Dane - Book 3: A Foster Family Saga

by Phillips, Avery

  I sighed and sank back in bed, pulling the covers up over my shoulder to try and get some sleep.

  #

  I walked into Excelsis bright and early, leaving Hanna alone at my place with her thoughts, though it pained me to tiptoe out before kissing her goodbye. I pushed through the doors to my office and marched to my desk, briefcase in hand. I pulled out my tablet and turned to Gervais. He had followed me in and was perched on the armrest of the sofa.

  “What’s her name again?”

  “Hailey Winters,” he said. “I did a little research on her myself. She’s known for her balls-to-the-wall approach, and her high point is she took a startup ten years ago and turned it into a Fortune 500 company.”

  “Yes, but can she handle hardball in an arena like corporate real estate? I need to know she won’t fold under pressure.”

  “Her track record is steady and stable. If she was going to fold, she would’ve folded years ago.”

  “Hmm, great point. Is she ready? Get someone to call her up. I need you to spend the morning on a personal project for me, though.”

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  I pointed to the photograph of Hanna I’d had framed. It rested on the corner of my desk. “Find me some concert tickets and put together a date night for me and Hanna. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy over here at the office, but with the situation with Annabeth still unresolved, I need Hanna to know how much I appreciate her being here.”

  “Not a problem at all. Anything else?”

  “Lawyers. Call them. Find out about that god damned paternity test. I know there’s a way we can obtain a DNA sample without having to wait until after the baby is born. Matter of fact, I want Kent on this one. He won’t drag knuckles about it.”

  “Excellent, sir.”

  “And please arrange a meeting with Aunt Ettie. She’s going to hate me if I don’t bring her niece back around eventually.”

  “Oh, I heard she was visiting the Cayman Islands. She’s supposed to be gone for another week or so. I wouldn’t worry about it just yet.”

  “How the hell do you hear all the latest gossip, Gervais? I’m starting to wonder if you work for the NSA.”

  “I work for you,” he said, smiling. “It’s my job to know whatever you need me to know. I take that job seriously.”

  “Yo,” I called before he walked out of the door. “Speaking of which, I wanted to tell you I’m appalled that I even questioned your loyalty a while back. You really hadn’t given me a reason to, and I shouldn’t have. Man to man, I’m sorry.”

  Gervais grinned and walked from the door to my desk to lean over and give me a hug. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” he replied.

  I pushed him away with a laugh. “Ugh! No PDAs, please. Get to work. Send that Winters woman in here.”

  I turned to my windows and waited for the knock at the door after Gervais left. I swiveled back around and called out, “It’s open.”

  “You wanted to see me, sir?”

  “Mrs. Winters! It’s an honor to finally meet you. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you. Come in. Sit down. Welcome aboard.”

  She was a middle-aged woman dressed in a severe black suit, brunette hair cut to ear level. She wore a touch of makeup, but nothing outlandish. She already looked the part. I wanted to make sure we meshed well, since we would be working together closely. I had no intention of making the same mistake with Hailey Winters I had with Tom Wakefield. I planned to be very hands-on in the business moving forward.

  I gestured to a decanter of orange juice and a carafe of coffee, asked if she wanted anything, and received a polite “No, thanks.” She had come into the office with her tablet and stylus ready. “Let’s get down to business.”

  The meeting adjourned after approximately two hours of hard discussions and negotiations, each of us building our schedule for the upcoming month. With the loss of a major client and morale shaken by the departure of Tom, my game plan was to be even more aggressive about renewing the public’s faith and my employees’ confidence in our ability to provide services.

  Mrs. Winters suggested reshaping a few departments and instituting peer reviews. She came to the table with a clear grasp of what was required of her to do her job, and she was motivated to get the job done well. I watched her leave my office hours later with renewed faith.

