

Undone by Deceit:

Mahogany and Chance's Story

By Falon Gold

Smashwords Edition

© All Rights Reserved

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Prologue

~Mahogany Jefferson~

In the penthouse apartment at the top of the building that Chance Middleton designed and lived in, the kitchen was where I felt the most comfortable because in another kitchen was where I'd discovered I could take care of myself at eight-years-old. This one was huge and had all the amenities that a woman who hadn't been born with a silver spoon in her mouth could dream of and hadn't dreamed of. Before my move from Spindle, Colorado to college in Fredrickson, Utah, where I met Chance, hand to mouth was my means of survival as far back as my memories went. Out of necessity, I learned to cook. My foster parents, who gave me their last name but never adopted me, didn't seem to think I needed to eat on a regular basis, only when Mrs. Lyons, my social worker, was coming by for a scheduled visit. If she showed up unannounced just once when I was a child, she would've learned how things really were in the household I grew up in.

As I rambled around the stainless-steel appliances and green marble top island with a built-in six-aisle stove just off the center of the room, my childhood and cooking should've been the furthest things from my mind after the day I had. Yet, I was cooking because I didn't want to go out. Chance and I had to eat something and, if I didn't want a repeat of history, I damn well had better remember every detail of my childhood. But it was my future that was giving me the most trouble. How the rest of my days would go was up in the air at this point, and where they moved from there depended on Chance's second reaction to the news I had to give him. His first one wasn't going to be a good one, and I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

After dumping noodles out of a strainer into a pot of homemade spaghetti sauce, my feet autopiloted themselves toward the dishwasher behind me. I tucked a stray strand behind my ear that slipped from the band holding the rest at the back of my neck. Absentmindedly, the same hand glided down to clutch at the long rectangular box in the pocket stitched to the front of my apron, which was protecting the designer navy-blue, sleeveless dress that no one on government assistance could ever afford. Chance Middleton could, though.

He insisted that I wore the best and that I keep the monthly payment from the state of Colorado for being in its piss-poor foster care system for seventeen years and still sane enough to further my education after I graduated high school. Too bad I wasn't feeling the best today, hadn't for the last three months. First came the flu, then my present problem that would make or break my relationship with Chance, who was due home in the next thirty minutes. Couldn't get here fast enough for me. At the same time, a part of me wished he'd develop amnesia and forget where the hell he lived.

Chance hated when life took turns he hadn't prepared for or put in motion himself. I didn't know how he was going to take the nosedive off a cliff that I was about to push him over.

"Mahogany, I'm home, baby!" His announcement in the foyer caught me by surprise.

A quick glance at my Cartier watch notified me that I'd been standing at the dishwasher with the empty strainer for the noodles still in my hand for the last half hour. I should've used that time to figure out how to broach the hot topic currently residing in my apron's pocket, but my mind had drifted. Probably needed a break from reality. Good thing the food was done and ready to be served, or we'd be going out to eat tonight after the fire department put out the fire I'd have started if my mind floated away while I was still cooking.

Now, I was going to have to wing it through dinner that was planned. I had all day to get my thoughts together, and they were more jumbled than ever. You've been winging it all your life, though, so you should be good, Mahogany. Only if I could convince Chance that I truly loved him, never wanted him to do something he didn't want to, and accidents happened. If he was the man I thought he was, he'd understand and step up to the plate as I was having to do.

Without his briefcase that was more than likely lounging in the all-white living area, he strolled into the kitchen with the biggest smile on his pinkish lips, the top fuller than the bottom and encased in a dark-haired, neatly-trimmed five o'clock shadow. He wore his suit like it was a second skin. His swagger was just as potent as his masculinity wafting off his six-two medium build like cologne, and God, he always smelled good.

For the last two years, he'd come home and found me in whatever room I was in, took me in his muscled arms, and waited for me to tilt my head back to receive his kiss. That was how I knew he loved me too. One of those kisses had led to our current dilemma. If tonight didn't go like I hoped, the dilemma would be all mine to deal with. I didn't know if I could do it on my own, though. Didn't want to either.

Chance's tongue twisted and winded around mine. Draping my arms around his shoulders, I absorbed his affection like a sponge, giving him back as much as I could with a sensitive matter laying on my brain like dead weight.

He brought the kiss to a halt slowly, then gazed down at me. "Now, can you tell me why you were adamant that we eat at home tonight?"

My fingers on one hand played with the short hair at the nape of his neck, while the others stroked his chiseled jaw. I was memorizing his face by touch and how it felt to be in his arms. There was a good chance he was about to take all his love away from me, and this may be the last time we were this close. My body switched from heated up by his kiss to cold because of his question, my heart wanting me to put off the looming shit storm on the horizon, but it was better to face all storms head on and to do it quickly.

"I'm going to tell you, sweetheart, but after you sit down." He needed to be seated for what was coming, and so did I.

His palms glided from the tops of my behind before he stepped back to probe my face with his gray eyes, then frowned. "What's wrong, baby?"

His stare was like the abyss that looked back into you as you looked into it. I wrung my hands together like they were soaking wet dishcloths, praying I could keep my secret hid until I knew which way his feelings swung toward the matter that I had to put on the figurative table. First, I had to put dinner on the real one.

"I need to talk to you. That's why I wanted to stay here tonight. I couldn't do this with an audience." His reaction could be every bit of explosive. "Go sit while I fix the food, and then I'll tell you what's up."

His dark gray eyes narrowed on me, then he nodded. "Alright."

As he entered the connected dining room, lit with soft light from tapered candles on a silver-scroll stand in the middle of the four-chair table, along with his favorite wine chilling and breathing in the ice bucket, I situated the spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad on China dinnerware and carried it all to the table. My plate was for show. I couldn't eat with my stomach tossing and turning. It had been doing that a lot lately. Now, I knew why.

While taking a seat in the ladder-back chair across from his, I deliberated on where to begin. Since I couldn't bring myself to cruelly hit him from the blindside, I decided to beat around the bushes, while holding on for dear life to the pocket of my apron that I hadn't bothered to take off.

"Chance, since we've been together, has your view on having children changed even a little bit?"

He dead-eyed me. "No, Mahogany. I told you from the beginning that I did. Not. Want. Kids. And you said that you didn't want—"

I swiped my hand through the air, cutting him off. "Stop! I told you I didn't want any kids while I was still in school and not married, Chance. There's a difference. But what if—"

"Why are we discussing this again?"

I couldn't look at him, so I eyeballed my lap. "Something's been bothering me for a while." A whole day exactly. "First, I'd like to know the specific reason why you don't want kids. At some point, I'll graduate from school, and I'll want some, and then what happens to us?"

"It doesn't matter why I don't want kids, I just don't. When you decide you do, then..." He trailed off and dragged my heart through the dirt. I knew what he couldn't say but that he damn well meant it.

"Then, we break up," I finished for him.

"Yes," he whispered.

Was it that easy for him to let me go? I didn't ask because, well, the answer was obvious but didn't come from the part of his feelings I wanted access to right now.

"What if I told you one day that I was pregnant? That the birth control pills I take didn't work for... whatever reason." Oh, but I knew two reasons why they wouldn't. "What would you do, Chance?"

When he didn't respond right away, I peeked up at him. As usual, when he's confused, he stared at the problem until he did understand. Right now, the problem was me, and he wasn't just looking at me, no, he was looking through me. It felt like an eternity had passed before he spoke.

"I'd tell you to get an abortion... but we don't have to worry about that because even if your birth control pills didn't work for whatever reason, I use condoms as back up. What's the point of this discussion, Mahogany?"

Bile rose in my throat, scorching it. What was I thinking when I fell in love with this man? He had to be a coldblooded reptile to let the love of his life walk away because he didn't want to procreate. Maybe I wasn't the love of his life as he'd said. Or maybe he thought he was being kind in letting me go so I could have what I wanted with someone else. That just begged the question of how he could love the act of making children so much, but not so much what came after the act.

Sometimes, three times a day, he swayed my body into making love. He didn't have to do much to get my juices flowing. The ease he had of slipping inside my body had come back to haunt us both.

I clenched the box a little tighter, determined to dig into Chance's psyche until he told me what it was about children that put him off so badly. "Just like that, you'd tell me to kill a part of you, with no deeper explanation than the surface one you're giving me?"

"Yes."

"Why?" I murmured, heartbroken, suffering more than I ever had. "There is something else to this for you, Chance, and—"

"Because I. Do. Not. Want. Kids," he reiterated, his steely-grey eyes ripping into the flesh on my face.

At that moment, I was done with the conversation, had the only answer I was going to get from him of which direction his feelings flowed. Unless I could crack his skull open and retrieve the real reason for myself, there was no changing his mind, nothing more to say. I couldn't stay here or with him any longer, so I got up from the table, with something splintering torturously slow in my chest. The pain emerging made breathing almost impossible.

"Mahogany, where are you going?" he called after me.

Stumbling into the well-lighted kitchen, the radiance from the halogen lamp suspended over the island seemed to be reflecting off the walls right into my eyes. "To bed, Chance."

A headache was coming on, and my strength was evaporating. Sitting across from him any longer would've required the amount of power to move heaven and earth.

"You haven't eaten yet."

"I know that, and I don't have an appetite."

"Mahogany, tell me what the hell is going on with you," he demanded loudly. "You don't act like this."

He was right; I wouldn't have just walked out on him. I would stay and try to talk to him until we both were okay with the situation. Midway between the dining room's doorway and the long island, I paused, then swiveled around to face him. He was sitting sideways in his chair, fuming.

"I'll tell you why I'm acting like this, Chance. I deserve to know why if I stayed with you, I'd be cut off from something that is a part of life. Something that sometimes happens despite the birth control pills and condoms we use. And if it did happen, I would think that it was meant to be, so I couldn't just wipe a part of me from the face of the earth. So now, I'm wondering what is the point of being with you if you're not willing to go through thick and thin with me, mistakes as well as the things you plan out. And if you close your deepest thoughts off from me when I mention a hypothetical pregnancy to you, how would you act if I told you I was really pregnant? Now, tell me why you really don't want kids. Because if it was as simple as you just not liking them or didn't want them dirtying up this goddamn museum we live in, you'd just say that."

He turned to sit correctly in his seat again, took a big gulp of wine, then stared off into the space in front of him. God, why wouldn't he tell me more than just he didn't want kids? It was his choice, but it wasn't his reason.

Instead of stomping away like I wanted to do, I listened to his silence. It spoke to me louder than anything he'd said since we became a couple. I learned that some parts of him were off-limits to me, and I was on my own if he ever knocked me up with a child that I wouldn't get rid of.

Right then, I walked away from him in every way, the equivalent of tearing my flesh apart with my teeth. As I bypassed the island, I halted at the trashcan beside it, took off my apron with the box inside, and threw both away. That night, I laid in the guest bedroom. Sleep wouldn't come because the feeling of being helpless and utterly alone brought tears that wouldn't go away.

The next morning, he went off to work, angry as hell and giving me the cold shoulder because he wasn't allowed to even breathe on me as he usually would from his side of the bed during the night. Well, I was furious because he was holding back his support and the most important part of himself—his deepest feelings that possibly made him who he was.

Instead of going to class, I placed my laptop on the island and searched for somewhere else to live. Staying in Utah was too close to Chance and our mutual friends who would reveal my real reasons for leaving him to him in about, oh, four more months. Only God knew how bad he'd react then.

Finding a small apartment online in my range was proving to be difficult. Unable to afford anything for more than a few months, I would have to get a job immediately. Once I dropped out of school, my financial aid from the state would dry up, which was my only means to support myself, and now, the life inside me, but I had to leave this city where Chance was well known, and therefore school, too.

Moving back to Spindle with my foster parents wasn't a choice, nor was relocating to another state I knew nothing about. Cheryl and Michael Jefferson wouldn't let me return to their home anyway, not without me signing over the check I received from the state to them first, which was why they never adopted me. At this rate, I had to stay in school to keep receiving it, but it wouldn't do me any good because they'd take it, and I'd still need another way to support myself and pay for childcare. They sure as hell wasn't going to be keeping my baby. Though their house was clean and beautiful on the outside, it wasn't a home, at least never for me. The inside was a cold hell that I was not going back to. Not with my child in tow.

I drummed my fingertips on the countertop while skimming the long list of apartments in Colorado. The cheapest one in a decent area was a one-bedroom in Arrow, thirty miles from Spindle. I could move there. It wasn't like Chance or my foster parents would come looking for me. I wasn't about to give the Jefferson's anything to suck up, and Chance had already decided that, at some point, he had to let me go. What're a few years earlier?

Whether I had a boy or girl, my baby wouldn't experience what I had with the Jefferson's, neglect of perhaps the worst kind—being ignored and treated as a payday. As a child, it was like I didn't really exist until the fifth of the month when Mrs. Lyons arrived. Rarely did I ever see a penny of the money that the state paid for me, but the child inside me would be loved and know it was wanted, even if I had to kill the only relationship that ever benefited me emotionally.

It slayed me to know Chance wasn't capable of doing right by a child any more than the Jefferson's were. Who was I to make him? Why would I? He told me in no uncertain terms on our first date that he. Did. Not. Want. Kids. And he wouldn't have one... that he knew of.

