She’d cut him out of Tucker’s pregnancy and much of the five months of his life, too. Not purposely. Not knowingly. Not even wanting to. But she’d done it.
It hadn’t been healthy for her or Braden, and had Tucker lived, it wouldn’t have been healthy for him, either.
Most likely he’d have been the product of divorced parents, living in two households.
She didn’t want that for any child. And certainly not hers. She’d always promised herself, if she ever had a child, she’d make certain that home was one place that didn’t change and that didn’t end. For as long as she lived, her child would always have a home to come to.
Somehow she’d failed to include Braden in that plan.
He’d failed her, too, in many ways, but this...this was on her.
Braden might not have planned to develop feelings for the babies she was carrying. And maybe saying he had feelings was going a bit far. But he felt a responsibility toward them. Felt accountable to them.
Legally she had every right to deny him access, even with the birth certificates. Even ethically she probably had the right, based on how his sperm had come to be involved.
But morally?
Could she deny her children the right to know their father when the man was someone who would bless their lives? Someone who would always be there for them? Whether she met an untimely demise or not.
Certainly they were going to know Braden. It wasn’t like the two of them were going to suddenly stop being friends.
Sipping tea, she shivered. Everything was such a mess.
As she’d known it would be.
And she’d agreed to use his sperm anyway.
Because in the long run, what had mattered was the security of her children. And two biological parents who’d want them were better than one.
Braden had been right about that.
Picking up her phone, she dialed him. He was keeping her up nights, so he could get up, too. It was only when she heard his sleepy hello that she wished she’d thought a little longer before making the call. Like maybe until he was back and they were having lunch?
She didn’t want to give herself time to change her mind.
But now a thought struck her. “Are you alone?”
His pause told her he was not and she hung up.
Chapter Fifteen
Pulling the hotel coverlet with him, wrapping it around his boxers like it mattered if the world saw him in them, Braden went out into the living room of the suite and called Mallory right back. She wouldn’t have called if it hadn’t been an emergency.
His head pounding, he cursed the fact that he’d allowed Anna to talk him into drinking more than he knew he should. She’d met him at his hotel for dinner and then engaged him in a where-is-this-going conversation. That had led to the fact he’d just seen his ex-wife and had some things to work out with her first, at which time she’d started drinking more than she should, too.
“Mallory, pick up,” he said when her machine answered, aware that Anna was probably awake in the bedroom behind him. “Please. It’s not what you think. Call me.” He ended the call.
It’s not what you think? Like he was some cheating husband who’d just been caught?
He was divorced for Christ’s sake. Had been for years.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t had sex during that time.
But he hadn’t had it with Anna that night. Or yet.
Back in the suit she’d worn from the office to his hotel, she came out of the bedroom, looking better than he felt.
“I’m sober enough to make it home,” she said, going for her purse. “I’m really sorry to have passed out on you. That’s just not my style.”