The One and Only: A Single Mom Second Chance Romance (Heart of Hope)

by Ajme Williams

  Cade

  Laura moaned and writhed in my lap as I fucked her. She was so goddamn sexy like this, straddled on my cock like a cowgirl. I loved it when she teased me, that she was once again, being playful and confident the way she’d used to be when we were together. I adored seeing the sexy side of her come out.

  More than that, though, I loved taking control and driving her to such pleasure that she could only claw at my shoulders and moan my name.

  I sucked at her throat, her shoulder, careful not to leave marks. I didn’t want Drew to ask her any odd questions until we’d had a chance to talk to him and tell him about me.

  Because damn it, I was going to be in my son’s life. Finally! I was never leaving Laura again and I would never leave Drew. I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life making Laura orgasm just like this, making her happy, making my son happy.

  Laura pushed her body down hard on my cock, as each thrust of my cock entered her deep and hard. That sweet, hot pussy of hers making both of us wet and wild with desire, and that was all I could focus on. She felt so goddamn good, my fiery little kitten, and she was going to be all mine once again. I’d messed up and I’d hurt her, more badly than I’d ever realized, but I was going to make it right.

  I kissed her as I sped up and fucked her even as she came on me, loving the feeling of her cum trickle down on us and hearing her cries go up in pitch, unable to control the desires of her body. Meanwhile, my climax hit me like a freight train, and I sucked at her gorgeous, heavy breasts, fingering her to prolong the feeling for both of us, feeling nothing short of euphoria.

  We fell asleep right there on the couch, Laura resting her head on my chest, and I didn’t think anything about it except feel pure joy. It was natural to fall asleep like that. We were both so worn out, I wasn’t even aware that I was falling asleep—just that the next thing I knew, my phone was ringing.

  I sat up, trying not to jostle Laura too much, and fumbled around trying to find it. It was ringing incessantly, and my stomach twisted when I saw who it was: Dad.

  The phone also told me what time it was—early morning. Jesus, it was only just six. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good, if it meant that Dad had to call me this early.

  I slipped out from underneath Laura and answered the phone, standing up and grabbing my pants. “Hello?”

  “Cade!” Dad barked. I winced and hoped that he wasn’t loud enough for Laura to hear. “What the hell is going on? What did you do? I thought you were better than this!”

  “What are you talking about?” I hissed, trying to keep my voice down. I genuinely had no idea what my dad was talking about. What had I done?

  Dad swore colorfully, something he rarely did. Shit. He was livid.

  “I guess you haven’t checked your emails or messages, or even the damn news! Or social media! Lucky for you that I did! I had to, because I woke up to everyone talking about you and the altercation you got into last night with a woman. And not just any woman, oh no, but the mother of your child!”

  My blood ran cold.

  “How could you have had a child out of wedlock? When did this happen? What the fuck were you thinking? And how could you have let word of it slip out? Honestly, if you’re going to make mistakes the least you can do is sweep them under the carpet!”

  This was exactly the kind of thing I’d wanted to protect Laura from. What Dad just said validated her argument. Livid as he was about me having a secret kid, he was probably more pissed at the mother of my child being Laura, a poor, working class woman with an absent father and a neglectful mother who’d grown up in a trailer park—my father’s worst nightmare.

  Laura had been right to hide Drew from me and my family, if this was how my father was going to react. To hear him say such terrible things to her face, when she was young and pregnant and scared…I couldn’t even imagine. My blood boiled at the thought.

  But there was no putting the cat back in the bag now. I had to figure out a way to fix this and deal with it.

  “How did this get out?” I asked, my mind racing.

  “Someone filmed the two of you arguing in some…museum or whatever and then followed you out to the street. They posted the video, and they know who you were—they described it as some kind of drama and it seemed that they’d posted it just for a laugh, but someone else realized who you were and spread it everywhere.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. I had never felt this awful in my entire life.

