred. And she’s more than annoyed. She’s hurting. Give her some space, Declan. She needs to get through this on her own. She had a rough morning.”
“Right.”
Crap. No doubt she saw I was trending again today. She knew I had been shopping for wedding rings. But what she didn’t know was that the whole time I was thinking about how those bands wound look on her hand, how she would look standing next to me, saying “I do.”
“Don’t call back.” Louisa hung up.
As soon as she did, Nicolas barked out a laugh. “Did you really think that was going to work? You’re losing your touch.”
“Of course, I didn’t think that would work. I wanted to get an idea how bad it was. She doesn’t hate me, which is a good thing. And now I know exactly what I need to do.” I picked up the receiver again.
“You’re not calling them back.” Nicolas reached for the phone.
“I’m not.” I slapped his hand away so I could dial. “I need Harper. And a damn good plan.”