I won't ever forget how he let me down when I, no, when we needed him the most.
Chapter One

Three years later at Tommy Owen's and Katara Johnson's Engagement Party

~Mahogany~

Undiluted anguish gripped me by the throat in my chosen seat at the back of the Owen's Botanic Gardens. Tommy Owens had assigned me to a table at the front of the tract of land cordoned off by tall hedge bushes and beautifully decorated for this affair. However, I knew when I arrived at the surprise engagement party for Katara Johnson that I may have to run right back out. Leaving from the back would create the least amount of disturbance, but Tommy and Kat deserved better than me disappearing without saying goodbye. The least I could do was tell them why I had to go, which they would understand.

Before I got there, I suspected I wouldn't get to stay to help Tommy celebrate the next big step for him. He'd been the most dependable boss and friend I'd ever had in my life, and had been for the last three years. During that time, I never picked up on the fact that he was in pieces on the inside, and he didn't want anyone to know. When Kat flew in from London, looking for closure, the door to Tommy's hidden heartache blew wide open. It took ten years for him to get his hands on the real cause of his pain. He found it at Kat's childhood home in Arrow. It was uninvited there and beat the hell out of by the time Tommy got through with it. 'It,' as in Edison Craft, had the good sense to not show up anywhere near Kat again, uninvited or otherwise. Especially after Edison was the one that thought up the scheme to break up Kat and Tommy in the first place.

Time finally brought the two lovers back together. Everyone present knew Kat would accept Tommy's proposal. If she hadn't, we all probably would've called her a fool. Of course, she did accept. Kat was no fool, and I'd give my left arm for their story to be mine. I had the heartbreak and distance apart from the man I loved written in my history already. Yep, I still loved the bastard, but I can count on there being no rekindling of anything between him and me. And that was okay because I'm over it.

What I hadn't counted on was the call I just received from my daughter's oncologist, pushing me to have to make another call. I had hoped to never have to dial a certain set of digits, but with each bad test result coming back concerning my child's failing health, 'never' had become a pipe dream. Leaving my daughter's father out her life wasn't an option, and I was about to ruin this wonderful occasion for Tommy and Kat. There wasn't a thing I could do about it but give them another few seconds of bliss together before I told them the bad news I just got. They cared for my daughter and would've wanted to hear any news about her health despite the impact it would have on their party. First, I had to give the news to someone else, Chance, and I was going to have to tell him by voicemail.

"Chance," I whispered hoarsely into the phone I strangled with both hands, finding it extremely difficult to get out the words I never wanted to say to him. For Majestic, I'd force a storm back, so I pushed through the block forming around my voice and started to speak quickly.

"Chance, it's Mahogany, and I'm begging you to not erase this voicemail before you've listened to the whole thing. This message isn't about me. I know I'm the last person you want to hear from after I ran out on you like I did three years ago, but it was a matter of life and death then. It's a matter of life and death now. If it were my life on the line, I wouldn't bother calling you, but it's not mine. This is about my... our daughter's life or death. It was always about her life or death. I know I should be telling you about her face to face, but I don't have the kind of time it would take to track you down then get through your security to see you in your office. I'm not in Fredrickson, but I'm sure you know that already. I've been in Arrow, Colorado all this time, trying not to ruin your life, but Majestic's life—"

The lump that manifested in my throat when I was first informed of my two-year-old's illness grew to the size of a mountain in seconds and cut me off. I swallowed around it.

"You may not believe me, but Majestic is your daughter, and she doesn't have much time either, Chance. She's had leukemia for three months, and it's aggressive. Her doctor just called me from Arrow General Hospital with the latest results of her condition. Dr. Blane..." My voice wobbled, making me have to start all over again. "Dr. Blane has given up on the chemotherapy and finding a marrow donor match for Majestic in time, and it's because her rare blood type, your rare blood type, is making it impossible to find a match for her. You're the only chance I have left to s-save my little girl."

Beep!

I hissed 'Dammit!' at the stupid phone as a robotic voice informed me that the time to leave a message and to convince Chance to be the father I needed him to be for Majestic, had run out. The automated system didn't care about that; it just wanted me to pick normal delivery or urgent. With my table neighbors looking at me as if I'd cursed in church, I punched the digit allotted for urgent delivery then stuffed the phone in my purse.

What my table neighbors didn't know was that in their hearing distance, I had launched a series of hail, Mary passes for my daughter's only chance at survival. However, I wouldn't have been surprised if he had changed his mobile number so that I couldn't reach out to him years later for any reason. I hoped it was still his number. If it wasn't, tracking him down was most certainly going to take place. I'd be doing that anyway if he hadn't called me back within a few hours.

Won't be hard to find Chance either. He wouldn't be far from his office building in Utah, a forty-five-minute and cheap plane ride away mercifully.

Leaping to my feet, I navigated through the throng of guests to find Tommy and Kat, spotting her first near the stage where Tommy proposed. She looked my way, then rushed toward me, meeting me halfway in the crowd.

"What's happened, Mahogany?" she asked when she got within speaking distance, then spread her arms wide. Somehow, she knew I needed a hug at this moment and that something had definitely happened.

My sleeveless, simple black cocktail dress allowed me to embrace her back easily. I considered her a friend because Tommy was one, but nothing anyone but Chance did would make me feel better, besides my daughter surviving her battle with cancer and having a full life ahead of her. Majestic wasn't going to have that at this rate, not with the almost insurmountable odds stemming from her blood type. Her tiny body was working against her, and I hadn't meant to drench Kat's bare shoulder in tears or wrinkle her red, halter neck dress with full skirt, but I couldn't help that I needed something to hold on to. To hold me together while I cried my eyes out.

Bawling loudly, I fell apart and probably had been doing it as I searched the crowd for her. That was how she knew something happened. No matter how terrible I felt, I had to pull it together, so I could do everything and anything to keep Majestic on this side of heaven.

Swiping at my face blessedly free of makeup I hadn't worn in years, I stepped back from her. "I'm so sorry, Kat. I just lost it for a minute. Will you tell Tommy that I'm so happy for you two, but I had to go? Majestic's immune system is getting weaker, and they told me to come back to the hospital. They're not sure if she'll last... through... the night."

The second I got the last of my sentence out, I started bawling again, drawing attention that should've been on Kat's and Tommy's happiness. Kat pulled me back into her embrace, hiding my face in her shoulder, letting me cry it out.

"I think it's time to call Chance, Mahogany. He's probably a perfect match for Majestic since she has his rare blood type, and she wouldn't have to wait for her name to rise to the top of a donor's list to get treatment for her cancer. How bad do you want to save your daughter's life?"

I raised my head, looking her square in the eye. "I'll do anything for my baby, Kat, that's why I just left Chance a message about Majestic after the hospital called. I just hope he comes through for his daughter."

"Me too, Mahogany. Me too," she said as she cradled my shaking shoulders with her hands. "Now, you have to pull it together before you get under the wheel of your car, or you'll be just as much a hazard on the road as I was when I first came back from London, where they drive on the left, not the right. I thought Astrid was going to take my license the two times she caught me driving on the left here. Good thing Arrow's traffic is slow even during the tourist season, or the funeral home would be packed, and I'd be behind Astrid's bars for vehicular homicide or manslaughter... along with aggravated assault for attacking Edison's wife, Benita, the whore."

From what Tommy told me, Kat only got to attack Benita's wig, then cried afterward because she didn't get to punch Benita in the face or anywhere else. Just imagining a scuffle between woman and hair had me snickering behind my palms, hiding my face from the guests. Giggling with my world crashing down around me, I was a mess.

"Kat, you and Tommy are too much alike. You crack jokes at the worst damn times, like when I'm trying to feel bad for not telling Chance about Majestic before I had her and swearing her cancer is my punishment."

She pulled my hands down and started wiping my face herself. "Well, don't swear that, Mahogany. As far as I know, this type of cancer could be inherited along with her blood type that's making things so hard for you both. I do think her disease is God's way of bringing Chance into both of your lives, though. Obviously, he needs to be in it for Majestic's sake, if not yours too. I don't think Chance is a bad guy who shirks his responsibilities. Hell, he owns a Fortune 500 company. You have to have some ethics to achieve that level of success. Besides, paperwork is boring as hell. Trust me when I say you've got to have commitment made out of iron for that too, and I sure as hell don't think he'd tell you no to seeing if he's a match for Majestic. If he does, I'll sic Tommy on him. My guy throws a mean right, and he doesn't like that Chance hasn't stepped up to take care of Majestic yet. Before we let Tommy instigate another fight, though, I say give Chance a chance to prove to you who he really is. That's what I did for Tommy, and I listened to him. Now, I have not only the perfect man but the perfect man for me. Chance might just be that for you and save his daughter's life, too."

I wished I had her faith in people, but she had to have that as a corporate lawyer who created business contracts based on what people claimed they were going to do. This wasn't business for me but personal.

"From your lips to God's ears, Kat, but I doubt Chance wants to have a thing to do with me. I have no problems with that, not after I broke up with him the way I did. I just need him to step up for Majestic, and I have to go to her. Do me a favor, and go enjoy your man tonight. Majestic is not going anywhere if I have anything to say about it, so don't interrupt your time with each other to run to the hospital. I got her, and I'll give her your love. Bye now."

"Bye, Mahogany. I'll get my prayer warriors together for Majestic. I know a bunch of older ladies through my mother who are saved one minute, then they're cursing somebody out the next."

While turning away, I had a thought that stopped me in my tracks.

"Also, wait until after Tommy is done screaming your name tonight before you tell him that I won't be in for work tomorrow. You know, soften him up for me because I'm only leaving Majestic if I have to catch a plane to Utah to find Chance if he doesn't call me back today."

"I don't think Tommy expects you to come to work while your baby is fighting for her life, Mahogany. If he does, he can take that up with me. Let us know if you need anything at all."

I knew I liked this woman for a reason.

"Thank you, Kat, but I'm not calling you tonight." I kissed her on the cheek, then left. My car was a few acres away in the parking lot for the Gardens.

I covered the distance between me and my eleven-year-old rustic blue Dodge Avenger quickly in my low heels, to get back to my daughter laying on her deathbed without me. I wouldn't have left her side at all if Dr. Blane hadn't insisted I get out of the hospital for a little while. He was sure I was rapidly declining right along with Majestic.

As much as I didn't want to go, he raised a valid point that if I ended up as a patient too, who would take care of my child once they released her to spend her last days at home? If a miracle happened, as in her condition improved or a donor match was found within the next day, I would still have to take her home where she would get better the fastest. Choosing to stay in my best form possible for Majestic's sake meant attending the engagement party on doctor's orders.

Dr. Blane swore the fresh air would do me some good, and she wouldn't know I was gone. He lied. I felt worse for leaving, then getting the call that my baby was getting closer to death's door. It was as if she wasn't trying to hang on anymore until I found her cure because I wasn't there with her. Well, I won't be leaving her again, didn't want anyone else doing my job.

Despite her being in Dr. Blane's capable hands, I felt like my hands were better for her. However, as much as I used them to hold my child and will strength to her when I wasn't praying for her, nothing was working. Chance was my last resort.

Even if I would let someone take over Majestic's day-to day care for me, I couldn't. I was her only living relative who knew Majestic existed. She won't for much longer if I don't find a way to get through to Chance.

Tommy and Kat would probably volunteer to care for her some, but she was my responsibility. Turning Chance's life upside down with a baby he didn't want wasn't in me. Destroying our relationship wasn't either, but I had to choose, so I chose my child. I didn't want to make him feel obligated or guilt him into taking part in our lives either, which brought on my move to Arrow, a place close to my birth city where I'd been abandoned at a fire department as a newborn.

Shortly after giving birth, I managed to hold on to my financial aid and stay in school, which was a hard hill to hustle even with taking one class a semester online. I could never thank Tommy enough for giving me a job right after I got here. After I told him the truth about my predicament, I think me being a couple months pregnant with no father in sight was why he hired me more than for my experience in restaurants and accounting, as well as computers. He had been putting up with Majestic and me ever since out of the kindness of his heart. I prayed his heart never shrunk, and one day, I hoped to return all the favors he did for me.

Things seemed to be getting harder and harder for me, though. The question was, when would they get easier, at least for Majestic? Only Chance could do that for her. I'd be deceiving myself if I thought he had a compassionate bone in his body concerning me at this point. When he was mad, things didn't get easier, they hit the fan then blew back on his enemies.

"I should make a pit stop and buy a raincoat," I grumbled as I slid into the driver's seat, but nothing would protect me from Chance, so a 'pit stop' wouldn't happen on my way back to the hospital.

After cranking the car that sputtered to life, I extracted my phone from my purse. No missed calls or missed texts. Or voicemails.

"Shit, Chance! Call me back, please!" I pitched the phone and my purse on the passenger seat and sped off.

The sun was reaching its highest point in the sky, traffic nonexistent, the fifteen-minute trip to Arrow General commuted even quicker with me speeding all the way there. Fortunately, Sheriff Astrid Powers was at the party being thrown by Tommy; she'd married his nephew Blake.

Deputy Cooper Miles, who most surely was on duty, liked to stick to the county limits, and I was heading into the city. Parking was easy to find in the back of the hospital, where I dashed through the rear double-sliding doors. The elevator took its time carrying me up to the fifth floor where my heart was, lying deathly still on her bed. Tubes attached to her in two places too many fed a little more life into her. Paler than usual, she slept but wasn't resting.

