Second Chances: A Romance Writers of America Collection (Stark World 2.50)

"No, I don't. Not anymore." She tried to keep the words firm, but her voice was shaking. She was shaking.

She'd entertained the idea, over the years, that he might not have known about Lorelei--usually as part of some fantasy in which he'd been abducted by the Dread Pirate Roberts and fought tirelessly to get back to her side--but now hearing him claim he really hadn't known rocked the foundations of her carefully constructed world.

She'd built a life for Lorelei and for herself. What happened now? Would he want to know his daughter? What if he wanted more? What if he wanted joint custody and every other weekend in Manhattan?

She hadn't missed the designer cut of his suit or the glitzy watch that probably cost more than she made in three months. If he decided to make it a fight, he could pay for a more expensive lawyer in a custody battle. What if he tried to take Lorelei away?

She fought to take a full breath. She wasn't thinking clearly, hadn't been since Nick Taylor burst back into her life.

A reminder chime on her phone rang. The rehearsal dinner. She needed to get to the restaurant to make sure everything was going perfectly, but first, she had to drop Lorelei at her mother's to be spoiled rotten tonight and tomorrow while Tori ran the wedding.

She had a job to do. Already Nick had distracted her too much. Normally she would have been guiding the rehearsal, but she'd let Pastor Jim run the show because she was too flustered by Nick, standing beside the altar, looking like several million bucks and ten thousand regrets in his dark gray suit. She'd retreated to the vestry to get her composure back, but she couldn't seem to get herself together. Memories of the past were colliding with fears for the future and leaving her present an unholy mess.

"I can't deal with this right now. I have to work."

She didn't give him a chance to reply, rushing through the sanctuary without looking around. She collected her daughter and hustled her out to her car.

Lorelei flung her backpack into the backseat before flopping into the front. "Was that the groom?"

"Just the best man."

"Do you like him?"

Tori sucked in a breath as she pulled out of the lot, refusing to look in the rearview mirror. What must her daughter have thought when she walked in to see Nick holding her hand? Lore never saw her with men. Between taking care of her daughter, establishing her business and forgetting about Nick, Tori hadn't had the time or energy for relationships. She'd only been on a handful of dates in the past decade. "He's just someone I knew a long time ago."

Her daughter hummed knowingly--a mannerism she'd, unfortunately, picked up from her grandmother. "If you say so."

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"I do," Tori insisted, and quickly changed the subject. Maybe it was cowardly, but she wasn't ready to discuss Nick Taylor with his daughter. Not until she could figure out exactly how she felt about seeing him again, because as much as she wanted to hate him, it sure felt like some part of her heart was still his.

HE HAD A DAUGHTER.

The food at the rehearsal dinner was divine, but he barely tasted it. Activity flowed around him, but all he saw was a little girl with skinny arms, Victoria's hair, and his eyes.

He'd had a daughter for ten years, and he hadn't known.

He wanted to blame Tori, but she was right. He had cut her off when he'd left California to go to law school. When she'd tried to get in touch with him, he'd assumed she was calling to offer sympathy because his life was shit and he hadn't wanted to hear it. All that had mattered to his twenty-two-year-old mind had been carving out security so it could never be yanked out from under him.

Sure felt like the rug had been pulled out now.

That little girl changed everything--and he didn't even know her name.

"Taylor!" Kipp slung himself into the empty seat beside Nick, beaming like he'd won the lottery--and from the way Lolly looked at him, maybe he had. "You okay, man? You seem out of it."

"Just happy to be here." The last thing Kipp needed on the night before his wedding was to hear Nick's drama.

He was a good guy, Kipp Houghton. A loveable teddy bear of a trust-fund baby who had never had a blow that wasn't softened for him. But he was also the only person from Nick's old life who had stuck by him through all his family shit, even when Nick hadn't made it easy to do. And whenever Nick had asked him why, he would shrug and say Nick wasn't his parents.

And now he was a parent. Christ.

"You thought about the offer?" Kipp asked, dragging him out of his thoughts. "I know I said I wouldn't bug you until we got back from the honeymoon, but Lolly says it doesn't hurt to ask and ya gotta listen to your wife-to-be, right?"

The offer. One look at Victoria and all thoughts of business had flown. But he was supposed to be using this weekend to make up his mind about Kipp's offer to join his expanding company as chief legal officer.

He'd been fence sitting, uncertain about returning to California even though his life in Manhattan was all work and no life. He didn't date--except when he needed someone on his arm for a work function. His sole focus for the past decade had been building something solid and real, as far from his father's sleight-of-hand brand of success as possible. But now ...

The little girl with skinny brown arms and his own whiskey eyes flashed in his mind. "I'll take it."