“And why is that?”
CeCe smiled as if she thought Shannon were helplessly clueless (which maybe she was, who knows) and answered, “Because everyone knows if a man thinks a woman is unavailable, it simply makes him want her more. Nothing is more pathetic than a sad, lonely woman hoping for a date. If you act as if you have more dates than you know how to juggle, your value goes up.”
Shannon stared at her intern, appalled. “Why would you want a man who would even think of dating someone who is already taken?” Case in point, Nolan’s comment to her the second they’d met and decided to leave the club together. He hadn’t cared if she were attached as long as he got what he wanted. At the time, she hadn’t cared and to be honest, his bold approach had been sexy but now? Reprehensible.
“Life is for the living, Shannon,” CeCe said walking away with the flowers. “Try it sometime.”
Shannon glowered at CeCe’s retreating backside and muttered to herself, “That girl is going to end up with an STD before she’s twenty-five” and then returned to her work, going over the assessments for the coach. She loved her job but someday she hoped to land a position within the NHL. She was willing to travel to Calgary, too, if it meant getting a position with a major hockey network. The minors were good for building a name but the real money was in the professional league. She sighed, someday it’ll happen. She was good at her job and she knew her stuff. Just stay focused, she told herself.
Someday, all of this trouble would fade into memory because her life would be amazing.
Until then, she had to slog through the manure and push past the ass in her way.
-4-
Nolan double-checked the address he’d managed to find for Shannon Garrity and adjusted his sleeve cuffs before the door opened. The apartment complex was clean and in a decent neighborhood but, she’d likely jump at the chance to have a home of her own, which he’d gladly provide — provided she move closer to him. He smiled, pleased with himself and the plans he had in mind. He couldn’t wait to see Shannon’s expression when he told her how he was going to change her life for the better.
But as the door opened, Shannon sucked in a sharp breath and a scowl followed. “What are you doing here?” she asked, plainly unhappy to see him at her doorstep.
It took a moment for him to adjust to her stance and he thought perhaps she hadn’t received the flowers but as he took in her completely hostile body language, he had a sinking feeling his flowers had ended up in the trash. “You didn’t like the flowers?” he asked.
“They were beautiful — and inappropriate. Why are you sending me flowers?” she asked.
“I thought it might serve as an apology for coming on so strong. I overreacted to a stressful situation and my temper overrode my good sense. I was hoping the flowers might make up for the uncomfortable altercation between us.” She nodded grudgingly, seeming to accept his reasoning but she didn’t invite him in as he’d hoped. “We have a lot to talk about, don’t you think?” he ventured.
“Yes, I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”
“Is there another way?”
“Well, you could just leave us alone and go about your life as you did before and we’ll do the same.”
“C’mon now, what kind of man would I be if I did that?”
“I wouldn’t blame you,” she said, almost in earnest. “I mean, the situation was dropped in your lap seemingly out of nowhere. I wouldn’t blame you in the least if you wanted to walk away. I swear, I won’t ever come after you for child support.”
“I will provide for my child,” he said, not liking where this was going. “No Buchanan would ever go without.”
“Aubrey’s not a Buchanan,” Shannon said stiffly. “She’s a Garrity.”
“Not for long,” he said, waving away her comment. “I need to establish paternity with a routine DNA test and then it’ll be a simple thing for the lawyers to change her name.”
“I don’t want to change her name,” Shannon said, her jaw setting. “She was born a Garrity and she’ll stay a Garrity until the day she marries and decides to hyphenate.”
“What is wrong with you? She’s my child and she’s going to have my name. End of discussion.”
“Is this part of your apology, too? Coming over to my house and trying to push your name onto my child? Because if so, your apology sucks.”
He bracketed his hips, growing angry that Shannon wasn’t falling in line with his plan. He opened his mouth but quickly shut it as he tried to refocus. “Can I come in, please? I really don’t want to have this private conversation in front of the whole world.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Shannon, I am her father and I’m not going anywhere. We can do this the easy way or the hard way and trust me, I’d rather do this in a way that works for us both. We can be on the same side, you know. And if you’d let me, we could be friends.”
“Trust is required for friendship and I don’t trust you.”
“That’s not fair, you don’t know me.”
She looked away and he knew he’d made a point. Score one for me. Shannon stepped away, relenting. “Okay, but only for a minute. I don’t bring men home. I don’t want to confuse Aubrey.”
He smiled, happy with her admission. He didn’t like the idea of strange men being around his daughter. And, now that he was around Shannon again, he remembered all those feelings he’d pushed down when she’d left so abruptly. It was the chase he craved, he told himself when his gaze snagged on her tight, pert behind — nothing more. He’d forgotten what a sweet ass she had but now there was no escaping what he’d sampled that night and as he recalled, he’d been more than willing to go another round or two but she’d called it quits prematurely. But just as he began entertaining memories of that sordid night, Aubrey toddled in carrying a ragdoll and his breath caught in his chest. Shannon scooped up the child and held her tightly, as if he might rip her from her arms and run away with her. “She’s…very pretty,” he said, the awkward compliment not even close to conveying what he felt when he looked at Aubrey. She was quite possibly, the most beautiful child in the world. He could see himself in her features but enough of Shannon to give her a soft feminine side. As if she knew he was talking about her, Aubrey’s cupid bow lips split into a wide smile that revealed a dimple in the very same place as the one on his right cheek and he could only stare for a long moment. “She looks like me and you,” he said when he could speak again.
“Mostly you,” Shannon admitted, smoothing the strawberry blond curls. “Except for the hair color. That’s mine.”
“So…I have to ask…what happened? I know we used protection.”
She sighed and settled into a chair, still holding Aubrey on her lap. “I don’t know. All I can guess is that one of the condoms had a minute tear or hole and since I wasn’t on the pill, one of your industrial sperm managed to hit the mark.”
One in a million odds. “If I’d known earlier…”
“I didn’t want you to know,” she said. “I had enough to deal with, I didn’t need another problem to solve. I’d just gotten my job with the Juggernaut when I realized I was pregnant and I didn’t want to deal with everything that came with custody battles and whatnot. Besides, I really didn’t see you as the type who was interested in settling down.”
Accurate assessment, he realized but it pinched that she hadn’t wanted him in the baby’s life at all. “You didn’t even give me a chance,” he pointed out quietly. “I might’ve wanted to be a part of her life from the start.”
“I’m sorry. Your feelings were the last thing on my mind,” she admitted with a shrug. “I had an infant to care for and a career to protect. Can you say that you would’ve settled down if you’d known?”
“No.”
“Well, thank you for your honesty but you prove my point. Raising a child isn’t something you do on a whim because you think it might be fun. It’s hard work. She had colic for the first three months of her life and she screamed bloody murder for no discernible reason. Nothing I did worked. All I could do was hold her while she screamed. It was awful.”
He shuddered at the thought of a screaming infant but then he felt guilty for not being there. He should have that experience under his belt if it’d happened to his child. “It’s true I didn’t ask for this but now that I know about her, I can’t walk away. Give me a chance to show you that I’m not a bad guy. I can be a good father.”
“I can’t let you audition for the role of Aubrey’s father, no matter how good your intentions. Aubrey is my life. She’s everything I never realized I wanted until I saw her little face. I can’t take the chance that you’ll change your mind when things get tough.” He was perplexed until she added, “When I found out I was pregnant, I knew it was yours because I hadn’t been with anyone else since. So I did a little checking around. It wasn’t hard to dig up some unflattering stuff.”