As a failure, I stood at the end of her bed and watched her little chest expand shallowly but too quickly as if she couldn't take in enough air. Something deep inside wanted me to believe that if I unhooked her from the machines and ran away with her, taking her home, she would surely get better there, right?

Wrong.

I'd have to fly away without her to Utah and bring back what was better for her to her. With the phone being crushed in my hand, I dialed up the local airport and requested a round-trip ticket to Utah that cost me a third of the money in my bank account.

The second I hung up on the customer representative, Dr. Blane walked into the room and stood beside me. His mocha-tinted skin rippled with muscles under his lab coat. Hair cropped close to his head teemed with glossy waves. Empathy gusted off of him, along with his natural manly musk tinged with the sandalwood scent that Chance wore. The smell would've driven me crazy if my daughter's poor state of health hadn't consumed me from the inside out. I didn't do reminders of Chance well either, although I swore I was over him.

"Did you get in touch with Majestic's father yet, Mahogany?"

"I'm trying. I left him a message after you called me. He hasn't responded back. I'm down to flying to Utah and dragging his ass back here kicking and screaming."

"When's your flight?"

"In an hour."

"You should leave now. You still have to get through the security check, and the airport is twenty minutes away."

I have to leave her again, I yelled inside my head before a sob broke from me. I was conflicted; I couldn't stay. I couldn't go. Pure misery had me in its grasp, slowly ripping me to shreds one slash at a time. Cupping my mouth with one hand trapped the rest of the moans that would've broken free.

"I can't leave her again, Dr. Blane. Look what happened to her when I left earlier. Maybe I can send someone to get—"

"Her condition would've deteriorated with or without you here, Mahogany, and will continue to," he interrupted with a stern tone. "That's why I had you go to your boss's party, to get a break from the torture of seeing your daughter like this. I'm her doctor, and this isn't easy for me. So, yeah, I'm condoning you dragging Majestic's father back here kicking and screaming. Kidnap him if you have to. Tie him to a chair and rob him of his blood yourself with a knife and a cup. Whatever it takes... but just make sure to cover the cup with a lid. Oh, and put it in ice afterward."

I snorted, humor finding me again when the last thing I wanted to do was laugh.

Dr. Blane whirled toward me with a finger pointed in my direction and a smile on his thick lips. "But if you tell anyone I said any of that, I'm going to call you a bald-faced, delusional liar. I like you and Majestic, Mahogany, but not enough to get fired or do time for you for conspiracy to murder someone."

"I understand completely that I'm on my own when the cops show up asking questions. You're silly, Dr. Blane, you know that?"

"Correct." He returned to his original position, gazing at the toddler in the bed who hadn't so much as twitched when I walked in.

My voice alone should've had Majestic diving from the bed into my arms after she got caught jumping on it still in her shoes, though she knew better than to put her feet on anything.

In the corner of my eye, Dr. Blane's smile slipped from his face. "Seriously though, I got her, Mahogany, but you have to go and do what you have to quickly to keep her here... whatever that may be."

"I know. I just have to say..." But I couldn't spit out goodbye. It was wrong somehow as if once that word left my lips, it'd be the last time I said them to her. I couldn't bear that.

Dr. Blane lightly touched my trembling shoulder, getting my attention. "Don't say goodbye to her, Mahogany. Say you'll be back because you will."

"Damn straight, I will."

I approached the bed and kissed my baby girl on both of her sunken cheeks. Her eyes were rimmed in black from her sickness that was doing its best to kill what was left of her. She resembled Chance so much sometimes, it hurt to look at her.

In her ear, I whispered, "Listen to me, Majestic. I cannot live in this world without you. I won't, and you can't leave me either. Give mommy a little more time to get what you need, and I promise you'll feel better soon. Wait for me, baby girl. I'll be back, and I love you."

As I stood up, she made a sucking motion with her lips, an indication that she was hungry though she was being tube fed because she was being kept sedated to ease her pain. Just two-years-old and she could put away enough groceries to make a fat man judge her for it, or she used to. I couldn't wait until she was eating me out of house and home again.

When I finally left the hospital and got in my car I pleaded with any higher being listening to perform a miracle for her, to give her back her vitality and precociousness. "Or just take what she needs from me, but do something. I need a sign that everything is going to be okay." Nothing out of the ordinary happened immediately to represent a glimmer of hope. I beat my fists against the steering wheel and railed at the world. "Just one damn sign is all I asked for, and I can't even get that!"

A sudden roaring above had me looking up to the heavens. For a moment, I was pretty sure I just ticked off someone upstairs and was about to pay for it, but it was a small plane emerging from the clouds, dropping in altitude over Arrow's Airport tarmac. Someone arriving in Arrow wasn't the sign I was looking for. People flew in and out of here all the time, mostly filthy-rich someones coming to check into their room booked at the ski resort where they would laze around in the high life for the weekend or reunite with a loved one who lived here while my little girl was dying.

"Fucking typical!" I screamed, growing bitter and angry at how some were favored more than others in this world. Although, an orphan like me was accustomed to that.

After being abandoned near a fire station in Spindle and raised by people who didn't have an ounce of kindness in them, I was personally acquainted with some of the pitfalls in life. That didn't mean Majestic should be treated unfairly too because life was a bitch. For the first time ever, I was beginning to hate my position in the world because it didn't allow for luxuries like family members who lived close by and would return my frantic calls or could also be a match for Majestic. My pitiful excuse for an existence that was chosen for me was about to cost me the most precious thing I had. Before I lost her, I was going to fight tooth and nail for her life.

Short-term parking was available in the front of the old, aero dome-shaped building. I ran inside with just my purse and phone. Traveling light made security check a breeze for me, not so much for the other people who had actual luggage. More people were going out of Arrow than coming in.

I was fidgeting in my aisle seat for half an hour before we were cleared for takeoff. When we coasted down the runway, I fell into a light doze instantly, sure I was well on my way to keeping my promise to Majestic, and used to resting when I could since she became ill. It seemed like the minute I closed my eyes, a pretty, red-haired flight attendant shook my shoulder and told me that we had landed in Fredrickson.

"Thank you." I yawned, moved along the aisle with the rest of the passengers while checking my phone that no one had reached out to.

I didn't know whether to scream or punch something. Do neither, Mahogany. Now is not the time to catch a disturbing the peace charge.

I dialed Chance's number again while speed walking through the much classier airport in Fredrickson, getting his voicemail again.

"Dammit, Chance, please pick up! I'll do anything if you help my daughter! I won't ask for anything else from you! You don't even have to meet her or see me, just be a decent man and save her! And call me! Please!"

Reaching the exit on the other side of the building before I had even finished leaving the panicked message, I hailed the first cab I saw and gave the driver directions to Middleton Architectural. In the back of the car, I stared at my phone, willing it to ring. It hadn't by the time we reached Chance's building. Ten minutes had passed, and I was a wreck. Not how I'd want my ex to see me for the first time in years, but my wrinkled cocktail dress and limp hair sagging on my shoulders would have to do.

Outside the building, I urged the cabbie to wait while I ran inside. The middle-aged driver in a colorful dashiki with an African accent promised he would wait because I hadn't paid him yet.

Twenty minutes before closing the doors to outsiders for the day, I skidded to a stop on the Italian tile at the security personnel's desk.

The uniformed rent-a-cop looked at me suspiciously. "Can I help you, ma'am?"

"Yes, I need to see Chance Middleton. It's an emergency. Life and death."

His tanned facial features fell under the weight of his sudden sympathy. "I'm sorry but—"

"Don't be sorry! Just get him down here!" I demanded at the top of my voice.

The man huffed. "Ma'am, I'm trying to tell you that even if I could reach him, he's not here."

No, no, no.

I started to pace in circles, slowly losing my mind. "Where did he go?"

He shook his head. "I can't tell you that."

Not what I wanted to hear, so I rushed the desk and slapped my palms down on the gleaming brown-wood top with so much force the guard nearly jumped right out of his chair.

"Then, get him on the phone wherever the hell he is and tell him I'm here! Mahogany Jefferson! He's the only one that can help my daughter, his daughter, who's dying from cancer as we speak! She doesn't have long! Please find him!"

I had to look like a raving lunatic snarling with my teeth gritted, eye sockets stretched to the max as my dry eyes gobbled up the security guard.

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am," he stammered. "I don't have a way to contact him. He's not my boss technically and..." He stopped to pan the lobby as if he was afraid someone was listening in, but there was no one else but us around.

He stood up to lean over the desk, getting so close I could smell the cigarette smoke on his breath. "Mr. Middleton isn't even in Utah right now. He left for some work emergency, I think about an hour ago. Just took off out the building, yelling at his secretary to call his driver, email him everything he'd need for the trip, to have his pilot get his jet ready, and arrange transportation after he got wherever he's going. It's Friday, so he won't be back here until Monday at least. I'm sorry, ma'am. So sorry about your daughter. I have one too. Can you call his family?"

When did Chance get a jet? Why would life give him a way to escape his daughter's fate but not her and me? The bottom of my stomach dropped, and the world tilted on its axis.

"No, I can't call his family," I said softly with my head and shoulders drooping, couldn't speak above a whisper. "I don't have their numbers, and I can't stay here for long."

All out of places to track Chance, I had to go home and tell my child that I'd failed her; she wouldn't make it to three-years-old.
Chapter Two

Half an hour before landing

~Chance~

The flight attendant entered the cabin of the plane where I sat before a wireless printer in its slot carved in the round table bolted to the floor, waiting for it to spit out the last sheet of the paperwork I'd be taking with me once I was on the ground again. She halted in the center of the red-carpeted aisle.

"Mr. Middleton, please buckle up, terminate your access to the internet, and all calls. We're waiting for the air traffic controllers to let us land. Right now, they have us circling around the airport until space has been found for us to set down. It seems Arrow's Airport is pretty busy today," she announced in a pleasant tone meant to soothe.

I didn't bother to look up, could see every inch of her from my side view. She was beautiful, blonde, and built to attract with curves that would make a racetrack jealous. "Okay, Alice."

"Thank you." She loitered and tilted her head to the side instead of vanishing like I wanted her to. "Is everything okay, Mr. Middleton? Do you need anything before we land? A Scotch? A back rub?"

You wish. I transformed that thought to my face, then glowered at her. She paled, about-faced on her sensible heels, and ghosted the cabin.

I should feel bad about intimidating her. Yeah, well, I don't, not after dealing with enough gold diggers to know one when I see and hear one.

When the last sheet glided onto the printer's tray, I slammed my laptop shut, placing it in the empty seat beside me to do as the stewardess asked, beyond infuriated with Mahogany Jefferson. She was so many things to me. Love of my life. Breaker of my heart. Ruiner of my future. I assumed I'd never hear from her again. Then, out of the blue came a voicemail from her about my daughter dying of leukemia.

My daughter.

After stacking the paperwork in a manila folder and banging it down on the table, I leaned forward and cradled my head in my hands, distressed, heart beating fast enough to worry a cardiologist. It hadn't pumped a single drop of blood since Mahogany broke things off with me. Now, it was making up for lost time after lying dormant in my chest, after learning she had done the one thing I forbade her to do. It wasn't because I really was the cold son of a bitch she thought I was. Well, I was that, but because having my blood type was a death sentence.

I hoped if I acted like a cold son of a bitch when it came to children, Mahogany would let the subject drop. I could spare her and any child we weren't supposed to have together from the tragedy she and Majestic were currently locked in any way. Selfishly, I could also avoid admitting I wanted children with only her but wouldn't dare risk her having them, condemning them to suffer from a variety of possible illnesses, if not all of them at once. I would've been open to adopting when she was ready for motherhood, a moot point now. I was a father, and all my nightmares had become a reality.

From the way I talked to Mahogany before she left me, she likely expected me to ask for proof that Majestic was mine before I underwent any procedure to save our child, just to make her life a living hell. Majestic's illness was already producing a living hell for Mahogany, who I thought loved hard. Apparently, she loved not at all when pertaining to me. She had me convinced she could be too loyal for her own damn good sometimes. I don't believe that about her anymore either, so I would ask for proof of paternity, but it was a waste of time. Mahogany would've already been warned of the risks by a doctor if she called up the wrong father and allowed him to give her daughter their stem cells. And if she called me, it was because she wanted her daughter to live.

My phone beeped, signaling a voicemail had come through. The ringer was turned off for my peace of mind and because my business was at a standstill until my daughter was out of the woods. However, my shareholders and business affiliates didn't know that. I picked up the device from the top of my briefcase next to the laptop, then swiped the icon of the program that would read the voicemail to me like a text.

Dammit, Chance, please pick up. I'll do anything if you help my daughter. I won't ask for anything else from you. You don't even have to meet her or see me. Just be a decent man and save her. And call me. Please.

I'll do anything if you help my daughter. I must've reread that line over fifty times on the app before I was forced back in my seat by the plane dipping down to land finally. Mahogany made two major mistakes when she left an open-ended line like that on my voicemail.

One, she left it on my voicemail when she had already done all she needed to do to get me to her and Majestic's side with the first voicemail.

