Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I whirled, smoothing my face into the heavy professionalism expected by my men. “What?”
“That, uh, lady is here, the surrogate. Says she wants to apologize for earlier.” He shrugged.
I ran a hand through my hair. Why would Elena have come back? Why would she need to apologize when Dahlia was the one who chased her off? Why couldn’t anybody see that she, too, was trying her best in a difficult situation?
“Alright. Show her to the living room. I’ll be there momentarily,” I said.
I needed a second to collect myself. I couldn’t let Elena see the turmoil in our relationship.
Marco nodded and closed the door behind him.
There was a small mirror in the room, and I used it to scrape my hair back into place. When I angled it down to fix my clothes, I blanched.
In the garden earlier, Elena had tucked a rose into my breast pocket. I thought the gesture was silly, maybe a little overly familiar, but in the mirror, I realized how much it looked like a boutonniere, the sort of thing a girl gives her lover.
I had folded Olivia into my chest and thought we could get over this. The rose must have been what changed her mind.
I plucked it out of my pocket, opened one of the wide windows, and threw it into the night air. I obviously couldn’t see Elena with it still in place, and I didn’t want Olivia finding it in her garbage can tomorrow.
Or whenever she got home.
Elena would be getting antsy, but I couldn’t resist calling Olivia one more time.
“Buon—”
I hung up and headed down the hall.
Elena was perched on a loveseat in the living room, staring at the huge marble fireplace when I entered. She looked up at me with a wobbly smile, her belly protruding against the floral sundress she wore, and instinctively I started to go for her. The woman carrying my child should not be looking at me so sadly.
But I caught myself. Was this what Olivia had been talking about? Had I been too permissive with Elena?
I sat in the armchair next to the loveseat. She turned to me and laid her hands on the arm of my chair.
“I know it’s late,” she said. “And I’m so sorry for intruding. I just had to tell you and Olivia how torn up I was that I might have hurt you.”
A fat tear rolled down her cheek, and unbidden, I wished to wipe it away. I did not want Elena to feel sad or lonely. What was going on in my head that I felt this way?
I swallowed.
“Where is Olivia?” she asked. “I told your man at the front I wanted to speak to you both.”
“She’s having a girl’s night,” I answered automatically.
My stomach flipped when Elena winced.
“Ah,” she said. “With Dahlia?”
I nodded, and she stared sadly over my shoulder. I’d almost forgotten how close she’d been with the two of them at the beginning of the process. Now, when she came over to the compound, I was the only one who gave her the time of day, it seemed. Too often, I found her sitting a bit apart from Dahlia and Olivia, half-contributing to a conversation the other two didn’t seem to want her in. That was why I had taken her on a spin around the garden in the first place today.
“Well, I’m glad I got to speak to you, anyway. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?” Elena leaned forward, putting herself right in my space.
“I’m not uncomfortable,” I said. “But I will talk with Dahlia and see if I can get a better sense of what happened.”
She nodded gratefully. “I’d really appreciate that. I couldn’t sleep thinking I’d hurt you. I was sitting up watching old black-and-white movies, and my mind just kept drifting back over here.”
I smiled. “You like old movies?”
She grinned. “Love ’em! There’s a marathon right now of Rossellini’s Rome trilogy that I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. There’s just something about catching movies like that in the wild that all our on-demand streaming services can’t recreate.”
“A Rossellini marathon? Where?” I demanded. I tried to catch my favorite director wherever I could, and a marathon would give me something to do with the rest of my lonely night.
“You like him, too?” Elena smiled impishly. “Well, clearly you’ve got the night to yourself, and I’m sure you’ve got a TV here somewhere that would blow mine out of the water. Want to make some popcorn and watch them, Gio?”
I drew up short, suddenly realizing how close I had gotten to the surrogate. Mere inches separated our faces. Her eyes sparkled up at me in mischievous delight, and a faint blush colored her cheeks. At some point, I’d put my hand on hers.
Blood roared in my ears. Olivia was right. Not exactly right—I felt nothing for the woman on my loveseat but protectiveness—but I had let that protectiveness cloud my vision in other ways. I’d let her get close, far too close.
I didn’t even remember telling her she could use that nickname.
I snatched my hand back. She furrowed her eyebrows.
“I have work to do tonight,” I said stiffly.
“Oh,” she said. That lonely expression she’d had when she came in overtook her face once more, and she moved one of her hands to her stomach.
Something deep within me ached. That was my baby in there, and I wanted to do anything to protect my baby. But that urge had driven my wife out of my house, and there was no future for me without Olivia. I had to remember that above all else.
I leaned back in my chair.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come. It’s too late. I guess I just thought—” she mumbled.
“We appreciate the thought,” I said. “I will speak to Dahlia. Guests are not treated in such a manner in our house. But I am needed elsewhere.”
I stood, towering over her. She looked so small, so curled into herself, on the couch below me. That same something ached to comfort her. I’d been reading the baby books Olivia kept bringing home, and enough of them talked about pregnancy that I knew a pregnant mother shouldn’t be stressed.
A pregnant woman… a surrogate… mine and Olivia’s surrogate.
I stayed standing. To allow her further into our life, to watch movies with her and eat popcorn and laugh, would only hurt Olivia further, and that was the last thing I wanted.
Better to watch movies alone and think of how to fix this.
She stood unsteadily, leaning back to balance out her stomach. I did not put my hand out to help her, though it felt nearly inhumane.
“Alright,” she said. “I guess that’s all I wanted. I’ll just… go home now.”
She glanced at the door, and her eyes filled with tears. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I whipped it out, praying it was Olivia calling to say she would come home.
It was a text from one of my men, a routine report. I shoved it back unhappily.
Elena looked from my phone to my face and nodded.
“Enjoy the movies.” Her voice sounded thick. “I’ll be watching them on the other side of the city.”
“I haven’t the time,” I said. Her face fell even further. “But I hope you have fun.”
