Sharing their nanny, p.10
Sharing Their Nanny, page 10
With another unanswered call, he threw his cell phone down on his desk.
Lake was back at school.
It was Max’s turn to pick her up. She’d been asking about Raine, wondering where Raine was. Why she no longer cooked dinner. Why she didn’t pick her up. So many questions, all of which he’d given Max to answer.
His best friend had told her that Raine was busy but would be coming home soon.
He doubted it.
There was a knock at the door, and he glanced up to see Max at the threshold. They hadn’t spoken since it happened. Ignoring him, he unlocked his cell phone screen and dialed.
“I’m going to pick up, Lake.”
Dylan didn’t respond. He wasn’t an idiot and had already figured that was what he was doing. It didn’t take a rocket scientist. The time was a good indicator.
“Any luck?”
Lifting his head, he glared at him. “What the fuck do you think?”
“You’re talking to me with actual words. I’d say that’s an improvement.”
“What do you want, Max? You want me to say I forgive you? To give you a round of applause? To congratulate you on fucking up our relationship?” He got to his feet and started to clap his hands. “Well done, old man. Well done for messing up the chance we had with the one woman we were both in love with!”
Max shook his head.
“What’s the matter? Am I not open enough? Forgiving enough for you?”
“I know I fucked up.”
“Damn right, you did.”
“Raine will come back.”
“When? Why? What the fuck makes you think she is going to come back?” he asked.
“She is pregnant with our child, Dylan. We have a right to being in that child’s life.”
Dylan picked up the glass paperweight and launched it across the room. His anger was so acute, he couldn’t contain it any longer. He was tired of doing this dance with Max. “You called her a slut. You asked her if she was going to abort our child. I would be surprised if she gave us a second chance to make things right, you fucking dick! Get the fuck out of my office.”
“We’re the baby’s father.”
“Yeah, and what are you going to do, make it worse? Demand a paternity test? Why can’t you just admit that you love her or not? To be honest, I don’t even know if you have feelings for her at all.” He shook his head. “Go and pick up Lake. I don’t want to do this with you.”
“You love her.”
“I fucking worship her,” Dylan said. “Don’t you get it? She was, no is, perfection. You don’t see it, but she was falling for us.” He snorted. “She was, and you, like always, fucked it up because you just don’t think. Get out.”
“I love her,” Max said. “You don’t think I regret what I said to her?”
“I don’t know what to think about you, Max. I can say a whole lot of things about the situation, but right now, I can’t deal with you. You should have come to me. I would’ve helped you figure out what we could have done.”
“I’m sorry,” Max said.
“Get out. Just give me some space.”
His friend didn’t move for the longest time.
He and Max had never, ever, fallen out. They were the best of friends. Raine had always said she didn’t want to come between them, but right now, she was Dylan’s biggest regret. He shouldn’t have let her walk away.
Not talking to her was killing him. He hated that he couldn’t hear her voice or listen to her laugh. He missed her so damn much.
Dylan had known she was pregnant. He’d noticed she had started to get morning sickness. At first, Raine had thought it was just a bug, but after some dry toast, and a couple of hours’ rest, she was fine, more than fine.
With no menstrual cycle appearing, and knowing they’d been making love to her for well over four weeks, Dylan had already put all of the signs together. Raine was pregnant. He was going to pick up a kit himself and broach the subject, but he’d waited too long.
The phone went to voicemail. This time, he didn’t hang up. He waited for the beep.
“Raine, it’s me. It’s Dylan. I’ve been calling you constantly. I’ve probably blown your phone up with all the calls. Look, you don’t have to do this alone, okay? I love you. I’m not saying that just because of the baby, I’m completely, one hundred percent in love with you. I want to make it work. Please, if you listen to this, call me. I have to see you. I have to talk to you. Please.”
He came to the end of the message.
Dropping his head in his hands, he didn’t know what else to do. What more could he say?
Everything felt like a mess and not in any way reparable.
Chapter Eleven
Three days before Christmas, Max couldn’t take it anymore. He’d fucked up big time. Dylan hated him, which was a new experience for him. Lake had started to withdraw without Raine around. The truth was that he missed Raine. He missed her so damn much, and he had fucked up so badly.
Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the apartment building that he’d discovered was where Raine was staying. With the live-in position he and Dylan had given her, Raine had allowed the rental on her apartment to run out.
She hadn’t owned the place she’d shared with her ex, and she hadn’t fought to keep it after she discovered he was cheating on her. It had taken a PI to find her new address.
The apartment was a nice place in a good neighborhood. She already had a brand-new job working at a department clothing store in the local mall.
Hearing this news, Max knew he had to stop it. He had to make this work, for Dylan, for Lake, for himself.
He’d already gone to the department store and discovered Raine wasn’t working that day. Staring up at the building, he glanced down at the address he’d paid a small fortune for. The PI had done an amazing job.