  Dad kept shouting about his re-election campaign and the plans to get me into office, my own career, the White House, all that nonsense. I couldn’t believe it. “Are you telling me that my child and his mother were just exposed cruelly on the news, and all you care about is your damn career?” I snapped.

  “And your career,” Dad replied, still angry. “How will you ever—”

  “You mean the career you planned for me, the career that you want?” I replied. “People are more important than careers, Dad, I can’t believe I have to tell you this. Get your damn team on this and protect Laura and my son, for fuck’s sake. I’ll deal with this on my end.”

  Dad began shouting again, something about how he wasn’t going to care about some floozy and whatever money she wanted to extort out of me, which just made me so angry I couldn’t speak, so I…well, for the first time in my life, I hung up on my father.

  It was a relief to hear his voice cut out and be followed by blessed silence.

  The phone began ringing almost immediately, of course, as he was calling me back. I put my phone on silent and looked at my messages, then deleted most of them. Della, Gray, and Mom were the only ones I responded to. Della was asking if I was okay and if there was anything she could do—I texted her that I was sorry to pull her into this, that I’d had no idea about my child while we were together, or I would have told her. That there was nothing to be done and I appreciated her thoughts. Mom wanted an explanation and demanded that I call my father. I told her that I would talk to Dad when he’ll stop insulting Laura. Finally, Gray just sent me a string of emojis, question marks, and exclamation points.

  I responded with an I’ll explain later text and put my phone down.

  Laura had sat up while I was on the phone, clothes clutched to her chest, and stared up at me. There was fear in her eyes, and I swallowed hard. I had to fix this for her, I had to. This was my fault, my stupid, awful behavior had gotten us filmed and caught, and now Laura and Drew—who was just a kid—were going to pay the price.

  I had to fix this. Somehow.

  28

  Laura

  We pulled up in front of my house, Cade and I, and I nearly threw up.

  There were reporters everywhere, swarming the place. I wanted to burst into tears, but held it in. There was no way I was going to let reporters get a picture of me crying so that they could make awful assumptions.

  Cade reached across the gear shift and took my hand, squeezing gently. “Breathe,” he murmured.

  “I can’t believe there are so many people here just because of a little fight,” I whispered. “It was barely anything.”

  “A politician’s son had a love child almost a decade ago,” Cade whispered. “That’s big news what with my dad seeking re-election. He’s trying to cross parties, you know, get more conservative voters and secure that middle ground.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking at him.

  “This isn’t your fault,” Cade said firmly. “Trust me, I did this. I should’ve held in my temper. I was thinking about only how I had been hurt that I didn’t consider your feelings and I made a fool of myself. But it’s going to be okay. I’ll be with you the whole time. Just don’t say anything to the reporters, keep your head down, and I’ll get you inside.”

  I took a few deep breaths, then nodded. I was so nervous and genuinely worried that I might throw up in front of all the reporters. What a way to make an introduction to the press.

  Cade got out of the car first, then walked around and opened the door for
me, offering me his arm and tucking me into his side to keep me as shielded as possible from the prying cameras. He held up his other hand in front of us to create some space from the reporters and act as a shield, shoving anyone who tried to get too close out of the way.

  I kept my head down and didn’t say anything, trying to avoid looking at any reporters at all. Everyone was shouting at us, demanding answers.

  “How long have you known about your son?”

  “Did you tell him about the child to get financial support?”

  “How did you two meet?”

  “What brought you back together to Detroit?”

  “Did you know this whole time?”

  “How does this effect your plans for Congress?”

  “How do we know he’s really your son? Did you take a DNA test?”

  We finally got to the front door. I grabbed my keys with shaking hands and started to unlock it, while Cade turned to face the reporters. The action meant that we were now back to back, his body blocking mine from the view of the cameras.

  “No comment,” Cade shouted over the chatter, his voice firm and commanding.

  I opened my front door and slipped inside as I heard Cade say, “We have no statement.”