Two, she let her desperation take control of the situation and compel words from her that she didn't expect to be taken in literal context. No one ever did... until their words were used against them to get something from them that they never thought they'd have to give up unwillingly.

The more I read the line, the more I plotted against Mahogany.

She'd do anything, she said.

Well, I needed something done—a reversal of the heartache she caused me. I lived with it unhappily for her. I wanted liberation from her hold on me and the freedom to have a happy life with someone else. Only a fool would've fallen in love with her in the first place, trusted her. She hadn't deserved me willingly enduring loneliness to ensure her happiness, nor the lies I told myself about who she was inside—loving, loyal, and worthy. Yet, I still wanted her, who was a witch.

I wouldn't be shocked if she practiced black magic, binding me to her. A grave mistake on her part because I was going to give my body what she made it want the most. Her. Use her body to fall out of love with her. Break my heartstrings attached to her. All I had to do was hold her to her promise on the voicemail until every one of those strings was clipped and my disgust for what she had done to me, but more importantly to Majestic, built so high I couldn't stand to be in her presence.

Looking out the porthole next to me, the last plane waiting for takeoff on the tarmac rose into the sky as my mind made an extensive list of the things Mahogany would be doing. Mentally staging a war was the only thing keeping me from going insane as my child, who did not know me, laid in a bed near death. Mahogany would do everything I asked. She was a keeper of her word, who never promised she wouldn't have my child. So what, she had found a loophole? She still broke my trust. Now, that cold son of a bitch I could be sometimes would be let out to play with Mahogany until I loved her no longer. Finally.

Alice appeared in the doorway between the cabin and the flight attendant's quarters. "Mr. Middleton," she called to me timidly. "You can deplane now, and ah, I want to apologize for—"

I sat up abruptly, gathering what I needed for my trip to the hospital. "Don't worry about it, Alice. We all do what we have to, to get what we want in life, right?" Including taking it from others even when they didn't want to give it.

She nodded, twisting and untwisting her fingers in knots nervously. "Right."

"Just don't do it again." The warning of what would happen next to her was implied.

She nodded even faster. "No, sir... I mean, yes sir."

"Go back home. Rest. I'll be in Arrow for a while, at least a week. Tell that to Captain Norlen for me, will you? I'll call him when I'm ready to go home."

"Yes, sir." She vanished into the cockpit to relay the message.

I exited the plane, then entered the building to find the checkout counter where I was handed the keys to a top of the line BMW. The heavily-tinted sedan was parked beside a Dodge Avenger that seemed to be on its last legs. Accessing the GPS system, I entered Arrow General Hospital on the touch screen, then let the automated female voice lead me to my destination, to my daughter.

Quickly parking, I sought out the nearest nurse's station, announced who I was with identification in hand, then asked for Dr. Blane and Majestic's room number.

"I'm her father." As much as that broke my heart to say, it made my chest puff out proudly. I was a father, though I had come to terms with never being one a long time ago when it was me in my own hospital bed, not knowing whether I was going to live or die. At least Majestic was too young to understand or remember this time in her life if she survived, and God willing, she would live.

"Yes, Lord, no wonder little Majestic is so cute," a middle-aged nurse muttered while seated behind a computer in navy-blue scrubs, examining my identification before giving it back, grinning. "Here you go, sweetheart. I'll have Dr. Blane up here in no time for you. Anything else you want?"

I shook my head, used to women coming on to me in subtle ways and not so subtle ones.

Behind her, an identically-dressed younger nurse was piling up clipboards on a backside countertop and rolling her eyes heavenwards. "Don't do that, Doris."

Doris smirked, picked up her desk phone, and punched in some numbers. "I'm not doing it, Felicia. He's doing it by being tall, dark, and handsome in front of me. Shit, I'm old, not dead. If I didn't ask if he needed anything, I wouldn't know... Yes, Dr. Blane, Majestic's father is here to see you. I'm sure you're doing your rounds but wouldn't mind if I interrupted you with Mr. Chance Middleton's arrival... I didn't think so... He's at the nurse's station on the ground floor... I sure will take care of him until you get here." She winked at me, and I sniggered.

The younger nurse got butter fingers and fumbled the clipboards, which landed on the floor. Felicia was too shocked by Doris's behavior and probably would've fainted dead away if she saw the wink. "Doris, be professional! Who's the oldest and should know better here? I'm calling Miss Millie and letting her know how her friend is acting at work."

"Miss Millie ain't the boss of me, Felicia, but you can call her to gossip if you want to. If people ain't talking about you, you ain't relevant."

Dr. Blane showed up then, extending his hand to me for a strong-gripped handshake. "Be good, Doris. Glad you made it, Mr. Middleton, but Mahogany just left looking for you in Utah."

Is that right? One of the planes that took off before mine set down must've been hers, and she and Dr. Blane have to be pretty close if he was calling her by her first name.

"We probably passed each other in the sky." Oddly, I was glad she wasn't here. My emotions were too heightened. I'd kiss the hell out of her for hello instead of playing it cool and calculating around her. "What do you need me to do for Majestic, Dr. Blane? Then, I'd like to see her."

"Sure thing. Walk with me to a triage room, and be glad medicine has come a long way. Back in the day, I'd have to put you in a gown and drill into your hips to get the stem cells that she needs. But now, I just take a few, like ten, tubes of blood from you, extract the stem cells from there to treat your daughter with, along with what I hope is her next to last round of chemo. With any luck afterward, she'll go home to recover in a few days."

As we walked along the hall, 'Treat your daughter' and 'Go home to recover' replayed in my head. Those were the words I never wanted to hear a doctor say regarding my child. Except, he was saying them. I had been thrown headfirst into this moment. It was like diving into a pool with no water in it, and nothing was going to rewrite this day in history. I was going to have to get through it, then find Mahogany to make her pay dearly for endangering a child simply by giving birth to one with my genetics.

Just like Mahogany to raise a child alone because she was stubborn as hell. I guaranteed that hadn't changed, but my daughter was the true reason why she left me. I felt ridiculous for believing Mahogany was a good woman through and through back then, one I couldn't look in the face and confess my deepest, darkest secret to because I didn't want to lose her faster than I was already going to. Well, that secret was out. Still, I couldn't bring myself to talk to her, though I just left in the middle of a meeting with a potential client, jumped on my plane, and flew to Colorado to do what I could for Majestic, therefore for Mahogany.

Her name itself made me weak-kneed. I couldn't count how many times I wished I could forget it. Forget her and every time I slid into the soft, soaked tunnel of her body and slaked my thirst for her. Never quenched. Satisfaction lasted for a little while until she smiled or turned a certain way. If she just breathed on me, I was ready to make love to her again. It was a beautiful but vicious cycle. The desire never went away.

I never found someone else to take her place. God knows I tried. Took me six months of useless dating and not being able to bring the night to a satisfactory close with any woman after Mahogany to figure out that she was it for me. Being incapable of making love messed with my head big time until I figured out what my problem was. My heart was longing for Mahogany and affecting my body to the point where it wouldn't take satisfaction from any other woman or give it as if it would be betraying her.

At least my cock allowed my hands to take her place but gave empty climaxes. I was okay with that. Knew I would never find another like her. Loved her enough to let go, so I wouldn't keep her from what she felt she needed and would only get from another man. I had no idea how that choice made before we broke up would affect me mentally and physically until I was without her. Low and behold, she already had the one thing I wouldn't willingly give her tucked safely and secretly away in her body when she packed her bags and jetted away without leaving even a Dear John letter behind.

Oh, but I regret now more than ever not finding her. Not bringing her back. Not making her tell me what was truly on her mind the last night we spoke. Not making her tell me the truth just as she tried to get me to do. And now, I regretted not raising my daughter the most. If my child was anything like her mother, she was majestic, stood tall and regal like Mahogany, stubborn, but fair-skinned where Mahogany had a drop of beige to create her earthy skin tone. I had used my fingertips to trace every inch of her flesh for hours while I wondered what gene pool had mixed to create that gorgeous woman who was now the bane of my existence. She made me into a fucking killer anyway, and Majestic, my only child, was my victim.

Grief struck me so damn hard I wanted to throw my head back and howl like a madman, more sorrowful for what Majestic was going through than me. And if I didn't get here in time to save her, Mahogany would rue the day she ever met me. So fucking furious, I had to push back the emotions running unchecked through me before I could pick up the dropped threads of the conversation.

"Ten tubes is not a few, Dr. Blane. How is Majestic doing right now white-blood-cell-count wise?"

He veered around a corner, taking an immediate left into a small room with medical files stacked almost to the ceiling on iron shelves and a raised chair with extended armrests meant for taking blood. I sat down in it without being prompted to. He collected glass tubes, a tourniquet, and a plastic-wrapped needle.

"Mr. Middleton, I'm sorry to say, but her white blood cell count is too high and slowly strangling her organs. I, however, could drill into your hips with no anesthesia one time each if you like that number better than ten," he joked, or maybe he wasn't joking.

"No, thank you very much. If my hips are not needed right now, a few tubes of blood is fine. We'll save the hip drilling for when it's necessary." I needed my hips for getting payback. Mahogany had no idea what I had in store for her.

"Alright, Mr. Middleton, pick a sleeve and roll it up. I'll take it from there."

********

An hour and a half later back in Colorado

~Mahogany~

After driving home to change my clothes and stall on telling my baby that her mother couldn't save her, night had settled in. At the hospital, I was told I'd find Dr. Blane in the triage room on the first floor. I slunk in there like a tired, old lady, then slumped against the nearest wall, head hung low.

"I couldn't find him, Dr. Blane," I said pitifully.

He glimpsed up from the file he was flipping through and writing notes in. "I'm sure you couldn't find him."

I rolled my head in his direction, frowning at him. "What does that mean?"

"Well, he was here while you were in Utah."

I was sure I was hearing things. "What did you say?"

"He was here. Tall, white guy, brunette, medium-length hair, medium build, tailored business suit, snappy gray eyes, real self-confidence, HH blood type, and very angry. Although, he tried to hide that he was hotter than a just-fired thirty-eight pistol under a deep, smooth voice that flowed like wine. Oh, and he had his medical history printed and on hand for me."

That sounded just like the Chance that would've come here today, prepared and pissed off with printouts he'd have made just to have something to do to keep from losing his shit on the way here.

"Okay," I uttered, stunned as the first inkling of hope bubbled under the surface of my skin.

It lent me enough strength to hold my head up while my hands palmed the wall to keep the rest of me standing. I began to breathe too hard as I tried to think of what to do next. The rest of my hopes were trying to fly high. I pushed them down. Letting them soar only to have them cruelly shot down would do me in completely.

Dr. Blane swung around, propped his backside against the countertop buried under more medical files, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Mr. Middleton didn't call you and tell you that he was coming here today?"

"No, he never called me back, and by the time I got to his building, he was gone on some work emergency. That's what the guard at Chance's company told me, but Chance must've been on his way here. How did I miss him?" Then I started to put what seemed like unrelated events together in a rush. "The plane I saw over the airport, it was his, so he arrived as I boarded my plane. That means I had gotten my sign that everything was going to be okay after all, but I didn't know how to interpret it, so I wrote it off as irrelevant. The security guard said he thought it was a work emergency, but it wasn't. Majestic was the emergency. Chance had dropped everything for her." I was getting hysterical.

Dr. Blane cocked an eyebrow, not able to follow my rambling. "I don't know if Majestic would be considered a work emergency, but he was here doing his duty as a father and apologizing to Majestic for cursing her with what the medical profession calls Bombay blood from his grandmother who's from Mumbai. Maybe you're going to pay him for giving his time, so it can be considered work by the government who would be more than glad to tax the money, but I'm not giving him a cent."

Hope bum-rushed me anyway, taking my breath, but Dr. Blane had said Chance gave his time, not his blood. I had to find Chance and do whatever I had to, to get him to give blood. Standing erect, I prepared to take off running, bouncing toward the door, then bouncing back in place, unable to keep still suddenly.

"Where is he now? He has to give his blood, Dr. Blane!" I cried.

He crossed the room in his navy-blue clogs and held me in one place by gripping my forearms. "Calm down, Mahogany, before you start to hyperventilate. I don't know where he is now, but he gave me his blood already, checked in on Majestic for about twenty minutes, and left. He said he'd be back in an hour or two at the latest, that he had something to do."

In disbelief, I gripped Dr. Blane's upper arms back and shook him. "He gave his blood!"

"Yes, I said that already and that he left afterward, remember? Doesn't take but a minute to give blood. After processing it, another minute or two to transfuse it to Majestic." He grinned. "You missed a lot." Obviously, and I didn't have to persuade Chance to do the right thing by Majestic, but he was always a good man.

"Oh, my God! Majestic!" I yelled at the top of my voice for no reason other than I was filled with pure joy. "How is she? Talk quick! I need to go to her!"

"No, you don't, not like this. Someone might think you're hopped up on uppers and call children services, thinking you're a drug addict. You need to sit down and catch your breath. She's fine. The transfusion went well. I expect her to be doing well, too, even better in a few days. Right now, she's still sedated. I had a nurse take her feeding tube out, and when she wakes up, we'll see if Majestic can eat something light. You don't get to go in her room with all this energy, though you look like you haven't slept in a month. When was the last time you ate and had eight hours of sleep?"

