by Lexie Davis
No Regrets
Copyright ©2017, Lexie Davis
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise nor by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without the written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. All events are from the author’s imagination and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
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No Regrets
By: Lexie Davis
Chapter One
When it rained in December, the cool drops of moisture felt like ice abrading her skin. Although they hadn’t seen a white Christmas in a long time, this would be Shiloh’s first, and Brianna intended to make it perfect for her little girl. Well, as perfect as one person could.
Brianna sat at her dining room table going over her finances, wondering where she’d get the extra money to buy presents. With her mother’s medical bills, Shiloh’s daycare, and the usual monthly expenses, little remained in the bank account for luxurious items. Working as a waitress at Heavenly Hosts only paid minimum wage, but the tips kept her from having to find another part-time job. Trying to support her family, she worked whenever she could and still came up with three dollars in her checking account. She didn’t even want to think about the money she took from the account she started while pregnant for Shiloh’s education.
She took a deep breath wondering if, aside from the double shifts she was already pulling, she could get a part-time job for Christmas. Her daughter deserved the best. Even at one, she deserved to have presents just like other children.
“Honey, stop fretting over it.” Regina came downstairs with Shiloh in her arms. “It’ll all work out some way or another.”
“Yeah.” She looked up to see a toothy grin on her daughter’s pudgy face. “Come and see Momma before I go into work.”
She held out her arms, and Shiloh went happily into her mother embrace and settled in against her. Somehow, holding Shiloh made the world right. She kissed her baby’s curly brown hair, almost long enough to pin back in a barrette. Just from her bath Grandma had given her, she smelled fresh.
“Don’t work yourself to death tonight, Bree.” Regina grabbed a cup of coffee and settled in the seat across from her daughter at the table. “Money’s only money.”
“Yeah, but when you have none, it becomes a necessity.” Shiloh looked up at her, her dark emerald eyes shining bright. “Will you be a good little girl while mommy’s working?”
Shiloh giggled, and Brianna couldn’t help but smile. She looked so much like her father it nearly hurt to think about it. With Shiloh on her hip, Brianna finished getting ready for work and finally started toward the front door of their townhouse.
Shiloh, being the smart little girl she was, knew her mommy was getting ready to leave and starting putting up a fight, not wanting to let her go. Brianna dealt with this every time she left for work. Aside from feeling guilty about her mother raising her daughter while she worked, she felt guilty for making her little girl cry.
“Sweetheart, please don’t do this tonight.” She pecked Shiloh’s chubby cheek, hating that she was so weak when it came to her daughter.
Shiloh cried, and reluctantly, Brianna handed her over to Regina and headed out the front door. Once the door closed, she took a deep breath and leaned against the door. Each tear shed from her little girl’s eyes cut through her, but she forced herself to remember working was to put food on the table and to pay the bills. She had to do it, and if there were any way around it, she’d go that route. But there wasn’t. She had to work, since her mother was disabled, and provide for her family. She wished fate would ease up on her a bit, because all she could do was the best she can.
Finally inside her car, a beat-up Mazda that threatened to die on her any time she turned the engine off, she fixed her makeup and headed to work. She couldn’t think about her daughter or Kaden. Thinking of those two was strictly forbidden while working, and somehow the time passed faster.
* * * *
“Oh, come on, Kaden. Look at the ass on that one. Don’t tell me you don’t want to tap that thing all night long.”
Kaden sat with his buddies at Heavenly Hosts, staring at a waitress with a behind the size of a watermelon. “No, Derek, I think I’ll give that one to you.” Laughing, Kaden shook his head at his buddy.
“No, that girl is more Kaden’s flavor.” Mark pointed to a well-stacked waitress dressed in a plain button down white top and short black shorts who flirted with two business men. He stared a little longer than necessary, then shook his head. “Air for brains. Been there done that. Not really my style anymore.”
Mark chuckled. “Since when do you care whether or not she has brains? I thought you just worried about how fast you could get them to spread their legs and get off?”
“Nope, not our Kaden. Not anymore.” Tony shook his head, mocking his friend. “He wants to be attracted to her mind instead of her behind.”
The three men started laughing at Tony’s remark, and Kaden tried his best to ignore them. Truth be told, he didn’t want anything more than a fun time. Although he’d had his share of fun times, only one had come back to bite him in the behind.
He thought about Brianna a lot lately, wondering how she was and what she was doing. He even thought about looking her up and going to see her while he was in town but knew that’d be stupid. After walking out on her nearly two years ago, he doubt she could face him without her swinging a fist.
“Oh, look at that one.” Mark pointed to another waitress wearing the same getup as the flirt still standing at the table with the businessmen. “Damn, I’d tap that ass. I’m getting hard just thinking about it.”
