But Sophia is my woman. So, it’s my duty to help make her dreams come true. This is my contribution. Anyway, Nova somehow managed to swipe the key from Charlie for me and I’ve been here for the past two days after work, getting shit done.
I was hoping Sophia wouldn’t catch on to what I was doing until I was completely done setting everything up. I just wanted to see the heart-stopping expression that would eat up her face when she walked in here and saw everything in its place. I wanted to see her looking at me like I’m her damn hero. And I got that gratification when she walked in here an hour ago and she smiled that big smile at me.
I’ve made a lot of progress but I still have a long way to go. When the painting is done, there’ll be more shelves and safety gates to install. There’ll be piles of colorful plastic dishes to pack away in the cupboards and alphabet posters to stick to the walls. But we’ll get it done. Sophia and me, together.
It’s nearly 8:30 when she yelps. “Oh my gosh. I totally lost track of the time.” She sets the roller brush down in the paint tray.
I lift my safety goggles away from my eyes. “You gotta go?” I casually lean a hip against the table and cross my arms over my chest.
“Yeah,” she says as she grabs her thermal fleece sweater and purse from the nail I hammered into the wall as a makeshift coatrack. “I was only supposed to be gone an hour. My sister’s at my house watching—” She stops herself mid-sentence.
I step closer. “Your sister’s at your house watching what?”
She’s flustered. Her lips open and close without making any meaningful sound. Then she starts stammering. “I just—I—I just need to get home.” She slips the sleeves of her sweater up her arms as she’s heading for the door. “You have the keys, right? You can lock up?” She flips her ponytail out from inside the back of her shirt.
“Yeah, I have keys.” I make big strides across the room toward her. “Let me drive you home.”
She shakes her head vigorously. “Oh, no, no, no. You really don’t have to do that.” She zips up the front of her sweater then quickly checks the time on her phone. She’s a mess of frenetic energy. “The 61 bus is coming in exactly three minutes and if I miss it, I can catch the 37 at the next corner. And worst-case scenario, the 108 bus runs—”
I catch her by the wrist and spin her around. Her body twirls like a ballerina and our chests crash together. Her eyes are as wide with alarm as they are hot with lust. With my knuckles under her chin, I lift her face up to mine.
Her words are whispered as her self-control slips through her fingers. “The 108 bus runs…”
My massive fingers circle her skinny wrists, pinning both of her fisted hands to my chest. My entire being simmers with urgency. I lower my face and our foreheads tenderly land together. “I’m taking you home.”
“No…” It almost sounds like she’s begging.
This woman is so frustrating with her self-sufficiency. I get it. She’s independent. I’m not trying to take away from that. I’m just trying to make her life easier, so she can do more, be more. “Why won't you just let me love you, Sophia?"
She takes a shivering breath. Suddenly, she looks vulnerable. Terrified. "Because I'm scared that I'll wake up again and that I’ll realize you're not real. That you're just a dream. That you've always been just a dream."
My lips cover hers. I kiss her soft and slow but still the force of our connection is strong enough to bowl me over. I want to kiss her insecurities away.
I pull back before this kiss goes too far. “It’s real. I assure you that it’s real.” I stroke her cheek tenderly. “Come on, baby.” I lace my fingers through hers. “I’m taking you home.”
21
Sophia
I’m beaming as I climb beneath my covers.
The image of Archie standing in the middle of the daycare centre, sawing through planks of wood…It replays on loop in my mind.
Nobody has ever done anything like that for me. Josh would shower me with gifts, pretty things that he charged to his father’s credit card. We’d swipe expensive wine from his family’s winery and eat at fancy restaurants where his family kept an open tab. But Josh never got his hands dirty for me. He never broke out into a sweat to help me get my dreams off the ground.
Archie isn’t Josh.
That man cares about me. He’s invested in helping me bring my dreams to reality. And now, I just want to pull him into my life and give him a place in my little corner of the world.