"I..." Didn't know, so I shrugged.

"Oh, that's bad. I thought I'd gotten through to you about letting yourself get run down. I guess not," he scolded. "Go to the cafeteria and get whatever you want on me, then meet me in Majestic's room in twenty minutes. I'll tell you what my prognosis is for her condition then and only then. I catch you in her room before then, you're off her visitor's list for the night."

I felt about two inches tall for being drained and energized at the same time and thoroughly chastised. "Okay, but I can't accept—"

"Yes, you can because it's the only way I'll be able to prove you've really done what I said. Majestic needs her mother, but she'll be burying you if you stress any more than you're doing on an empty stomach and running on empty. If I have to run up my tab in the cafeteria to make sure you live through this too, then that's what I'll do. Jeez, woman, you're going to get me fired for not being able to stay disconnected from your situation. No wonder I'm gay. Women are too much."

I did a double-take. "I would've never guessed that about you, but I should have after the description you gave of Chance. Can you say detailed, Dr. Blane?"

He chuckled. "It's good you couldn't have guessed that about me before now. That means I did something right according to the rules, and you didn't hear about my status from me either. Doctors are supposed to be detached, closemouthed about themselves, and cold to patients and their family members, but who couldn't love Majestic?"

"Her father," ripped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

He sucked air through his teeth. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"I'm not sure either at this point. He came through for her without saying one word to me." And it saddened me that I didn't have any more confidence in Chance communicating openly with me than I did three years ago.

"Go eat, Mahogany. Things will look better in the morning." My shift in mood must've been as clear as glass to him.

"Done."

I made my way quietly to the cafeteria, but Chance avoiding me stopped me from being completely happy about the turnaround in events. He still affected me, and I wanted to see him again, even if he wasn't happy with me right now. I wasn't sorry for keeping Majestic from him until I couldn't but hated that I had deceived him. My deceit had almost been Majestic's undoing, but I would never repent for having her. I regretted that Chance and I couldn't raise her together, couldn't continue to love one another in a healthy relationship. Our ups and downs had broken us, making me have to live without him. That, I was sorry for, and he would never know it.

After selecting a cold-cut sandwich and a bottle of water that I paid for with the little cash in my pocket, doing what I could to save Dr. Blane's job, I texted Tommy and Kat an update, then sneaked back to Majestic's room to watch over her and eat. The dark rings around her eyes were already lightening up while her skin tone was darkening, slowly on its way back to its normal tone. Her breathing was deeper and slower, all signs that she was getting better already.

After what Chance had done for Majestic, if I had fallen out of love with him, I'd have fallen right back in, but I never stopped loving him. The urge to call him and thank him hit me square between the eyes. He wouldn't answer my call, though, or appreciate another voicemail with my voice on it. Because of that, my heart ached a little. I had been through worse heartache because of him, though, so the pain wasn't as bothersome. I went through a lot more when getting used to being without him. Dating still wasn't an option for me yet. No other man was Chance.

At some point after disposing of my sandwich wrapper and Majestic's first little snore that meant she was resting finally, sleep took me. Hyperawareness buzzed around my unconsciousness like a pack of bees the whole while I slept, it seemed, making my nap unpeaceful. Eventually, I gave up on getting forty winks. Exhausted in the body, eyelids heavy, my ears perked up first, listening for the reason of the nagging sensation that woke me, like maybe Majestic was awake and up to no good.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except my back cramping from bending over Majestic's bed while still in my chair. I had my head on top of my forearms, which had gone numb. Even in my sleep, I wanted to be near her.

The room was dead silent but bright, which meant morning had arrived. I could've gone back to sleep if I wanted to, a rarity at home when Majestic was there. I should've indulged myself while I had the chance, but something was off. It was too quiet. Even sick, Majestic made noise, snoring or suckling her lips. When she was well, she chatted away to her stuffed animals or released sucking sounds as she often did when chewing on something she shouldn't to ease the teething that was lasting forever. The cancer had slowed down her body's ability to work properly and quickly.

I opened my eyes that were dry and gritty, visibly searching for what was bothering me in my sleep. The first thing I saw was Chance sitting on the opposite side of the bed. He had his head thrown back against the armchair as if he was relaxing in a sauna. He was breathtaking in his wrinkled baby-blue shirt and black slacks, hair tousled as if he slept at some point in his chair too, or ran his hands through his longish tresses a thousand times during the night. His eyes contradicted his peaceable disposition. They were like razor-blades, cutting me to pieces. My past had come back to hurt me, and I had nowhere to run.

"Ohhhh shit," I stressed under my breath.

His gray orbs narrowed on me. "'Oh shit' is right, Mahogany."

The blood ran cold in my body. He was so much angrier than I imagined he would be once he found out about Majestic.
Chapter Three

~Mahogany~

Chance sounded as if he was putting a curse on me just by saying my name. If that was his intention, it wouldn't have surprised me any. I left a life-altering message on his voicemail after years of being incommunicado, and he couldn't ever go back to the pleasant reality he once lived in. Having a daughter would always be at the back of his mind now, and I put it there.

He leaned forward in his seat, bracing his elbows on his knees and commenced with staring not just at me but through me. I was paralyzed like a deer in headlights and mesmerized. That stare could make or break my world. Always could.

"What does 'oh shit' mean, Mommy?" Majestic asked suddenly from behind me, then giggled.

I whipped my head toward her. She was quiet because she was laid back against a mountain of pillows that one of the pampering nurses had stuffed there and eating something that looked like chocolate. It was everywhere. Glad for the distraction from her father's penetrating glare, I rubbed her arm that was free of tubes but full of melted brown goo that I hoped was chocolate, wanting to touch her to make sure she was truly awake and I wasn't dreaming.

"No, baby. Mommy doesn't want you to say that. Bad words. Where did you get the chocolate from?"

She pointed what was left of the candy at her father, throwing him under the bus real quick. He often carried Hershey bars in his pocket to satisfy his sweet cravings, usually brought on by stress, and he should start carrying two bars if he was going to pass one along to Majestic every time her sweet cravings hit, which were nonstop. If he didn't, he was never going to have enough for the both of them, or get any for that matter.

"Me," Chance confessed. "When she woke up, Dr. Blane and the nurse were just wheeling in her food. I tried to convince her to eat. She wouldn't and wanted to wake you, promising she would do it herself if I didn't. I believed her. We all thought she just wasn't feeling well and wanted you, but you needed to rest. When I went to pick her up, the candy fell out of my pocket. She grabbed it up and wouldn't give it back, promising in a tiny little voice that she would eat just a little bit. She even measured out how much with two fingers pinched tightly together. Suddenly, she was hungry and quiet and too cute. I allowed myself to be played. It was the only way to keep her in the bed and quiet so you could sleep."

As if he cared how much rest I got.

Maybe he did, but Majestic definitely had him wrapped around her fingers already, as well as the hospital staff, and no wonder she was quiet. She was eating sweets for breakfast.

I'm going to kill Chance as soon as I get him out of this room.

Majestic scrunched up her miniature version of Chance's nose as if something stunk suddenly. "'Oh shit' is bad words, Mommy?" she asked, her wide-eyes clear and glowing like gray flares.

I sighed but grinned and wasn't fooled by her innocent act. "Yes, do not say 'oh shit' again, Majestic, or I'm going to find a time-out bed and put you in it for two minutes. Only adults can say that, and you're nowhere near to being grown, but you know that, little girl, so stop trying to play me like you did Chance."

She nodded her head in understanding, hated to be alone in any way unless she was doing something bad, as in eating the candy that was dripping off her chin onto her gown. "You do not say 'oh shit' either, Mommy."

I started laughing and couldn't stop, deliriously happy despite the turmoil Chance was causing within me and the little minx that had gotten one over on everybody even while sick. "I won't say it again if you don't, Majestic." Unless Chance was the first thing I saw unexpectedly when I opened my eyes again. "And that time-out bed is just in the other room," I lied.

Her little head bobbed even faster as she filled her mouth with more chocolate, more than likely to keep the next 'oh shit' from tripping off her tongue.

"You do know she completely understands what you're saying from the jump but being deliberately obtuse so she can keep saying the bad words, right?" Chance piped in.

"Yes, Captain Obvious, I think I just commented as much."

"Well, at least you got something right," he responded coldly.

The temperature in the room dropped to frosty. I swallowed hard. With my luck, that wouldn't be the last smart ass comment he made in Majestic's presence. The devil himself was on the warpath. At this point, I needed to find his good side, by letting him get whatever was on his chest off so he wouldn't blow his top on me in front of Majestic. That was unacceptable, but his thoughts had to be whirling at a million miles per minute, right along with his anger that he had every right to feel.

"Can I talk to you outside for a minute, Chance?"

"No," he said simply, swiftly, harshly.

"Ooookay." So I was going to have to deal with him on his terms, which just made things so much worse. He could be as rigid as a slab of concrete when he wanted to be.

"We'll talk when Majestic takes her next nap, Mahogany."

I assumed this was going to be a long conversation that needed some groundwork done on my end before we talked. Locating the nearest boxing ring was the first thing I should do, then find a coach to teach me how to box. Chance and I were going to go round for round. He wasn't going to take it easy on me either.

"In that case, let me get her cleaned up, and then I'll find Dr. Blane and get his latest prognosis for her." Then, I was going to go hunt for the west side of Hell for a little while, so I'd have a reason to stay out of this room while Chance was in it.

The old Mahogany would've climbed in his lap and let the world slip away for a while when things got rough. He was always good at erecting a bubble around me that nothing could past through. Only he was the one I needed to be protected from, and nope, I don't think he'd create a bubble that he couldn't get into to get to me.

He huffed air, drawing my attention. "I can give you the report that he gave me about two hours ago. She's responding to my stem cells faster than he expected with her condition being so far gone as it was. But she's two, so healing isn't as much a task for a child's body as it is for an adult. Dr. Blane also signed off on me giving her the chocolate to keep her still, thinking that she would play with it, not eat it, let alone the whole bar. He was concerned about you not getting enough rest too."

"Dr. Blane would be concerned, but he doesn't know Majestic as well as I thought he did. She probably smelled the chocolate on you."

Chance's forehead furrowed, and I pondered what in the hell was he thinking at that moment.

"Her white blood cell count is also down." His declaration hit home, and the outer edges of my vision went fuzzy.

I waited to hear those words from Dr. Blane since Majestic was first diagnosed with leukemia, and they never came. Ironic that I was hearing them from the mouth of the man who wanted nothing to do with Majestic before now. Well, I didn't care where they came from, just that they had finally arrived. Chance had no idea that he changed my world in a split second, as he did when I met him, then when I left him. But this time, my world was right side up again.

"Thank you," I mumbled as tears dripped from my chin.

I was sure I looked a hot mess just waking up, and now, I was crying too. Well, I didn't give two flips about what I looked like, just that I wasn't coming apart at the seams anymore but coming back together. It felt too amazing to not cry.

"Thank me for what, Mahogany?"

"For everything, Chance. For coming through for your daughter. For saying what I've wanted to hear for months. For being you." Being who I never thought he would be—a father.

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't have to thank me if you'd hadn't done what I'd told you to never do."

He stood up, with thunder in his face, snatched his suit jacket from the back of the chair, and stormed off. I didn't stop him. His shitty attitude wasn't going to ruin the mood for me. No sir. I was happy for once and would be basking in this moment. All negative energy was welcomed to get the hell out of my space and fly home if it wanted to.

Majestic's eyes trailed him out the door, her thin eyebrows bunched together in confusion. Her chocolate factory was getting away. When he disappeared from the room entirely, she looked to me. "What's wrong with him, Mommy?"

"He's mad with me because I was bad, but he'll be alright because Mommy is happy with you. And you know what? I'm happy with him, too, even if he is stubborn. Let's get you a sponge bath, and then I'll find you some real food to eat."

She scrunched her nose up at that announcement, preferring the chocolate just like her father. "I am eating."

"That's not eating, Majestic, that's ruining your appetite, and Dr. Blane didn't really want you to eat it, love."

"But, it's good." She held up what was left of the rectangular squares as if she could prove it was good by simply lifting it in the air.

"I'm sure it is good, but don't get used to eating it for breakfast," I advised as I began to strip the bed around her. "Eat the little bit left so I can clean you up, munchkin."

I'd never tell her I missed having this argument with her, though, and the other little things that Majestic couldn't do while the chemo treatment sucked her body of energy and the sheer will it took to be bullheaded like her father. It was amazing how the things that bothered you the most about people are the first things you miss when a loved one was no longer themselves. Chance was certainly not himself. I wondered had he been here all night, watching over Majestic... and maybe me too, something he would've done for his loved ones.

"But I'm not his loved one anymore, so it wasn't you that he was worried about," I muttered as I started to wipe Majestic down with the clean parts of the sheets from the foot of the board, tossing the wrapper for the chocolate in the trashcan.

The door opened at the far end of the room. A middle-aged lady with gray streaks through what was once completely jet-black hair, who can usually be found at the nurses' station on the first floor, entered in neon pink scrubs, the nurses' uniform color for the day.

I greeted her. "Hey, Doris."

"Hi, Mahogany. I came to check on the little tyke and side-eye your baby daddy. Girl, that man is panty-dropping fine. Is he here... and what are you doing?"