  Tom had set out to destroy me, a marionette in the hands of Annabeth, but neither of them would gain the satisfaction of watching Excelsis fall, even if they were wreaking havoc in my personal life. I sat back at my desk and took a break. The only thing left to handle was the paternity suit. I needed to know if I was the father of Annabeth’s child.

  CHAPTER 12

  “Listen to this,” he said. I reached for the phone Gervais was holding and turned up the volume so I could hear clearly. We were en route to meet up with Kent Blake, my attorney, to discuss the paternity test. Gervais and I sat in the back seat of my car, the driver transporting us to Kent’s office across town.

  I rewound the message to play back to make sure I had heard it correctly. It was Annabeth and Tom talking on the phone. “How’d you get this?” I asked before pressing start again.

  “You’ll never believe it.” Gervais grinned excitedly.

  “Try me.”

  He blurted out, “Tom Wakefield. He emailed it over. I didn’t open the email until right before we left the office, and I have no idea his motive behind sending it, but this has got to level the playing field.”

  I leaned back in surprise and hit play again, listening more carefully.

  “…What do you mean Dane’s baby? You told me you used protection with him! You let me fuck you raw, Annabeth! How could you be so careless? You know he fucks around.” Tom’s voice was a warbled shout, as if he had recorded on an old device, but I could clearly hear what he was saying. My gaze shifted to Gervais, and he stared at the phone.

  “Nobody uses protection every single time, Tom; don’t be stupid. But don’t you see? I lied about being pregnant for you because I figured you would fill him in about us sleeping together, so why haven’t you? Am I your shameful little secret, Tom?” Annabeth’s voice hardened. “Are you scared to tell him we’re fucking?”

  “No!” Tom said. “I’m not afraid of him. But you had me believing you were pregnant for me all this time, and you wait until now?? Until after I painted that room in my house for you and the baby! You knew all along, didn’t you?”

  “I suspected,” Annabeth replied flatly. “After all, I’m the one who put a hole in all his condoms.”

  I scowled and went back. “After all, I’m the one who put a hole in all his condoms—After all, I’m the one who put a hole in all his—After all, I’m—”

  “That conniving fucking bitch!” I yelled. Gervais hurriedly took his phone away from me before I broke it in half. I stared out the window, fuming. “I knew it. I knew she set me up. She set me the fuck up!”

  “Right, which unfortunately also means there is a real high likelihood that you are the father.”

  “Jesus Christ! How the hell could one woman be that bitter?”

  “You wonder why I’m single. Anyway, I gather Tom was getting hip to her by then and started recording their phone calls. But why would he send it?”

  “She broke up with him,” I answered. “Annabeth paid me a little visit and dropped that tidbit of info. She said he ran out of usefulness.”

  “Boy, he’s gotta be hating life right now.”

  We took the evidence to Kent, who took one listen and shook his head. He said, “If the baby is yours, whether she screwed you over or not, the courts will hold you responsible for it.”

  “Him,” I corrected. “It’s a boy.” I dropped the ultrasound pictures from Annabeth on the table. Kent took a peek and shook his head again.

  “This says she’s seven months. Are you certain on the math here, Dane?”

  “I’m really not certain of anything anymore, to tell you the truth. The la
st time I fucked Annabeth was…before Christmas last year.”

  “Either way, we’re going to use this recording when we go to court. We might even be able to ask for amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling so we can find out even before she has the baby, but those tests are rarely used, since they carry a small risk of miscarriage.”

  I shook my head. Initially, I had pressed for early testing, but if the baby was mine, I didn’t want to risk the child coming to harm. “We may just have to wait.”

  “It’s up to you,” Kent said. “If it was me, I’d push to get the testing done now instead of later, just for my peace of mind.”

  #

  I was ready, and felt Hanna was ready, for us to have the conversation about what we were going to do about our relationship. We had barely said two words to each other in days, and the tension in the penthouse was thick enough to cut. I couldn’t let things stay that way. I had to get us out of our blue funk.