  Cade followed me inside and I locked the door behind us before slumping against it. I wanted to burst into tears.

  Cade rubbed my arms, his green eyes warm and soft. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “Laura?” Caitlyn called. She sounded worried.

  I hurried into the living room to find her sitting on the couch with Drew, who beamed at me when he caught sight of us. “Mama!”

  “Hey, baby,” I sat down next to him on the couch and hugged him tightly.

  “What’s going on?” Caitlyn demanded, her eyes darting from Cade to me. “They’ve been trying to get into the house all day! I had Drew stay in his room and whacked a couple of them with my broom, that scared them off for a little bit. I called the police, too, but they said that they couldn’t do anything except tell them to get off the property. I had them do that anyway but once the police left, they returned. Even if they’re not at the front door, they can stand on the sidewalk. We can’t do anything.”

  Shit. This would have been bad on any day, but especially today.

  “They know about my connection to Cade,” I explained, avoiding being too explicit for Drew’s sake. “We had that argument at your gallery last night and someone caught it on video and uploaded it.”

  “The person who uploaded didn’t know who I was,” Cade said, tapping away on his phone, trying to put out the fires. “But someone who saw the video recognized us and so the whole thing went from look at this crazy couple to holy shit that’s Cade Kirkpatrick.”

  I heaved a sigh as Caitlyn looked outraged at the news instead of Cade, for once. “This is bull—”

  She stopped herself from swearing in front of Drew and gestured her arms wildly in the air instead. “You know what I mean.”

  I nodded.

  “Mama?” Drew tugged on my sleeve. He looked both excited and scared. “How are we gonna get to the zoo today?”

  “You were going to the zoo?” Cade asked, looking up from his phone.

  “Yeah,” Caitlyn replied, giving him a full stare down. “For his birthday celebrations.”

  “My birthday’s in a couple days but we can’t celebrate that day ‘cause I have school,” Drew explained in all seriousness, which was incredibly adorable. My heart beamed looking at him. “So we’re going to the zoo today! ‘Cause it’s Saturday!”

  “Well, happy birthday,” Cade said with a smile.

  Drew smiled back, and I winced, realizing that I was going to have to introduce them.

  “Drew, baby, this is Cade. He’s an old friend of mine. Cade, this is my son, Drew.”

  Cade crouched down and held out his hand for Drew to shake. “I’m sorry about the inconvenience. We’ll find a way to celebrate your birthday indoors today.”

  Drew seemed delighted to have his hand shaken, treated like a real adult. That was a relief for me. I had no idea how Cade would be with children or how he’d handle meeting Drew, but so far it seemed to be going well. Though that was because I was comparing it with the absolute mess outside.

  “There’s no way you could go to the zoo,” Caitlyn whispered. “The reporters would hound you the entire time. Zoos are public property, there’d be nothing to do.”

  I held in a sigh. I wasn’t surprised that Caitlyn had voiced out my opinion exactly. But what was I going to do instead? Drew had been looking forward to the zoo so much, and I’d been grateful for that as I couldn’t really afford a huge party for him, or buy him a ton of toys. I’d been glad that this special activity would be able to make up for it.

  But now I was stuck. I couldn’t leave the house. How was I supposed to give my child the happy day that he deserved?

  Cade glanced at me. “I’m sure we’ll find another way to celebrate your birthday, Drew. Your birthday’s supposed to be about you, right? Not about all these annoying people outside.”

  He winked at Drew like they were sharing some kind of secret, and Drew smiled. Cade’s charm was out in full swing and a part of me relaxed while another part of me tensed up. I was well aware of how charming Cade would be, and it didn’t surprise me that Drew was caught in his spell instantly.

  But would Cade stick around? Or was that charm going to be superficial?

  “I’m sorry about last night,” I whispered to Caitlyn. “Thank you for looking after him.”