Majestic had been in and out of here so much just about all the staff knew her and worried about her.

I snickered at Doris; Chance most definitely was panty-dropping fine. I bunched up the sheets at Majestic's feet before reaching down beneath the mattress to get clean ones from the storage bin hidden in the bed frame.

"Nope, he's gone. Don't know when he'll be back, and I'm going to make the bed then give Mahogany a sponge bath. My baby daddy let himself be tricked into giving her chocolate and conned out of feeding her a real breakfast."

Doris walked forward and waved me off. "Well, honey, sit down. I can do that. It takes away my job security when the patients' parents start cleaning up behind the patients. The big bosses will find out what people are willing to do and make it mandatory, and this patient is too precious to not be spoiled when she's been so sick. Isn't that right, baby girl?" she gushed and gently pinched Majestic's cheeks, who lapped the attention right up, smiling so hard her cheeks should hurt.

"Go find something to eat, Mahogany, or better yet, go find that baby daddy of yours and make another little doll like this one. I got Majestic."

I dropped the clean sheets on the bed, held up my hands in peace, and reversed out of Doris's way. I was beat and knew when to back off, but Majestic was going to be spoiled rotten by everyone that came in contact with her by the time I got her home. And I'd be damned if I sought out Chance only to get my head bit off for giving birth after he knocked me up. No way in hell I'd let him knock me up again, but I could eat.

For the first time in months, my stomach was quietly talking to my back about being neglected. I kissed Majestic's forehead before leaving.

"I'll be back, sweetheart. Mommy needs to eat something. I love you."

"Love you too, Mommy," she chirped back as Doris hauled her into her arms.

"Doris, if you have candy in your clothes, lock it down tight, please."

She harrumphed. "Will do, Mahogany. The only thing in these clothes is old-age spread. I'm positive Majestic doesn't want anything to do with that."

********

~Chance~

How can you be so angry with someone and want to kiss the living daylights out of them too? I deliberated on that while traveling the length of the display case in the cafeteria, searching for something edible. Nothing looked good besides the sweets that were likely filled with substitute sweeteners that didn't deserve the name. If you're going to eat sweets, dammit, they should actually be tooth-decaying good, not semi-sweet and good for you.

I'm going to have to go out to find my family something to eat that we can all be happy with. Time stood still as what I just did hit me. I'd thought 'my family' automatically, and it felt right. Being responsible for two more lives now felt good. Better than I thought it would with the cursed blood I carried, which made Majestic that much more special to me. She was here now, and I wouldn't change that for nothing. She should be taken care of by the man who wanted the best for her, too. Even if the best was hurtful to me. Like letting her mother go. That didn't work out so well for me the first time I tried it, though, and I didn't know if I could let her leave me again. Still wanted her with every damn part of me. The tent emerging at the zipper of my pants demanded I have her and soon.

I hung my coat from my arm in front of my crotch, reaching the end of the display case and coming away empty-handed. As I rotated around to question the nearest person about the closest restaurant that served soup, my head was listing things I needed to do for my family. It was hard not to wake Mahogany up when I came back last night. She had to be worn out after chasing after me and going through Majestic's illness alone. At least, I think she handled it alone. She and Dr. Blane seemed to have a connection, and no, I did not like it.

When I found her passed out halfway in, halfway out of her chair, any idiot could've guessed that she was more than tired. I didn't have the heart to move her or blast her for breaking the one commandment I set in our relationship, but I wanted to every time I looked at Majestic sick and small, dwarfed by the bed and tubes surrounding her. That caused me to agonize over my little girl, who I'd known for only a few hours. Meeting her just before I could've lost her was gut-wrenching, and she already had my heart in her little hands.

All night, I nodded off in my chair only to jerk awake fifteen minutes later to check on them both. It was a waste of time to leave for a few hours yesterday, buying necessities I didn't stop to pack in Fredrickson, and reserving a room at the Powers Royal Resort ten miles away when I spent the night here anyway. Couldn't leave them here alone. Now, I looked like yesterday and wanted a shower badly. One with Mahogany. I was going to get it, too. That woman could make a bath oh-so-fun.

Food first, Chance.

I didn't know a damn thing about Arrow or where to find something to eat besides the cafeteria. Wasn't looking forward to driving around aimlessly either. I spotted and approached a table where a woman in pink scrubs was talking to an older man in a lab coat with gray dotting his temple.

"Excuse me, is there a place here that I can find soup that doesn't taste like colored water?"

After the candy incident, I wasn't going to let Majestic con me again or risk Mahogany blasting into my ass for letting our daughter get me twice. Soft-spoken Mahogany had her limits with screw-ups, usually giving only one.

The man and woman I approached both looked up, the nurse laughing. "This is who I was telling you about, Dr. Sinclair. This morning, Majestic's father got a taste of what all she's willing to do to get chocolate. You can find whatever you want at Tommy's Cuisine, Mr. Middleton. It's close by. If Tommy doesn't have what you want on the menu for today, he'll cook it anyway, at any time of the day, as long as you're paying. And it's the best food. Ohhh, so good." She moaned and flopped back in her chair as if she was imagining taking in a mouthful of something delicious right then.

'The best food' sounded good, but 'close by' sounded even better.

"My name and my screw-up have gotten around, I see, and I like this Tommy already, nurse. Thank you."

She didn't even stop the daydreaming to acknowledge my gratitude.

Okay then. I spun around to Mahogany walking through the doorway of the cafeteria. When her eyes fell on me, she did her own spinning around to go back the way she came. I could practically see the 'oh shit' running through her mind. She didn't get to run from me again.

Jogging between the tables into the hallway she was dashing down to parts unknown brought her in my grabbing-distance in seconds. She glimpsed back just as I caught her by the waist, planted my feet on the tile, and pulled her between my widespread legs. Her back collided with my chest.

A muted 'oomph' expelled from her, along with a breathless, "Chance, what are you doing?"

"Stopping this pattern of yours before it's set," I spewed in her ear, wrapping my arms around her to keep her from getting away. "Stop running from me, Mahogany. We need to talk."

The cozy fit of our bodies was enough to drive me mad. I forgot why I chased her down in the first place, only remembering why I once thought this woman was made for me. The things we had done as a couple were marvelous, sweaty, messy things I'd like to repeat right there in the hallway. I settled for bending my head and breathing in her essence near her ear.

"Chance!" she gasped as if my breath on her skin had electrocuted her then pushed at my arms locked tight around her.

"You're not getting away, Mahogany, so stop trying."

She went slack against me. "Can I eat first before you go up one side of me and down the other about getting pregnant on accident?"

It may have been an accident, which I was still not sure how it happened, but she had other wrongs to right too. "That's not all you did, Mahogany, and you know it. I'm going to Tommy's Cuisine and—"

"No!" She wheeled around in my arms so fast she should've been dizzy. She had to catch her balance by grasping both of my shoulders.

I began to think something was wrong with her.

"You don't want to go there," she said hurriedly as if she was afraid of the place.

"Why not? The nurse said his restaurant was close by and made him seem very accommodating."

She closed one eye, then inhaled and held her breath. "Tommy doesn't like you much, Chance."

That took me aback. "What? He doesn't even know me." And it was never good to make enemies that you couldn't identify before they spotted you.

"He knows of you because I work at Tommy's Cuisine, and he's my boss."

Interesting.

"I get it now. What did you say to him about me?"

She pinched up her eyes, nose lifted in the air, then she groaned out, "The truth." Those words sounded ominous with the way she released them.

"You mean you told him your truth, Mahogany."

Tommy was going to spit in my food for sure.

She drew in air through her lips. "Well, yeah, because I was the one left holding the baby, remember?" Her truth shouldn't be the only truth that counted to her.

"Wrong, you left me while withholding the baby's existence from me. There's a difference."

"Can we agree to disagree then?"

"No."

Tommy had gotten her truth, and now, he would get mine. If she opened up to him about what was going on in her life, he meant something to her. His opinion counted with her; therefore, it counted with me. She wasn't the most talkative person in the world, so when Mahogany started a conversation, it was for a damn good reason. From now on, when she wanted to discuss something with me, I wouldn't shut down, no matter how painful the subject was. They all seemed to be painful when concerning her lately. All the more reason to get her out of my heart. And my system. Starting now.

"Let's go, Mahogany." I stepped back to stretch my hand out to her, not trusting that she wouldn't run the other way before we got to my rental car.

She frowned down at the hand reaching for her. "Go where?"

"Jesus, Mahogany! I'm not taking you to the woods to make you disappear. We're going to check on Majestic and let Dr. Blane know we'll be gone for about an hour. I need a shower and a change of clothes. So do you. I can drop you off at your place to get something to wear. We'll go to my room at the resort to bathe and save me from having to pick you up before we go to the restaurant." Where I'll speak with Tommy.

It was only fair her boss got my side and learned that I wasn't such a bad guy, most times. Mahogany was not going to feel that way once I was done with her, though.

She swiped at her forehead, wearily. "If you really want to do this, we can call in our order while we find Dr. Blane. That saves time too."

"Even better, and I really want to do this. I feel like I have to explain myself so my food will be spit-free while I'm in Colorado, so let's go. And we're still going to have that talk." I wiggled my fingers at her, encouraging her to take them.

She slowly reached out with one hand, dragging her phone out of her back pocket with the other one. "By the way, Tommy wouldn't spit in any food. He thinks every dish he creates is a temple to be worshipped. He will cuss you out, however, so be ready for that."

"Got it." This should be about as pleasant as getting a tooth pulled.
Chapter Four

~Mahogany~

A few feet from Majestic's room, Dr. Blane walked out of another patient's as I was placing an order with Tommy for chicken broth in the largest container that could be found in the store, a cheeseburger, and fries. My boss was so damn excited about Majestic's health taking a turn for the better, I was smiling, Chance grimacing in my side view.

When was the last time he smiled? I would ask him, but he probably wouldn't tell me. I experienced what happens when Chance doesn't want to talk about something. His idea of the cold shoulder changed worlds. Mine had gone through enough changes lately.

"Chance, what do you want to eat?" That question should be a safe one.

"A well-done steak, coleslaw, loaded baked potato, and water. I'll fill in Dr. Blane while you order for me."

They began to chat quietly outside Majestic's door, Chance twining his fingers a little tighter around mine as if he was sure I'd run away given half the chance. I would. His touch was blistering my skin, doing weird things to my stomach. It felt like old times when he was mine and loved to hold hands, and I was lucky to be his.

"So, he's still here, huh?" Tommy inquired dryly through the phone, dragging me back to the here and now. "Bring him by here. I'd like to meet him."

"That's good, Tommy. He definitely wants to meet you and make you understand his side of the story, so you don't spit in his food."

"Spit in his food? Please! I'd put my foot up his ass first for letting Majestic go two years without him. On second thought, no, I won't. I just avoided going to jail for hitting people, not trying to find more reasons to go or lose my business for spitting."

After what I just heard about Tommy and his fists of fury, he'd definitely try putting his furious foot up Chance's ass. Chance wasn't going to stand by and just let him do it, though. I wanted no parts of this meeting at all.

"This is not all his fault, so be civil for me, Tommy. Just let him say what he has to say. He'll be gone in a few days... I think."

Chance's hand clenched even tighter around mine. He was eavesdropping for sure and listening to Dr. Blane, who was excited himself and dropping medical terms like they were names of celebrities. I didn't recognize a single one. Chance seemed to understand him, though. Yep, I was doing my own eavesdropping, speculating on how he could understand a thing Dr. Blane said.

Tommy snorted into the line. "I can only promise to be half civil to your baby, daddy."

"That's more than usual for you, boss, so I'll take it. See you in about forty minutes, and hopefully, I'll be back to work in about a week if Majestic comes home."

"Stop worrying about your job, Mahogany. Plus, if I fired you, I'd have to deal with Kat, and there're too many things here that can be turned into projectiles for her when she's mad. You don't ever want to make her mad. She's like a vicious dwarf, and my man parts are in easy striking distance. I just got one question for you, though."

I knew it was time to be the butt of one of his jokes, a daily occurrence, and his way of paying me back for not being a model employee.

I puffed air out. "Go ahead and get me while you can."

"Who's babysitting Majestic when you come back? I'm not doing it. She's probably extra hungry after being in the hospital for a week and cannibalistic right now. With all this succulent, dark meat I got, she'd mistake me for chocolate and bite my ass for sure. Then, I'm suing you, and you know you don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Make your baby demon keep her teeth to herself, Mahogany."

Unable to help myself, I cracked up laughing. Majestic would chew on a car if her teeth were bothering her enough. Her back molars were coming in slowly, and she was definitely going to bite someone. Chance gave me a strange look, which gave me an idea.

"You know you could sue Chance, Tommy. He's rich, and I'll probably have to bring Majestic to work with me. Mrs. Kindleton is still laid up with a broken hip." The retired schoolteacher was sixty-years-old, lived across the street alone, and the only one that Majestic didn't give hell... that I knew of.

Tommy hummed into the line. "I forgot about your baby daddy's rich ass. In that case, bring her with you then... whenever you come back. I can handle about four of Majestic's teeth in me. Should be enough to get me forty acres and a mule. Damn, I'll have to share that with Kat, and she's going to give me the ass end of the mule to clean up after. Why am I getting married again?"