Kaden turned, letting his gaze wonder from her long, tanned legs to her tight, firm butt and on up to her chocolate brown hair. Hair pulled up the exact way—He leaned out of the booth, trying to get a better view vaguely hearing Derek’s comment of this being the one for him. Surely that waitress wasn’t Brianna. Surely she didn’t still work for—
She turned around, and his heart stopped dead in his chest. Brianna stood before him as beautiful as ever, with her midriff showing. The white shirt the others wore matched hers, though she tied hers above her navel. And damn if she didn’t make his blood hot.
“Dude, stop gawking. It’s pathetic.” Tony punched him, nearly knocking him out in the floor.
She sure as hell didn’t look pregnant, or like she ever been pregnant. If anything, she looked trimmer now than she had be the night they—
The blonde with no brains came up to their table, and her eyes locked on Kaden as she swept her tongue across her pink glossed lips. “Hello, gentlemen. My name’s Lindsay, and I’ll be your waitress this evening. Are you ready to order?”
The three men gave their orders, leaving Kaden last. “I just want a steak, medium well, and a glass of Coke.”
She nodded, seeming to take her time writing down his simple order. “Oh, um, do you know that waitress’s name?”
The girl looked up from her notepad in the direction he pointed. “Yes. Brianna Miller. Why?”
“No reason.” By God, it was her. His head swam as if he had one to many drinks.
She gave him a curious glance and took off toward the kitchen, only to stop by Brianna and whisper something that had her turning to look at them. Kaden ducked in the booth feeling like a fo
ol with his buddies chuckling. This isn’t how he pictured seeing her. Not after . . .
“Hello.” Her sweet voice came from behind him, and he knew he was a goner. “Lindsay said that one of you wanted to see me?”
Like traitors, all three of his buddies pointed to him, and Kaden wanted more than anything to disappear underneath the table. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her look at him without recognition, yet. Could this situation be more awkward?
Mark spoke up, trying his best to charm her, though Kaden knew it didn’t work well with Brianna. “Tell me, doll. Are you single?”
She grinned, propping a hand on her hip, flirting just like Lindsay their waiter. Must be in the job description. “Depends. Are you going to leave a big tip?”
Mark chuckled, making Kaden’s jealousy spike a notch. “Doll, just wearing that getup is guaranteed to get you a nice, big tip.”
She laughed. “Is there anything I can get you, gentlemen?”
“Kaden needs a nice big glass of ice water, if you don’t mind.” Tony spoke up beside Mark. “He needs to, uh, cool himself down.”
“Kaden?” She turned to completely to face him. He swallowed hard and shook his head before finally meeting her eyes. “Oh, my God.”
“Hello, Bree.”
Without replying, she took off the way she came, and he groaned, taking off after her. He met up with her outside at the back of the building. She bent over, holding her stomach as if she were going to vomit.
“What do you want, Kaden? Just leave me alone.” As he came closer, he saw she was shaking. Although it was cold, he doubted the temperature was the reason.
“I don’t want anything. I came here tonight because I was in town visiting my father, and my buddies wanted to have a fun night at a new restaurant. I didn’t know you were here, and I sure as hell didn’t know you’d be dressed like that.”
She jerked her neck, pinning him with teary eyes. “How I dress is none of your concern.”
“No, but you sure as hell don’t look like you’ve been pregnant.” He hated the bitterness in his voice, but he couldn’t blame himself. She did trap him into having a baby after he clearly told her he wanted nothing but a good time with women. He wasn’t the fatherly type and sure as hell wasn’t husband material.
He pulled off his suit coat and held it out for her. “Here. You’re shivering.”
“I’m only going to tell you this once, so get it through your thick skull. I don’t want anything to do with you, and I sure as hell don’t want you concerned about my well-being. You didn’t have the audacity to care while I was pregnant with Shiloh, so why the hell would you care now. Just leave me alone.”
She pushed past him, hot with anger and ready to lash out at the next person that so much as even looked at her. He let her get a few feet away from him, only far enough that he could no longer breathe her scent before he spoke again.
“Why the hell are you so pissed at me? You came on to me. If memory recalls, you were in it fifty-fifty.”
Wrong thing to do. She turned on her heel and started back toward him, a new kind of fire in her eyes. The bad kind.
“Fifty-fifty, my ass. I have been there for that little girl every second, and what have you done? Nothing. You made your deposit and moved on to the next leggy tramp willing to spread her legs. How dare you even insinuate that this is my fault!” Her voice rose with the last sentence until she screamed at him.
Her reaction only made his temper worse. “You’re the one that trapped me, honey. Not the other way around. I told you I didn’t want to be tied down, and what the hell do you do? You go get knocked up after we spend one night fucking each other’s brains out. What’d ya do, ‘forget’ to take your birth control pill?”
Her jaw hardened. “I wasn’t even on the damn pill!”
“That explains it.”
“Of course it explains it. I was drunk and a virgin. I had no business saying those things to you, but you should have backed away. We . . . we’re both stupid, okay. But don’t you dare blame me for this.”
She started walking again while his brain processed what she told him. “You were a virgin?”