  I raced home after work with concert tickets Gervais had magically procured for me, glad the show was nearby, although I had instructed him to find a concert anywhere. He had worked hard to put together a date night he promised would exceed my expectations. I was anxious to show Hanna a good time. Both of us needed it.

  Thus it was that I walked into my apartment, happy to see another day had passed without Hanna disappearing. She was sitting on the couch, reading. I wordlessly ran upstairs to get comfortable, and when I came back down she was still reading her book, glasses on the edge of her nose. She moved over on the sofa so I could sit down next to her.

  “Are you up for a drive?” I asked. She shrugged, staring at the page. I reached for her hand and sandwiched it in between mine, and she reluctantly put the book aside.

  “What do you want, Dane? I was almost to the good part.”

  “We are. At the good part. We’re together, and we’ve told each other about how we feel, and those feelings are for real, regardless of whatever else happens. For tonight, can we forget our problems?”

  “You ask me to forget a lot. Love is supposed to be about making memories.”

  “We’ve got all these preconceived notions about love. Why isn’t love about being?”

  I rose and pulled her to her feet. “I’m not dressed to go anywhere,” she said.

  I fingered the hem of her t-shirt and pulled her close to drop my hands to the curve of her ass in the tight jeans. She squirmed restlessly in my embrace, forcing me to release her. I sighed. “You’re dressed perfectly for where we’re going.”

  “Where?” Her hazel eyes finally met mine. I stole a kiss she couldn’t resist. Her red hair fell forward and covered her flushed face as she dropped her head. My nose slid along the curve of her neck, and I breathed her in. I had missed her. We had been living in the same house, but we were more disconnected than ever. It was time to change that.

  “Let’s go be teenagers again,” I whispered.

  We drove out of town and made it to the rock concert well after it had started, but she didn’t seem to mind that we were late. I could tell her spirits were reluctantly lifting by the smiles she flashed in my direction as I held her hand, and we made our way inside, getting lost in a crowd of strangers. The band on the stage was legendary. They were singing songs the both of us had grown up hearing. Guitar riffs and drum solos, lyrics that yearned for understanding—it was music for lovers. I stood behind Hanna and held her in my arms, resting my chin on the crown of her head.

  It was dark out, aside from the flashing lights from the stage that turned the night into a spectacle. I didn’t care about the music or the atmosphere, though it was apparent Gervais had picked wisely, because Hanna was enjoying herself. All I cared about was her happiness.

  “You want a drink?” I asked over the noise of the crowd cheering for another encore. The band was on its third, the hour approaching midnight.

  Hanna was about to say something when I held up a finger, suddenly realizing what the frontman was saying. My head whipped around and Hanna stood on tiptoes. “Did he just say my name?” she asked.

  I figured he had to be talking about someone else. “I don’t think—”

  Onstage, the guy with the microphone yelled out, “So, this one goes out to Dane and Hanna, everybody. Say hello to the lovers! Hey, you guys!” The crowd went wild. Our startled faces flashed on the massive wall of screens behind the band. Hanna blushed and smiled, covering her face. She looked at me in surprise.

  “What did you do?” she asked, giggling. I shrugged, grinning, wondering what the fuck Gervais had done.

  “Hanna! Dane wants you to know that he really loves you, and he’s sorry he fucked up. Did I get the message right, Dane?”

  I smiled bashfully but flashed a thumbs-up at the camera. The crowd exploded with applause and a thunderous, excited clamor to be involved in our personal romance. I tucked Hanna under my arm and kissed her face, as the band burst into song.

  “Do you forgive me?” I whispered in her ear. Hanna tucked her head against her shoulder, brushing me off, but I could feel the excitement along her skin like electricity. Her eyes were bright and the smile refused to leave her face. I knew she was trying to remain angry with me, but she was failing. I sang the lyrics I remembered. Something about love on a summer day with no worries, a lifetime of summer days. The camera finally panned out from the close-up of us and took in the packed arena.