This is it. He is it. There’s not a doubt in my mind anymore.
Finally, I feel like I can be honest with myself about how I feel. I love Archie. I’m not even sure ‘love’ is a strong enough word to describe the depth of the emotions that man provokes in me. For so long, I’ve been afraid to let myself admit that. I tried to bottle up the feeling and hide it away because no responsible, level-headed adult goes off to Vegas, meets a random stranger and legit falls in love.
Except, I did.
I’m in love with this man and if that makes me insane then, I guess I’m insane and I just have to live with it. But I can’t live without him. Not anymore.
When he dropped me off at my door tonight, I could tell he wanted to come inside but he didn’t press the issue. He didn’t even mention it. He just leaned across the console and kissed me hard enough to make my lungs shudder. Then, he sat patiently and watched until I locked my front door behind me.
But tomorrow night, I won’t be sleeping alone. I’m done keeping him at arm’s length. I’m going to tell him about River and I’m going to trust that this good man will do the right thing.
Tomorrow is the day everything changes.
Just as I’m dozing off to the blissful land of sleep, I hear the chime of the doorbell in the distance. I peel my face away from my pillow and swing my feet over the side of the bed. “Who the hell could that be?”
I grab my short satin robe and hustle down the hallway, hoping to answer my unexpected visitor before they ring again. Angie had River in bed by the time I got home and I don’t want this ringing to interrupt my daughter’s sleep.
When I check through the peephole, it’s Archie standing there. My body lights up on a shuddering breath. My heart shouldn't pound the way it does at the sight of him. But the sensation causes a wide smile to pull across my lips.
I swing the door open right as he’s lifting his hand to buzz again.
There’s no preamble. He comes storming through the door and immediately, his mouth is on mine. And he’s kissing me. Kissing me and kissing me as his hands roam down the length of my body.
Feeling our way through the dark hallway, he walks me backward until we’re at my bedroom door. I grab him by the collar and yank him inside before shoving the door closed.
He spins us around and falls onto the mattress, pulling me down on top of him. “I don’t want to be alone tonight,” he tells me, our lips are pressed together as he speaks. “I don’t want to be alone anymore. I want to be with you, Sophia. I need you.”
I breathe hard into the kiss. “You have no idea how much I need you.”
It’s true. And it’s liberating to admit it. I spent so much time trying to assert myself as a strong, independent woman. I tried to bury the way I feel for him because I was scared his love would make me weak. But the opposite is true. Together, we’re both stronger than either of us could be on our own.
That’s why this kiss means so much to me. That’s why I spread my thighs wider and invite him into my heat when he edges his hips between my legs. That’s why I’m already so wet for him when he slips his hand beneath the hem of my nightgown and tears my panties down my legs. I whip his shirt up his chest and over his head, then fling it to the floor.
I bristle with impatience as he slides his sweatpants halfway down his thighs to roll the condom on. I grab his stiff shaft eagerly and impale myself with it.
He’s on all-fours above me. I rock up to meet his hard, frantic thrusts. Goosebumps burst across the surface of my skin wh
en his tongue smooths along my throat.
“So good,” he groans at the curve of my neck. “Tell me how good it feels, Daisy. Tell me you like it.” His hand reaches between us and he presses on my buzzing clit, flicking his finger back and forth.
“I love it, Archie. It’s so good.” My fingers climb his hard, muscular chest and lock behind his neck. “So, so good.”
He’s so deep in me, as he has every right to be. Because from this moment, I’m his.
No other man stands a chance. No other man could ever reach so deep inside of me, carving into my tunnel with his thick cock, thrusting all the way to the hilt. Writing his name on my soul.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He brushes my hair from my sweaty forehead. His next deep thrust hits that dense bundle of nerves and triggers a forceful rush that makes the hair on my arms stand on end.
Every cell in my body spasms and he growls from the depths of his belly. Our bodies go tense together and we cry out as one.
Powerful explosions of pleasure ring out. I say his name and his shuddered breaths fan across my skin.
