Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(70)
Author: Catherine Bybee

He’d been drinking. Trying to move on with his life. He thought if he’d told someone about Katie he could do that. Since he was engaged to Maggie, he felt it was right to let her know about his past.

“You were heartbroken. I told myself it was because of the baby, but it wasn’t. It was because Katie walked out of your life. You told me then that a child isn’t as important as being with the right woman.” Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “I lied to myself for months about us. The wedding was coming up fast. I couldn’t do it.”

He remembered the empty feeling when she’d returned his ring. His ego was so friggin’ bruised he couldn’t see straight. A bigger part of him was relieved.

“When did you find out about the pregnancy?” he asked.

“A few weeks before we broke up.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want your pity. I wanted your love but you couldn’t give that to me.”

“So you dumped our daughter.”

“I did not dump Savannah. I placed her in the care of someone who wanted her more than I did. This may come as a shock to you, Dean, but I didn’t want kids. Not yet anyway.”

Dean thought of Katie, of the ongoing drama with her mother. Not everyone was cut out to be a mother. How fair was it that Katie wanted kids and couldn’t have them and Maggie didn’t want them and could.

“You never told me that.”

“It wasn’t until I was pregnant that I realized I wasn’t ready. You never attempted to contact me after we broke off the engagement…didn’t try and get me back. I knew why. I wanted to hate you. I couldn’t.” There were tears in Maggie’s eyes. “So instead of terminating my pregnancy I decided to have Savannah and give her to the one person that would love her unconditionally and without regret.”

“You didn’t even know Katie.”

Maggie smirked. “She’s rich, beautiful, stubborn, and in love with you. I watched hours of that stupid reality show she was on when she was a teenager. Do you know how often she talked about you on that show?”

He shook his head. He hadn’t thought of that show in years.

“Even then she adored you. I kept up with her brother Jack’s story, knew he was getting married in Texas and that you’d both be there. I had my doctor induce my labor so I could get Savannah to Texas before you both left.

“Leaving Savannah was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. I thought it would be easy.”

Dean’s heart squeezed in his chest. This was where Maggie was going to ask for her back. He thought of Katie, her angelic smile when she watched Savannah laugh.

“Katie’s a perfect mother,” he told her.

“I’m not going to ask for her back. Leaving her was hard, but I know I did the right thing. She’ll be raised in a loving home with two parents. If I’d kept her I would have hated sharing her. I didn’t want to share her daddy either.” Maggie’s sadness was palpable. Dean cursed himself for her grief.

“So that’s it? You walk way and never look back?”

“Now that I know the two of you are together I can go on with my life.”

His brow pitched together. “You went through a lot of trouble keeping your identity hidden. Are you saying you would have told me eventually? That you did all of this so Katie and I would get back together?”

“I loved you, Dean. Once I realized it wasn’t your fault that you didn’t love me I knew I could at least give Savannah a chance at a good life. Savannah can only be icing on the happiness cake, not the glue that holds it together. You and I weren’t that cake.”

Here he thought Maggie was the most selfish woman in the world for leaving their daughter. “I wanted to love you,” he whispered.

She brushed away her tears and forced a smile to her lips. Maggie pushed away from the counter and walked over to him. She lifted up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Good-bye, Dean. Take care of your girls.”

Katie dropped her bags in the doorway and rushed into the living room where she heard Mrs. Hoyt and Savannah.

“Oh, look, Mommy’s home,” Mrs. Hoyt said when Katie hurried in the room.

“Where’s my little girl?”

Savannah smiled and Katie pushed away all the crazy emotions she had harbored over the past several days. “Did you miss me?” Katie kissed her tiny nose and held her tight.

“She’s such a good baby. There was a little extra fussing. I think she missed you.”

“Lord knows I missed her. Is Dean home?”

“He left early. Said he’d be back this afternoon.”

Katie caught up on Savannah’s day. She put aside her own unpacking until nap time. No reason to spend those precious moments doing chores. She loved her baby girl. She loved her baby girl’s daddy.

By three in the afternoon Savannah couldn’t hold her eyes open any longer.

Katie had called and left a message on Dean’s cell phone letting him know she was home. When he didn’t call her back, she decided to see if maybe he’d left his phone on his charger in his office. Something she’d brought with her to work a couple of times since they had moved in together per Dean’s request.

There wasn’t a phone at the end of the charger that sat on his desk. She sat in his chair and picked up his landline to call the office.

Jo reported that she hadn’t seen him in the office for a couple of days.

Katie’s skin prickled when Jo told her that he informed her that he didn’t want to be notified unless there was an emergency.

“I thought maybe it had something to do with you,” Jo told her.

“Um, well, I guess maybe…he didn’t come with me to Florida.”

“Well, he’s not here. If you see him, let him know that I’m holding off the hounds, but he might want to make an appearance tomorrow or Friday at the latest.”

“I’ll do that.”

What the hell is going on? Everything sounded normal on the phone.

Right now she had wine chilling in the refrigerator so that at dinner tonight she could tell him about his daddy status.

Katie turned to leave the office and noticed the blinking light on the message player. She hit it twice accidentally and the player started to play old messages before finding the new one.

There was a message from her early in her trip. One from Jo at the office. Must have come through before he asked for phone silence.