"Because she's the only one who can put up with your craziness, and Kat's the love of your life. If you know like I know, you'd hold on tight and never let her go again."

What would have happened if Chance had never let me go? If I thought he'd step up when Majestic made her presence known inside my womb, I wouldn't have gone anywhere, still would be holding on to him, but I no longer had the right to. The longer he was around, the easier it was to recall the good things about him, like how he could be leaned on and how easy it was to be with him every day. To hurt when he was gone.

"I didn't sign up to share my shit with Kat, though, Mahogany. This is going to be one long-ass engagement. When I don't have anything but a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out of, then I'll marry her. I'll know if she really loves me then."

"Stop lying, Tommy. You've been holding on to an eight-carat, illegal blood diamond for ten years just to put it on her finger. Your niece Astrid hasn't arrested you for having that ring yet?"

"Did Malisa tell you that shit? I swear to God if that lie gets around town, and the FBI knocks on my door, everybody that spread the rumor is going down for a crime they didn't commit too, including my niece, Malisa! What happened to blood protecting blood even if you're in the wrong?"

Covering my mouth to contain the giggles coming from it, I knew I'd stirred him up as I usually do as repayment for cracking jokes on me, and it was time to get off the phone. "Bye, Tommy. See you in a bit."

"Bye, Mahogany. Give Majestic our love from the crew."

"I will." I hung up, snickering to myself, noticing Chance watching me closely. Dr. Blane was gone.

"Ready?" he asked with a quizzical look on his face.

"Yeah. What did Dr. Blane say?"

He led me to the side of Majestic's bed, where she was already napping. "Majestic's white blood cell count has gone down some more. He's going to give her another transfusion tonight and expects her to be stabilized enough to go home the day after tomorrow. Getting the broth for her is better for her system. She's been sick a long time, and he didn't want to push our luck with her stomach lining not being as thick as it should be after the chemo treatments and being tube fed for three days. Her keeping the chocolate down was a fluke in her condition, but her cancer is losing the fight, Mahogany. She's headed into remission already."

My emotions swelled up, making my eyeballs and nose burn. I shut my eyes to work on closing the barrier between my feelings and me again. Chance released my hand to wrap his arms around me. It didn't occur to me to not collapse against him, letting him take my physical and emotional weight, to revel in being comforted by him.

I didn't need comforting, though. I was thrilled he was close, wanted to shout Majestic's victory to anyone that would listen, and I was taking advantage of Chance. He was built like a rock, immovable and steady, what I longed for since we broke up, especially during Majestic's illness. Being too terrified of what he'd do if I asked for his support, I endured alone. Don't get used to him being here now either. He's got another life that he's going back to.

Right, this rock had feet, and I should continue standing on my own two. Stepping back from him was one of the most difficult things I've had to do, which I didn't do until I was calm again and had stolen some of his allure by breathing it in. It nearly choked me with how good it felt to be in his arms again. Everything regarding him was difficult. Yet, I missed his touch.

"Thank you," I murmured to his chest.

"I think I like you saying thank you to me all the time." He smiled before quickly replacing it with a cold mask.

I wanted that grin back instantly. It was like the sun bursting through the clouds after a month of rain that anybody would be sick of, revving up the wants and needs of a woman that hadn't been satisfied sexually in a very long time. Bad Mahogany for wanting him.

I whirled around to Majestic, bending to kiss her cheek. "I'll be back before you wake up, baby girl," I vowed before following him out after he'd taken his turn promising to return.

In the elevator, we stood side by side. In my peripheral, Chance glanced down, getting an eyeful of the messy ponytail on top of my head.

Putting my big girl panties on, I turned to face him. "You can tell me off now, Chance. There's no one in here to hear you, and I don't want to have this conversation in front of Majestic."

He knotted his fingers behind his back and looked up at the numbers lighting up above our heads as we passed floors on our way to the ground. "I need your address, Mahogany."

"What? That's it?"

"For now," he replied in a monotone.

The air thickened with tension and crackled between us with electricity. I wished he'd just hit me with his angry thoughts already and get it over with instead of letting them fester inside him. Yes, I was dead wrong for not telling him about my pregnancy, but I was convinced I did the right thing for everyone and would defend my actions to the death.

"Just say what you're feeling, Chance."

"In time." When he did, he'd blindside me and knock me for a loop.

I started putting up guards around my feelings right then, praying the shields were strong enough to withstand whatever he said whenever he got around to it. The elevator came to a smooth stop. After coughing up my address on the way to his car, I sat perfectly still on the passenger's side, hoping he'd forget I was even there, dreading the 'talk' he kept mentioning then putting off. Torturing me.

Arriving on my street, I became a little ashamed about where I lived. It was a crime and drug-free area, but I didn't reside on the side of the street with homes owned by mostly middle-class families. Chance's GPS system advised him he reached his destination in front of one of several tiny cinderblock duplexes I rented since I came back to Colorado.

I scrambled out of the car with my purse and keys in hands. "Be right back." At my front door, I heard a car door open then slam shut. "Chance, I'll be right out. No need to come in."

When I unlocked the deadbolt, he was right behind me. No such thing as getting him to do what he didn't want to do, so I let us both into the small living area. The air was a little stale from the place being closed up so much. The furniture, here when I moved in, consisted of a ribbed-cloth, green couch, and armchair that had seen better days. The tan carpet was vacuumed but in the same condition as the chairs. I squared it with the landlord to dump the oak coffee and end tables that were a part of the furnishings, the wood splintering and a danger to a child. I didn't bother with replacing them. Money was tight, and each year, the prices for things Majestic needed rose.

The other three rooms also had the bare necessities in them. Where I should've bolted straight ahead for the tiny hallway with the bathroom and single bedroom, I watched Chance for his reaction. He veered left toward the kitchen even smaller than the first room, stopping in the doorway between the rooms where he gripped the wall. Wasn't going to find anything interesting in there but a two-chair table, old-fashion appliances, and outdated cabinetry. In the far corner behind shuttered doors were a washer and dryer. When he finally had his fill of taking everything in, he shook his head and gazed at me.

"Are you judging my home, Chance?"

A rhetorical question because I knew that was exactly what he was doing from the expression on his face as if there wasn't one good aspect about my space. And there wasn't any when comparing my apartment to his penthouse.

"I am judging it, Mahogany. Your place is clean, but far from the best that you lived in with me. You both could live better than this."

He had the nerve to criticize where I take care of my daughter when he didn't even want her? I almost went rabid on the man, and yes, I would have surely taken a page out of Majestic's book and bit his ass. I settled for pointing a finger at him instead with my jaw compressed so tight it ached.

"Taking care of her was getting you here to give her stem cells, Chance. Taking care of her was putting aside my own wants and needs to give her everything she needs. Taking care of her meant owning up to my responsibilities after I'd done the deed that made her existence a reality even when I tried to prevent it. You taking care of her stopped at my first sentence because you never wanted her, so I didn't make you take care of her. I've lived in pretty surroundings before, and the people who owned them were unable to be counted on when it mattered the most. So fuck you and your penthouse and the Jefferson's and their house. And you don't get to come in here and tell me that I'm an unfit mother. You wouldn't even know she was alive if I hadn't told you. I bet you wished it would've stayed that way too. Well, it can. All you have to do is leave and don't. Come. Back." Oh, the things we say when we're angry usually aren't the things we mean but can't take back, and I certainly didn't mean that last part.

His nostrils flared, eye sockets stretched wide, good and riled up now. Well, so was I.

"You're right I didn't ask for her to be here, Mahogany, because I would've given anything for her not to be suffering, but never did I want to be an absentee father."

I was inclined to think he'd like to have prevented his child growing up in a four-room apartment that was sparsely furnished, too. The upside to that is Majestic has plenty of space to move around without hurting herself on sharp corners and pulling the expensive knickknacks in his apartment down on her head. Screw him if he couldn't see that. And screw him because his place was nice, and he could stretch me out in any room and then screw my brains out until I screamed his name and begged him to stop making me come.

Where in the hell did that come from, Mahogany? Stay on topic even in your head, ole girl.

"Well, you are an absentee father, which is my fault, and I'm sorry that life gave you a blow that your small mind can't handle, baby daddy. As for the rest of us, we find ways to deal with what life throws at us like surprise pregnancies. This apartment, clean and a roof over your child's head, is my way of dealing until I can do better. I'm sorry you can't deal at all.

"First, I didn't call you an unfit mother. Second, no, I don't like your apartment. Third, do you want to know why I really didn't want kids, Mahogany?"

Yep.

"Chance, nobody likes this apartment. It is what it is—a functional, affordable space for a working single-mother or college student. That's what the rest of the apartments are filled up with. I happen to be both. And no, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want me to know unless it concerns Majestic's health." Liar.

I may have been lying to myself, but I was feeling petty. When I needed him to tell me everything, he didn't, so he could keep his deepest feelings to himself. Plus, talking to him now was bringing up good memories at a bad time. I wanted them to stop. He had to go.

"You need to leave, Chance. Your job here is done."

His shoes became very interesting to him. "The time for me leaving passed the minute you called me here, and you're going to listen to me anyway. I've been in the same bed, suffering through the same thing that Majestic is. I didn't want my children to inherit the genetic defects that comes with my blood type and my genes. Leukemia for starters."

I gasped, taken aback. "You had cancer, knew your children could possibly carry it, and you didn't tell me?" Suddenly, I was enraged and sympathetic to his past suffering at the same time, but my anger wanted to be vented the most, so I let it loose. "Don't you think if I had known what any child of yours would go through with a blood type so rare that only someone with the HH blood type can give them blood, that I'd have understood your stance on bringing kids into the world and considered you have every right to feel the way you do? You could have warned me of everything that your children could go through, but you didn't! That makes you a rat bastard even if it's my fault we're all going through this!"

Chance grew blurry. Again, I was realizing too late that I was crying, falling apart again. Hoping that would stop once he gave my baby her only chance to live must've been like wishing on a star. What had I done to my child just by having her? What all had Chance gone through in his lifetime?

He lifted his tired eyes to mine. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want your pity or for you to be disappointed in me when I told you that I couldn't, wouldn't give you kids. That I was cursed," he whispered gutturally. "Could make kids, wanted them, but they probably wouldn't survive one illness or another all because of me. There was no need for you to know that when we had getting pregnant nipped in the bud... to keep me from becoming a killer."

"A killer? Is that what you think you are?" He rattled me with that statement.

"I know that's what I am, Mahogany. I'm the reason Majestic nearly died."

I thought he would blame me for that, but nope, he was blaming himself.
Chapter Five

~Mahogany~

I couldn't imagine what it took for him to admit that was what he thought of himself. There was no question why he couldn't tell me about his childhood illness now. Reliving it while he spoke would've been horrible. Now, I understood why he didn't tell me about anything so painful for him and his understanding of medical terms, but Majestic had needed him to speak up. I needed him to, and he didn't do it in time for me therefore not for her. She went through so much, needlessly, for months, and I didn't forgive him for that.

"I wouldn't have pitied you or been disappointed in you, Chance. I would've been in awe of a man who survived cancer as a child, only God knows what else, and still grew up to be who you are. We all pass on good and bad things to our kids: diseases and syndromes, afflictions and addictions, but good parents hope that the bad doesn't outweigh the good. But it happens, and then we step up to save our children in any way we can like you've done. There is no guarantee that Majestic wouldn't have had a different father with a more common blood type and still not be going through what she is right now. So, I better never hear you call yourself a killer again because you're not the only one with defects in their genes, or we're all killers. That said, nothing in life is ever nipped in the bud because we can't plan for every mishap, freak accident, and coincidence that aligns up perfectly with our worlds."

"Mahogany—"

I shushed him. "You don't get to talk now, but you can damn well listen. I couldn't have planned for the flu that called for antibiotics that weakened my birth control, which I didn't even know was possible. You couldn't have planned to be in such a hurry to make love with me after I got better that you rushed to the questionable pharmacy on the corner that sold you four-year-old condoms, which leaked. I checked them out thoroughly after I went to the doctor because I felt like the flu was still hanging around two months later and had missed my period. Would've told you about that our last night together too, but you were so distant, which hurt me. We were supposed to have been better than that. Oh, and if you slept with other women while wearing those condoms, you better call them up because they've probably had your baby too."

"I haven't slept with anyone, but I dated some," he forced through gritted teeth, seeming rather unhappy about having dated, which was weird. "What about you?"

Should I be thrilled about his abstinence? Probably not, but I was.

"Okay, fine. Majestic doesn't have a half-sister or brother anywhere. I have no other lovers besides my first and you. That doesn't change your outlook on having children and your refusal to open up to me about it so I could make an informed decision about having your babies. Despite all that, you're a good man, never a killer besides in business. You gave to charities anonymously and had work ethics I can only hope to have when I finish school. Hell, you didn't want to kill me when I wasted hot coffee on you. Every day except for that last one when we were together, you showed me you loved me... and I loved you for that with everything in me because I didn't have that growing up. But when you wouldn't speak up about your past, you didn't do the one thing I needed you to do the most—be more honest with me than you ever had in your life. Because of that, I thought my man wasn't a man at all, and my child, a precious life that I wasn't snuffing out, would've had a father who couldn't show her that he loved her."