When the orgasm is done wrecking us, he falls heavily to the mattress beside me.
Desperate to be close to him, I crawl into his arms and he holds me tight to his pounding chest. “You’re so amazing,” I whisper against his sternum before pressing a kiss there.
He traces my hairline with his fingertips. “I’m fucking crazy about you.” I shiver at the genuineness in his voice.
Archie laughs in his throat. “Don’t flinch like that. I don’t expect you to say it back. I just can’t go any longer without you knowing…I love you.”
I want to say it back. I want to tell him that I feel the exact same way. But it wouldn’t be right to do that without giving him the whole truth. He needs to know about River first.
I just need a minute to get my nerve. “I…I need to go to the bathroom,” I say as I climb off of him and slide down the bed.
He rises onto his elbows and watches me. “Sophia, don’t freak out on me…Come on, baby…”
My stomach is in knots as I turn for the door. “I’m not freaking out. Promise.”
I’m totally freaking out.
But not for the reason he thinks. I’m freaking out because I’ve finally found the kind of love I’ve always wanted. And I’m afraid that he’ll change his mind once I tell him my secret. Guilt and fear batter me at once.
I need to get out of here. This room is suffocating me. But Archie’s fingers lock around my wrist with so much urgency, it's physically painful. Almost like the pain in my heart.
His voice is hoarse and his eyes are red and shiny. "Before you walk out that door, there's something you need to know. Even if you feel like we can't be together, even if you don’t feel the way I feel, you need to know the truth.” His Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows. “You're the reason I'm alive. In those cold, wet nights while I was a million miles from safety and I was tangled in the damp vines of the jungle, I was thinking about you. I was picturing your face. I was imagining your laugh. I was hearing your voice. Even though I was sure I’d never see you again, just knowing you were out there, that was worth fighting for."
Emotion overwhelms me. His words strike the deepest part of me. “Oh, Archie…” This man is saying all the right things and he’s saying them like he means them. Meanwhile, I can’t come up with a thing to say.
His fingers fall from my wrist and I back away through the door.
I hurry down the hallway, tiptoeing quietly past River’s closed bedroom door. I lock myself in the bathroom and turn on the light. “Okay, Sophia.” I breathe out through my mouth and stare at my reflection in the mirror. “You can do this. Just tell him the truth. He says he loves you so just tell him the truth and let the chips fall where they may.” I open the faucet on the sink and warm water spills out into my cupped hands. I splash my face. A shaky kind of confidence builds in my chest as the water drips from my chin. Grabbing the towel hanging on the back of the door, I daub my face.
Over the sound of the water, I hear crying. It’s faint and I start trying to convince myself that I’m only imagining it but the sound keeps growing closer. Panicking, I shut off the pipe and tear the door open.
My heart stops.
Archie is standing in the hallway. He has River, whimpering in his arms as she clutches the front of his T-shirt. There are question marks in his eyes. “Sophia, why is River here? What the hell is going on?”
I stand there mute with my hands clasped over my heart. Why did I let this happen? How could I let him find out this way?
The sobbing child stretches her arms out to me. “Mah-mee…”
Archie looks genuinely bewildered. He steps closer in the shadowy hallway. “Sophia, is River your child?”
Shivers fire up and down my limbs. I swallow. “Yes.”
His gaze narrows on my face and he takes a hard breath. “Am I her father?”
I close my eyes for just long enough to fill my lungs. “Yes.”
It isn’t shock on his face. He doesn’t look surprised. In fact, his expression is completely blank. He doesn’t even look at her.
He just slides my precious girl into my arms and backs away down the hallway. My heart breaks into a million pieces when he opens the door and disappears into the night.
22
Archie
When I storm through the heavy steel door of Hartley Construction the next morning, the receptionist leaps to her feet. “C-can I help you, sir?”
“No, you cannot fucking help me.”