  “Hey, it happens. And clearly, you two have a lot to work through,” Caitlyn replied.

  “How’d the rest of the night go?” I asked.

  To my surprise, a guarded expression flitted across Caitlyn’s face before she said, “It went well. I’ve actually been hired to do some shoots with a local activist group, and all my photographs sold, so I’m flush with cash.”

  Her tone was warm and happy, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said that I’d been imagining that strange expression on her face a moment ago. But Caitlyn and I had spent nearly every moment together since Drew had been born. I knew her. She was my best friend. Something had to be up.

  I didn’t ask her about it, though. I couldn’t in front of Cade and Drew anyway, but especially right now, because I had to figure out what to do about Cade and about Drew’s birthday. I had to trust that whatever it was, Caitlyn would tell me about it in her own time.

  “Congratulations!” I told her instead. “I’m so happy for you!”

  I looked at Drew. “Have you had breakfast yet, champ? I know it’s early.”

  “No,” Drew shook his head.

  “Then why don’t we have the pancakes that were left over from last time, while I figure out what else we can do for your birthday.”

  Drew nodded. To my surprise, Cade said, “Hey, buddy, why don’t you give me a tour of the house real quick? I bet you have a super cool room.”

  Drew lit up and took Cade’s hand, dragging him down the hall. I sagged down on the couch in relief.

  Caitlyn gave me a look. “Everything okay?”

  I nodded, then shook my head. “Yes and no. Cade apologized for how he had abandoned me and that I wasn’t just a fling to him—he explained that back then, he hadn’t known how to stand up to his parents. He had lied to me so that I wouldn’t fight him about the break-up.”

  Caitlyn sighed. “I get that, and from what you’d told me, you both were young, but…what he’d said was still hurtful.”

  “Yes, and he said that he’s sorry. He promised he wouldn’t abandon me or Drew.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “I want to. He’s angry that I kept Drew from him—or he was angry, but last night he finally seemed to understand my reasons and see my side of things. He seems to want to be there for us. I just don’t know what he’ll do now that he’s met Drew, now that we have all these reporters. And he’s still never stood up to his parents his whole life.
It was Della who did that, who’d called off the wedding, not Cade. So, I…I don’t know. I want to believe him. I want to trust him.”

  Caitlyn hugged me. “This is one of those things that has no easy answer and only time will tell you how it’ll go. So, for now, let’s warm up these pancakes.”

  We did just that and then I went into Drew’s room to fetch the two boys.

  “…and this is my space command,” Drew was explaining as I walked in, showing Cade the toys he’d arranged in a corner of his room to resemble a space station, “where all my astronauts and Jedis work.”

  Cade was crouched down next to Drew, listening attentively as Drew showed him all the different toys, explained their personalities and jobs.

  I smiled, watching them. Neither of them had noticed me yet, and my heart ached at this sight. This is what my life could be like. That is, if I could trust Cade and if we could figure out what to do about the reporters, his family and the fact that I was still rooted in Detroit.

  But maybe, just maybe, I could have this. Maybe it would work out all right in the end.

  I cleared my throat and Drew paused in his passionate lecture about one of his astronauts to turn and look at me. I smiled, “Breakfast is ready. Why don’t you give Cade a break?”

  Drew scampered out of his room while Cade got to his feet. “I don’t mind it. He’s imaginative. I love how much passion he has.”

  He sounded sincere, and I smiled at him with relief. “I’m glad. He’s my whole world.”

  Cade nodded. “I can see that,” he said seriously.

  We went into the kitchen to eat, and Cade, to my surprise, pulled out his phone. “What would you have for your birthday, Drew?” he asked. “If you could have anything? A dream birthday party?”

  Drew shrugged, still focused on his food. “I like to go to the zoo and see the animals.”

  Cade nodded and began to type on his phone. I was about to tell him that we didn’t allow phones at the table, when Cade asked, “What’s your favorite kind of dessert? Do you like cake?”