Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Transfixed, I asked, “How many months were you here?”
“Probably right around nine, actually.”
I shook my head. “You were so beautiful, Blair.”
“Once again, you’re a good liar, Tate.”
“Are you kidding me?” I looked at her briefly before returning my eyes to the photo. “What about this isn’t beautiful? Your skin. Your smile. Your curves. You’re fucking luminous,” I murmured. “God, it’s amazing.”
“Well, I felt far from luminous when that photo was taken. I was ready to burst.”
I continued to stare down at it. “How did you feel when this photo was taken? I don’t just mean physically, but overall. Tell me what was going on in your mind.”
She looked at the image of herself. “I felt scared, unsure of whether I was going to be able to do it—be a mother. I knew I wanted a family someday, but not that soon.” She turned toward me. “I also felt sad. I was still mourning losing you and wished so badly that you knew what was happening.” She paused. “But I wondered how you’d handle it, too. I knew you’d had a rough time with your son, and to know you had another on the way... I wasn’t sure if you’d be happy or freaked.”
“I would’ve been happy, Blair,” I assured her. “Maybe a little scared, too. But it’s truly a gift to get a second chance.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.”
“Did you know you were having a boy?”
“I did.” She grinned.
“What made you name him Nicholas?”
“It’s my grandfather’s name.”
“Oh, sweet.” I smiled. “What’s his middle name?”
She grinned again and bit her bottom lip. “Tate.”
My eyes went wide. “You’re kidding,” I whispered.
She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“I can’t believe you did that.”
“It was a last-minute decision. I wanted him to have some connection to you, and at the time, that was all I had to give him—your name.”
“Wow,” I murmured. “What an honor.”
“I’ve been waiting to tell you. I suspected you’d be happy about it.”
Nicholas Tate Moynihan
Maybe one day she’d let me change his last name to Delaney. He’d be the first of my kids with my last name, since Taylor’s mother had given him hers, and I hadn’t fought it.
I returned my gaze to the photo of Blair pregnant. My smile faded. “At what point did you have to drop out of school?”
“I stayed until I had him. So I only missed one year.”
But she’d missed the most important year—the one that would’ve earned her a degree in nursing.
When I went quiet, she said, “Stop feeling guilty, Tate. It is what it is. Neither of us planned it, but it was destiny anyway.”
I arched a brow. “You think Taylor’s gonna feel that way?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not destiny. No matter how he feels, we have to go through the fire.”
She offered me a comforting smile that made me feel good, despite the anxiety looming over me. It reminded me of the talks we’d had at the resort, where Blair, with all her nineteen years of wisdom, had somehow made me feel better about my fuckups. For a moment, it felt like no time had passed.
“I feel like I’m two different people,” I admitted.
She adjusted her position on the sofa. “How so?”
“I’m Taylor’s father, trying to figure out how to protect him from my actions. But sometimes, I’m also Tate...just a man who’s been reunited with his dream girl.”
“How come you never came looking for me?” she asked. “You could’ve gotten my name and contact info through the resort, even if yours wasn’t traceable.”
I’d been waiting for her to ask this. I sighed. “I had myself convinced that you’d chosen to not look back, and had maybe even thought better of your decision to sleep with me.” I shrugged. “Looking you up, when the ball was in your court, felt intrusive. I didn’t want to interrupt your life. Since you never reached out, I believed separation from me was what you wanted.” I shook my head. “Obviously, if I’d known what was really happening, I would’ve made a different decision. It’s hard for me to fathom that I was out there somewhere having a mediocre day while you were giving birth to my child. It seems like I should’ve sensed the world shifting or something.”
“When I first looked into Nicholas’s eyes and saw you, I felt even worse that you didn’t know about him. It was hard seeing you in him each and every day.”
Damn. My eyes watered. “I guess the thing that makes this situation so difficult is also a blessing, right? Because if I wasn’t Taylor’s father, we might never have reconnected.”
“I know,” she whispered.
She then scrolled forward and showed me some of Nicholas’s baby photos and videos. It was nearly too much to take: his little angelic face, his rosy cheeks, that adorable, toothless grin. One video nearly did me in: he was about a year old and wouldn’t stop giggling every time Blair jumped out in front of him. She said he’d had his first real belly laugh that day. Such a happy baby, blissfully unaware that one half of him was missing.