She groaned and turned back again. “Yes. Hence, why I wasn’t on the pill.”
“But you were twenty-three.”
“Contrary to popular belief, not everything in a skirt spreads her legs to have a good time. Twenty-three is a perfectly normal age to lose your virginity. Not everyone is a sex fiend and loses it when they hit puberty.” She huffed, putting her hand back on her hip, more of a defensive movement than flirting. “Look, go have fun with your friends, and I’ll stay out of your way.”
“Bree, wait.” He came up to her, wishing they could erase the past and be friends again. He wanted to say he was sorry, even though he blamed her for the pregnancy. He wanted to be her friend, to tell her that through everything, it’d be okay.
“Time is money.” She tapped her foot, waiting for him to speak.
Instead of telling her what he wanted, he chickened out and said, “How’s your mother?”
Surprised, her lips parted, but she controlled her shock. “Uh, fine thanks. She lives with me now and helps me take care of Shiloh.”
He nodded once, and they started walking toward the front of the building. “You support your mother and your daughter?”
She huffed a breath. “Yes. Not that it’s any business of yours, I do. And she’s your daughter too, Kaden. I didn’t create her all by myself.”
Ouch. “What do you want me to do, Bree? I’ve never been around kids my entire life. I’m not father material. What do you want me to do?”
“You know what? I can’t even believe I’m having this conversation with you. I didn’t want kids any more than you did, but when something is growing inside you, it’s kind of hard to ignore. Yeah, you got the easy way out, and I didn’t beg you for anything then, and I sure as hell am not begging you for anything now.” At the doorway, she turned toward him. “Just go about your business and forget about us.”
With that, she opened the doors and left him standing in the cool night air, holding his jacket, befuddled. Of all the women he had slept with, he picked the biggest damn pain in the ass to have a kid with.
“So how was it?” Mark asked when he arrived back to the table.
“How was what?” Kaden started cutting into his food with vengeance.
“How was what? Come on, man. You were gone a good twenty minutes. Don’t tell us you didn’t bang her in the parking lot. We’re not that stupid.”
Kaden sneered at his friend. “I didn’t bang her in the parking lot. I banged her a little over a year ago, and she got pregnant.”
The table fell silent, and the men shared glances while Kaden ate his steak. Before he could stop him, Mark called Bree back over to the booth, for questioning Kaden supposed.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not your waitress,” she said politely. “If you need something, I’ll find Lindsay for you.”
“No, wait a minute.” Mark pointed to Kaden, who only glared at him. “This dickhead just said he has a little bastard walking around on this earth. Please say he’s nothing but a dickhead and made that up.”
“Mark,” he ground out between his clenched teeth.
“So you’ve been talking about us with your little friends?” She tilted her head to the side. “Unbelievable. Unfuckingbelievable that you would just walk in here on your high horse and treat me this way. I don’t give a shit about what you say to others about me, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you bad-mouth my daughter to your friends.”
By now, she’d drawn an audience, but her temper only fumed. Kaden knew she could care less about anyone in the room staring at her because her eyes were locked on him, and her nostrils flared as if she were a bull that seen red.
“I didn’t say one damn thing to them,” he said defending himself.
“Yeah. You never do a damn thing, do you?” She stuffed the tray under her armpit. “Go back to your fan
cy cars and huge penthouse and leave me the hell alone. Unlike you, some of us actually work our asses off for the income we get paid, and it’s still not enough. We don’t get to sit around in fancy offices playing lawyer because daddy gives you enough money to survive.”
She finally turned and walked away, and the audience resumed their conversations, though some still glanced toward their table. Mark looked dumbfounded, as did Tony and Derek. Kaden should have just turned around and walked out that door when he first saw her. He knew it wouldn’t be a happy reunion, and dammit if he didn’t know why. Yeah, she was pissed for him leaving her to practice law in the city, but she had told him to go. She told him she didn’t want anything from him.
Why were women so complicated?
“You can pick up the check.” Kaden stood, keeping his eyes on Mark, who bobbled his head. He’d had enough fun for one night and needed a good stiff drink after dealing with the blast from the past.
He just hoped he never had to come back to this dreaded town ever again.
Chapter Two
“Mom, I’m fine. You go ahead and have fun with your friends. Shiloh and I will be okay.” It was Saturday, and nearly a week had passed since she had her little meeting with Kaden. She couldn’t bear to tell her mother she had seen him because then they’d have the whole marriage talk again.
Bree groaned. She didn’t even want to think about marriage to that man.
“Promise to kiss her goodnight for me?” Regina asked over the telephone.
“I will. She loves Nana’s kisses.”
After they hung up, she checked on a sleeping Shiloh and then went downstairs to figure out her finances again. Christmas was two weeks away, and still, the bills kept rolling in.
She’d been at it for nearly an hour before a knock at the door pulled her away from her thoughts. She stood, not caring that she was barefoot and dressed in sweats, crossed the room and unlocked the door.