Going to the door, he glanced through the list of names and came to the one he wanted, Granthum. He pressed the button next to her name and waited.
It already felt like too long ago that he’d been with Raine. He hadn’t heard her voice. His hands shook and he waited.
“Hello,” she said.
He couldn’t move.
Her voice was perfection.
“Hello, is anyone there?” she asked.
“Raine, it’s me.”
Silence.
“Please, don’t go. Don’t leave, okay? I know I fucked up. I know I made a mess of things, but I want to make it up to you. I want you to know that I don’t know what happened that morning, okay? I was … a mess.”
“Max, I … I don’t think this is a good idea.”
He gritted his teeth.
Never had he hated the way he was until that very moment. He hated being this horrible robot so damn much. Emotions, feelings, he needed to get them right.
“Raine, I’m in love with you,” he said.
He was sure he heard her gasp.
“I’m not lying either. You know I’m … look, many years ago, there was a woman, okay? Dylan doesn’t know about her. I was young, in my early twenties, and I thought I had found the perfect woman for me and Dylan. She made us both laugh, and we were happy. One day, I found the pregnancy test in the bathroom trash bin. It was negative. I was so relieved, and I knew that she wasn’t the one for me and Dylan. I went to go and find her, and what I heard was that she was going to lie to us. She was going to tell us that she was pregnant, and she was going to milk us dry. That’s what she said. She thought we were made of money. At the time, we’d started to make some money, but we weren’t rich. She said she knew a meal ticket. I must have made some noise, because the next minute, we were arguing, and I was kicking her out. All of it had been a lie. She was poison.” He paused, taking a deep breath.
“Raine, I know you’re not poison. I know you’re a good woman. A kind woman. A woman I love more than anything, and I know I messed up. Please, please, if you can’t forgive me, could you please forgive Dylan? He hates me. He loves you as well. He loves you just as much as me, but he’s not like me. He knows what to say. He knows what to do to make it up to you. Please.”
He’d never begged someone in his life.
He had also never told Dylan the truth about that woman from their past. She’d been a big mistake. Fortunately, Dylan hadn’t truly loved her.
He’d accepted the lies that he’d told and had gotten on with his life without a single care in the world. Max would have to tell him the truth one day.
First, he needed to make it right with Raine.
The door to the apartment opened.
Max stepped inside and went to the elevator. He clicked the button for the top floor and watched the doors close. This was his one chance to make it right.
His hands were sweaty. He felt a little sick.
I can’t do this.
The doors opened, and Raine stood on the other side of the elevator. She looked pale, and it looked like she’d lost a little weight as well, which couldn’t be good for the baby.
Max didn’t think. He went to Raine and pulled her into his arms, holding her close. “I’m so fucking sorry. I’m a fucking animal. I can’t believe I did what I did.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine. I don’t know … I’m so fucking sorry.” He pulled back and cupped her face. “I will understand if you never forgive me. I don’t forgive myself. I’m a fucking asshole.”
She burst out laughing, and he wiped the tears running down her cheeks.
“Stop it. I … forgive you.”
“No, don’t forgive me.”
“But isn’t that why you came?”
He groaned. “Yes, I want you to forgive me, but more than anything, I want you to come home. I … messed up. I don’t want to lose you.” He tilted her head back. “I love you, Raine. I’m so sorry.”
She covered his hand with hers and turned her head toward his palm, dropping a kiss on the inside. “I love you too,” she said.
Max didn’t expect her to say that, and he didn’t have a choice as he pulled her into his arms, pressing his face against hers and simply breathing her in. He loved her so damn much and he never wanted to let her go. From this day forward, he never would.
****
Raine’s hands shook as she waited for Dylan to return home. Max was putting Lake to bed. She clenched her hands into fists, looking at the dinner table. Soft Christmas music played in the background, and she felt a little sick.
Max had already called the department store and told them Raine wouldn’t be in anymore, that she was going to be getting married and having a baby. She had a feeling that man was never going to fail to surprise her.
When he’d come to her apartment, she’d been surprised. For Max to find her, it meant only one thing, he’d paid someone to locate her. From that point on, she had listened to what he had to say, and even though she’d been pissed about his explanation and a little jealous, she’d just known this was Max begging her to come back.
She didn’t need him to beg.
The moment he said he was in love with her, she’d forgiven him. He’d hurt her, but she hadn’t realized how much she loved him until he’d told her he loved her. Life was too precious to waste it in fighting.
Now all she needed to do was wait for Dylan to come home.
Max had warned her that he and Dylan were not exactly on speaking terms. His best friend had cut him out of his life, or at least given him the cold shoulder.
She hated that.
They were best of friends.
Raine moved back into the kitchen and checked to make sure the pasta casserole she’d prepared wouldn’t burn. She’d already turned the oven down to keep warm.
The dishes were all clean.
She tapped her fingers on the counter, and with her other hand, she cupped her stomach and waited.