I march down the hallway toward Charlie’s office and she takes off behind me. Hearing the commotion, my friend looks up from the papers spread about on his desk.
“Archie!” He leans forward in his ratty, little swiveling chair.
I glance into the corner and see Leo sitting on the tattered sofa with his boot-covered feet propped up on a wooden chair. He flips through a magazine. “Hey man! What’s up?”
What’s up?
“You. Fucking. Assholes!” I roar as I slam the door shut in the receptionist’s face. “You didn’t tell me she has a kid!”
I hear the woman’s frantic voice from behind the door. “Charlie, should I be calling the cops? Cough twice if you want me to call the cops!”
He rolls his chair back and glares at the side of my head as he trudges by me. He sticks his head out the door. “No, Sharon. I can take this knucklehead and he knows it.”
From over in the corner, Leo snorts a laugh. “You wish.” Then he shouts in the direction of the door. “Don’t worry, Sharon. I got this situation under control.”
I roll my eyes. With the degree of rage I’m feeling now, I’m about to Hulk-out on these assholes.
Charlie walks back around his desk and sinks into his chair. “So, what’s your problem, fucker?” He smirks and I want to punch him in the throat.
“Sophia has a child and neither of you bothered to tell me.” A bitter vitriol boils in my blood.
Charlie shrugs a shoulder. “We told you to get to know her, on your own. We didn’t want you jumping to any conclusions about her just because she’s a single mom.”
Leo pipes in. “Yeah—the fact that she has a kid doesn’t take away from the fact that she’s a great girl. Hell, if Reese had refused to take a chance on me just because I was a father, I would have missed out on the great love of my fucking life.” He turns to Charlie and points a finger in my direction. “Oh, by the way, when he found out I was messing around with your sister, he totally egged me on.” He cackles to himself.
I watch Charlie’s face collapse into a scowl as he pounds a fist into his table. “You fucking sons of bitches. Ever heard of the damn bro code?!”
Okay, now we’re getting off the point. “Don’t tell me you bastards knew that River is my child. Don’t tell me you kept that from me.”
Leo’s head snaps over at me. His magazine falls from his hands. “What did you just say?”
Charlie shoves
all his papers to the side of his desk. His eyes bore holes into my forehead. “What the hell are you talking about, Jones?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and suck in a breath. “River is my daughter, man.”
My friends share a skeptical look. “You’re losing it,” Leo mumbles as he scratches the side of his head. “You’re losing your fucking mind.”
The fact that my friends are in the dark about this actually makes me feel better. “Look—there's more going on between me and Sophia than you assholes realize, okay?"
Charlie's bushy brow inches up his forehead. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we met each other before I showed up here in Copper Heights." I shove my fingers into my hair and pull on my roots.
My friends snap to look at each other before their gazes snap back to me.
Charlie leans forward on his elbows. “You’re making zero sense, bro.”
"I met her in Vegas,” I explain. “Right before I deployed."
"When you came down to Vegas to meet up with me?" Charlie asks.
"Yes, when I came down to meet you, meathead."
Leo's eyes are wide with shock. "How the fuck did that happen?"
“I had a shitload of time to kill before I was supposed to be back at the base so I called Charlie. Sort of to say goodbye. At the time, I was cruising around southern California and when he told me he was at a bachelor party in Vegas, it didn’t take much convincing to get me to go down there.” I say it like it’s self-explanatory. “We were supposed to meet at some bar. Just to grab a few beers before I had to head over to the base. But when I walked in, he was off in the corner, arguing with a woman.”
“That was Nova,” Charlie says. “Before she and I got together. She had some crazy theory that it was my fault Josh didn’t show up to the wedding. Because I didn’t keep him on a leash at the bachelor party the night before.”
I shrug a shoulder and continue. “All I know is that it wasn’t pretty. And I didn’t want to get involved. So, I went over to the bar to get a drink. But as I was walking up, I saw this girl there. She was wearing a wedding dress and she was crying. So, I sat down.”
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