  I was getting through to her. I hadn’t succeeded entirely, but I wasn’t giving up until I knew the woman was mine entirely. From the concert, we made our way to a diner, where I ordered Hanna a cheeseburger. “You’re something special, you know that?” I told her.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Sometimes you’re pretty amazing yourself.”

  “About…the baby…”

  “Dane, I don’t want to talk about—”

  “No, I really need to say this. I love you, Hanna. I was wrong not to tell you about Annabeth before I got you here. I didn’t want to risk you turning me down, but that was selfish of me. I want you to know I respect whatever decision you come to. If you want to stay with me, you’ll make my life the happiest it’s ever been, but if you need to leave, I’ll live with it. My father told me something that stuck with me the other night. He said there’s only so many times you can cut a person deep before they bleed out on you.”

  “Dane.”

  “I don’t want to keep cutting you, Hanna. That’s not how I want to love you,” I murmured.

  “You don’t. You’ve made me happy before, and you’ve made me sad before, and I think that’s how life goes. I guess I just—maybe I overreacted. It was a lot to digest the other night. I mean, a woman showed up on your doorstep talking about how she was having your baby. Dude! You could’ve warned me.”

  “Well, let me warn you in advance that the next portion of my life I plan on surprising you with how good I can be. I’m a changed man because of you.”

  She smirked, giving me the side eye. I laughed out loud. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

  “You can tell me the truth, you know,” I teased.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You really just wanted time off for your rule breaker to get ready to break some more rules, didn’t you?” I smiled devilishly.

  Hanna dabbed ketchup on the tip of my nose with a French fry and giggled. “I’m still mad at you, for the record. I’m not done thinking yet.”

  “I’m not rushing you. I just wanted you to know that whatever you decide, I love you and I understand. Now, about this making-memories business. You recognize this place?”

  She nodded, grinning. “Mm hmm…this is where we had our first date. You were sitting right there when you turned me down when I asked you to spend the night with me.”

  “Ah! See? Love is about making memories, Hanna. It’s about being, too. I do want to be with you.”

  “I want to be unsurprised with you. I want a predictable, staid existence with you.”

  “What? No, caged bird! Remember
that old song you gave me about wanting to fly free? You used to have predictable and staid. You got bored with it. You’re not setting me up for failure, talking about you want to be unsurprised,” I joked.

  She helplessly howled with laughter, covering her mouth and shaking her head at me. “You know what I mean, Dane Foster!”

  “I do.” I reached for her hand. I took a French fry and put ketchup on her nose to match mine. “Ask me again if I want to spend the night with you.”

  “Do you want to spend the night with me?”

  I leaned forward and kissed her lips, our red noses touching. She smiled against my mouth. When we pulled back, I grabbed a napkin and wiped both our faces, and she sighed happily. “Do you?” she asked again.

  I grinned and reached for my keys. “Let the corruption begin.”

  “Oh, you started that a while back, buster. Any more corrupt, and you’ll need whips and chains.”

  “That can be arranged,” I replied.

  She tugged on my hand and pulled me back to kiss her lips before I dropped a tip and the bill amount on the table in cash. I stood in the middle of the diner with Hanna like we were the only two people there, and I kissed her with a sincerity and passion I couldn’t before. Before I had been about pleasure and a good time. The feelings I had for Hanna had grown. I wanted a lifetime of summer days with her, and I was willing to work hard to keep the sun shining on us.

  #

  Our bodies were a jigsaw, arms and legs puzzle pieces fitting neatly together. I snuggled closer to her, whispered against her hair, “Are you awake?”

  “Mmm?”

  “I found out something today. About the paternity suit,” I murmured. I had been debating on whether to tell her, whether to get her hopes up. I decided Hanna needed to know. “We have a recording from another one of Annabeth’s lovers. Annabeth set me up.”

  Hanna shifted against me but didn’t open her eyes. “How?” she asked.