“He’ll be back, little guy.” She didn’t know if she was having a boy or girl. She hadn’t made an appointment yet.
She’d spent the last few days, crying. Working, crying, and feeling sorry for herself, while also wishing she hadn’t just walked out of this house. She had come to see this as home.
The sound of the front door opening and closing had her tensing up.
This was it.
She heard the unmistakable sound of his footsteps. Smiling, she opened the oven door, used some protective gloves to grab the casserole dish, and moved toward the dining room. She had just entered as Dylan stepped across the threshold.
“You’re back in time for dinner,” she said.
Dylan came to a stop, and Raine smiled at him as he looked at her.
“Good evening,” she said.
“Raine?”
“Yep, that’s me, unless, you’re telling me it is raining outside. Last time I checked, it was snowing.” She leaned over the table and put the pot on the protective mats she’d already made for the table.
As she turned back toward Dylan, she was pulled into his arms. At first, his grip was a little too tight, but she wrapped her arms around him, holding him close.
“I’m here,” she said.
“Don’t go.”
Pressing her face against his neck, she breathed him in and closed her eyes.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you, Raine. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
He ran his hands down her back, then to her face, cupping her and holding her. “It is you.”
She giggled. “Who do you think it would be?”
“How? When? Why?”
“Max,” she said.
Dylan’s face went hard. “Where is he?”
“He’s putting Lake to bed, and you’ve got to stop being angry at him.”
“No, he called you that name. Damn it, Raine, I had to watch you leave because of him.”
“And I’m back because of him,” Raine said. “I never wanted to come between the two of you, and I’m not going to start now.” She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. She had a roundness, but she didn’t know for certain if she was truly starting to show. “We’re all going to have a baby together. We know that Max is different. He … he has his reasons.”
Max had already told her that he intended to tell Dylan the truth about what happened all those years ago. “I love you and I love him, and I’m not going to come between the two of you. I forgive him. I’m the one he said those horrible things to. Not you. You don’t have to hate him, Dylan. I don’t want you to hate him because I love both of you.” She cupped his face and smiled at him.
Max cleared his throat and Raine glanced over her shoulder to see him enter the room. “Lake is out cold.”
“Dinner is served,” Raine said.
She went to pull out of Dylan’s arms, but he held her even tighter.
Wrapping her arms around him, she got as close as was physically possible. “I’m not going to go anywhere.”
“Show him your hand,” Max said.
Raine’s cheeks heated as she eased her arm in between them and showed Dylan the evidence of another reason she was going to stay. “Max proposed for both of you, and I said yes. I hope that is okay.”
“You’re going to marry us?”
“Yes. Well, Max said I could marry you and then we’d have a private ceremony, just the three of us, where I marry him.”
Dylan looked toward his best friend. “You want her to marry me?”
“I fucked up. I know we agreed that I was the eldest and so I’d be the one to be named on the marriage license, but I forfeited that right.”
“No,” Dylan said. “You didn’t. I … I forgive you.”
Raine stepped back and watched as the two friends embraced. She clasped her hands together and couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Everyone made mistakes. She loved Max and Dylan equally, and being away from them, missing them, wanting to be with them, she had known she couldn’t hate him for long.
****
Raine was naked between them.
Dylan put his hand to her shoulder, touching her.
After dinner, they had made love long into the night, but he couldn’t sleep. Glancing across Raine’s back, he saw Max was wide awake as well.
“Thanks, man. I know this couldn’t have been easy for you.”
“I want to learn,” Max said.
“Learn what?”
“How to do everything you do. To talk, to express myself, to not be this person anymore.”
“You’ve always liked being this person.”
“Not at the cost of our woman. I nearly fucked this up, and don’t say I didn’t. Watching Raine walk away nearly destroyed me. I was a prick.”
“You’ve got your reasons. I have to admit I was surprised with how you reacted,” Dylan said.
“There’s something I’ve got to tell you,” Max said.
Dylan looked over at his friend and listened as he talked about one of their old girlfriends. It was so long ago it took him a few minutes to picture the woman Max referred to.
“You mean Natasha?” Dylan asked.
“Yes.”
“Is that why you’ve always been careful about saying her name in front of me? You’ve been afraid that I was in love with her?”
“Weren’t you?”
“Hell no. I thought you were in love with her, which was why I didn’t make waves. I hated her. Did you not see what a bitch she was to people? Ugh, the thought of being on date night used to make me want to vomit. I’d find work to do so I’d always be late.” He cringed. “When you told me it wasn’t going to work and that she walked out, I was relieved, man.”
“I had … no idea.”
“I think we’ve both got to agree that from this moment onward, we talk to each other,” Dylan said. “Nothing can come between us, but we’ve also got to know that Raine and Lake have to come first.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“I also think it would be good if you told your niece you love her and that you were proud of her.”
“She knows that,” Max said.
“Not all people read gazes, Max. I know you. I’ve known you for a very long time, you old bat.”