"You didn't want her going through a repeat of your childhood, so you left me."

"So, I left you," I repeated, then swiped at my face with both hands before washing them on my jeans. "I thought I was doing us both a favor."

"Breaking my heart and keeping my first-born a secret was a favor, huh? Risking Majestic's childhood becoming a repeat of mine is not a favor, and I guess you'll never know if I could've shown her that I loved her from birth because..." he shrugged and crooked his mouth up in one corner. "... you left me before telling me that you were pregnant."

How many times was he going to throw that in my face?

"Chance, I never meant to hurt you or thought you were so damn thickheaded that you couldn't read between the lines. Why else would I have demanded we stay at home that night when I tried to tell you outright that I was pregnant? I'd never been that insistent about staying home before or pressured you to let me in on everything that made you tick. Our last night together, I knew I hadn't gotten past the surface with you, and I chickened out on telling you the truth when you were so cold to me. I knew I never would get more than your surface thoughts unless I cracked your skull open with a hammer and saw your deepest thoughts for myself. Yes, you had a traumatic childhood at some point, but that didn't give you a right to leave me on the outside because you didn't want to be pitied for your trials in life that you surpassed by the way, in case you hadn't noticed. All I knew was you didn't want anything to do with a pregnancy, so I didn't tell you about mine. I left you to your childless existence in the lap of luxury and other women, and I had my child alone. Majestic being born doesn't have to change anything for you. You can go back to your life now. My daughter and I are fine, thanks to you. You're still a good man... and I'll always love you for what you've done for us and promise not to call on you again."

His lips morphed into a predator's grin that shook me to my toes. Right then, I knew I was public enemy number one to him, and he perhaps had something planned for me that wasn't going to be nice.

"Oh, but you can't promise that, Mahogany."

"I c-can," I vowed.

"You can't. You may have gotten me here in time this time for our daughter, but there's no guarantee her cancer won't come back. If it does like it did with me, it'll be even more aggressive, and it may take an Indian relative of mine, giving her their bone marrow before the leukemia can be stopped again. The subtle differences in our genetics seem to make a big difference with this disease that develops immunity to things like any other disease that wants to live. I didn't battle cancer once but twice, Mahogany. My great grandfather saved me the first time at three, my great grandmother the second time at eight. Even if the cancer doesn't come back for Majestic, you don't get to push me out of our daughter's life again. I know she's here now, and she has a father, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The whole nine yards. People who will love her, take care of her, and spoil her so rotten they'll make you repent the day you added to our bloodline. My people will enforce Majestic's thinking that she really has the right to have chocolate if she wants it and tear up shit if she wants to."

Despite my first instinct to run and hide my little girl from his family, at least the ones that took an instant disliking to me, I couldn't in good conscience deny Majestic the love she'd receive from them. There were more people for her to depend on in a life that sometimes gave none, which meant Chance would be in both of our lives now. Oh God, I get a front-row seat to everyone and everything in his life, too.

I didn't know how good I had it when I was ignorant of who was in and out of his bed. Although he claimed there hadn't been anyone, I didn't ever want to know if that changed. If I didn't want to know after all this time apart from him, my heart hadn't moved on. Life sucks balls right now even when I couldn't be happier.

I had convinced myself that Chance and I were meant to be together for just a season, long enough to create Majestic, and it was okay that his heart had moved on from me. Stupid me was deceiving myself. But for Majestic, I swore to deal with the heart-gouging I'd experience every time a new someone entered his world now. Or an old someone... I could handle it.

I took a deep breath, storing up more defenses around my heart this time. "If you want a part in your daughter's life, it's yours. I just hope your family doesn't mind that it'll be their shit she's tearing up and that I'm not coming to Utah to stop her. They hate me and always thought I was too young for you, remember?"

He smirked. "Yeah, well, you were. Still are. And they don't hate you. My sister actually liked you. The rest just didn't want to invest their time in getting to know and love a girl they thought I was moving too fast with and wouldn't be with come tomorrow, let alone marry. My mother's words, not mine. I knew she knew what she was talking about from her past predictions of my relationships. That didn't stop my heart from wanting you, though."

"Didn't stop you from following your heart either," I sneered, but he wasn't wholly to blame for our past relationship that had a seven-year age gap in it.

One month after we met, I moved in with him. A year later, we were connected forever by a positive pregnancy test. At first sight, I wanted him just as much after we bumped into each other in a small café on campus, where I spilled my coffee on him, burning him through his suit and ruining his jacket. He took one look at my clumsy ass trying to wipe the macchiato off his forearm with napkins that just pebbled up, then he asked for my number, claiming I owed him a date for the burn. Anyone else would've cursed me out and threatened to sue. Nope, not Chance. He smiled, and I took the full brunt of how gorgeous he was while he stared at me as if I was equally gorgeous. Nothing could've stopped me from being with him afterward, except Majestic's birth.

If life was fair, she would be the reason I was still with him. Well, my world seemed to have run on a backward course since I was about four days old. No one's really sure how old I am exactly. My correct age and birthday have been a guesstimation since the firemen found me with my umbilical cord still attached. Since not a thing could be done about any of that, including how I was adopted into a loveless household, I never dwelled on any of it. Neither was I going to let my beginnings stop me from living life to the fullest... well, stop me from enjoying as much as I could with a baby born right when I should've been at the highest peak of enjoying life.

With only a few hundred dollars in the bank to speak of before Majestic and afterward, I'd been struggling a long time, long overdue for a vacation. Personally, I'd like to go to the Caribbean, but a good book and a room at the nearest ski lodge would work just fine. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen any time soon, and that was okay. My child would live, I was alive to raise her. Two things I would sacrifice the whole world for were mine and to be thankful for. Compared to that, a good book and a stay at a lodge were trivial. Besides, I could just pretend I was somewhere different in my bedroom for free, while Chance was with someone else in his. As long as that was happening somewhere other than in Arrow, I'd be fine. I hoped.

"You were my heart the minute I saw you, Mahogany. I'll have some movers bring boxes over in a few days so you can start packing," he mentioned out of the blue.

It took a few seconds for me to absorb his declaration. "Wait. What? I'm not moving!"

"Oh, you are. See, you've made the decisions for Majestic for two years, and now it's my turn. That includes getting you both out of here as soon as possible."

"This isn't a tug of war, Chance. You don't get to push and pull us wherever you want us to go because I had your baby behind your back, then had to ask you for something for her, and you're unsatisfied with our living arrangements. We don't owe you anything."

"Oh, but you do, sweetheart. You owe me the right to take care of my daughter. That means taking care of you, too, in my book. Can you honestly say you'd have moved here if you hadn't left me? Can you honestly say that you gave me a real chance to prove what kind of father I would've been from the start?"

"I gave you the chance, Chance, and you shot me down. I didn't ask you to feel how you do about children, and I sure as hell wasn't going to stick around while you ordered me to get an abortion every day until I did it or you left me."

"We both know you wouldn't have gotten an abortion if you hadn't wanted to. We both know you can be right feisty and stubborn with the best of them, too. What we don't know is if I would have actually demanded you get an abortion. And as I remember the last conversation we had, you gave me a hypothetical situation, and I responded in the only way my emotions would let me back then. It was hurtful for me to even think about how I couldn't give you everything you wanted in life. Talking about it just made it hurt more, and you never said you were actually pregnant. Things might have turned out differently if you had."

"Might have, Chance? You don't even know how it would've turned out, and I wish I could make you feel better about all the things I've put you through, but I can't. It's all written in stone. Done and over with now."

He crossed his arms. "Some of that is true, and you can make me feel better about some of the things you put me through."

"H-how?" I didn't really want to know, though. His answer would require a pound of flesh that I couldn't afford to give, but he'd take it anyway, and I might as well know exactly what he had in mind for retribution.

"Date me again."

Blindsided and knocked for a loop; check.

"What?" I shrieked like a terrified little girl who would've screamed 'Mama!' then ran to her, if I had a mother who cared. How I wished I did.

There was another storm named Chance brewing on my horizon after I just survived one called Cancer. I was going to have to face him head-on too, alone. There was no forcing him back once he was headed in your direction.

He tilted his head to the side. "You wanted to make me feel better. I'm telling you how. Date me again."

"D-date you?" I could barely say it, which was supposed to have been out the realm of possibilities.

"Yep. Didn't you say you'd do anything in your voicemail? I have an app that sends a text of my voicemails. I could show it to you in writing if you don't remember."

His expression was smug and calculating. I vaguely recalled saying something on one of the voicemails to the effect of 'I'll do anything if you help my... Ohhhh shit, I said it. Now, I have to own it.

"Okay, Chance, I did say that, which had nothing to do with dating you again, but you know that already and don't care, so moving on. Are you telling me that you gave Majestic blood so you could date me? To get back at me for leaving you?"

Every word his voicemail recorded, he took and twisted to his own advantage in typical business tycoon fashion, but it got worse. This was personal for him.

"Still thinking the worst of me, huh, Mahogany? FYI, I was already on my way here when you left the second message, but I'm damn sure taking you up on the promise you made on my voicemail. You still keep your word, well, most of the time, don't you?"

Ohshitohshitohshit! What have you done, Mahogany? There was a two-part answer to that. I'd let my mouth write a check that Chance fully intended for my behind to cash, as well, I made a bigger mess of things between us than I thought. He was currently pitching every one of my screw-ups into an industrial-sized fan that was about to blow every gooey, stinky mistake back on me. Should've got that raincoat last night anyway.

"What do you really want from me, Chance?"

"I want you to do whatever I ask of you until I no longer want you."

I'd have felt better if he said 'until he no longer loved me.' 'Want' usually had no tender feelings attached to it. Tender feelings would soften whatever he'd demand of me. A big part of me believed dating Chance again wasn't going to work in my favor, and that part of me was freaking the hell out, but he appealed to another part of me at the same time: my stupid heart that had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever. However, an honest woman would hold up her end of a vow, even those made by voicemail when her emotions were running high. I didn't have to agree to this but would because, honestly, I owed him a chance to have a decent future with someone else after I damaged his present beyond repair. Plus, I didn't want to want him any longer, either. Working him out of my system sounded like the only course to take to achieve breaking ties to him, but Chance's demands...

Lord have mercy, I grew hot just thinking about what they might involve. For starters, a bed with me in it screaming his name. Luckily, I switched to the IUD for birth control that was impossible to be tampered with by medication. One baby out of wedlock was enough.

"For how long, Chance?"

"However long it takes."

His evasiveness worried the hell out of me. He couldn't stay in Colorado forever, though, a week at the most. A week to coddle myself in what I yearned for in the dead of night. Being touched by him, only him, when all was quiet and the space beside mine in the bed too cold to stand. There were places within that only he could reach.

"I'll do this on one condition. I'm not moving back to Utah. I've thrown my life in enough upheaval to last a lifetime. Not doing that again for anyone, so I'm on different birth control now that lasts for twelve years and is way better than the pill and a condom. It practically ties my tubes itself."

"I don't want you to move back to Utah either. You will be moving out of this place, though, and it's good you've taken better precautions with birth control because you've just shook the hell out of my confidence in corner store pharmacies. I didn't see any big chains around here either."

I stopped listening after 'you will be moving out of this place.' "I told you I'm not moving. I can't afford anywhere else but here."

"When has your money ever counted with me?" Never.

"Chance, thank you, but no, thank you very much for being stuck with a place I can't afford after you've had enough of me."

"I'm not surprised that you expect me to leave you high and dry suddenly like you did me, but I don't operate like that, Mahogany. Just you."

Asshole!

"Well, I'm sorry that I didn't know what else to do after you shut me out."

"And I thought I was doing you a favor by letting you go. But you're not sorry that you left me broken, worrying about what had happened to you, were you okay, and thinking I knew the real reason why you'd left. No, you wouldn't be sorry about any of that, would you?"

If he thought he was broken, I, who was intimately acquainted with 'broken' and wanted to be in one functioning piece again, was in trouble. He was going to take me down to get the repairs he so desperately needed. Regrets, for damn near every decision I made relating to us, started hounding me. Each choice brought us to this point of no return. Once he was done with me, he would be done. But would I be done with him? I didn't know. Reservations of taking part in this mockery he would make out of dating skyrocketed to harrowing levels. What if it took him months to get over me? What if I fell harder for him during that time? That could leave me broken. Neither Majestic nor I could afford that; we were all each other had.

"Chance," I whispered, "I am sorry you felt broken, but I thought you would be okay since you always planned to let me go anyway. And you had more family and friends to lean on than I could ever hope for to get you through anything." How was I to know that our breakup would affect him that much?

"Yet, no amount of money I made or people who wanted to support me after I lost you could ever replace you in my life when you left before I could prepare to let you go."

This is what most of his pain boiled down to; his heart wasn't ready for me to walk away for the reason I really had. Now, he knew the real reason too, and he was oh-so-unforgiving. I had already hurt him more than I thought. No wonder he wanted payback.

"I didn't know you'd felt that much for me."

He cocked his head to the side. "Didn't you?"

"No, I thought if you could so easily say you'd let me go to have a baby with another man, I couldn't mean that much to you. I guess I was wrong, and I'm sorry for that too, Chance. If I—"

"It doesn't matter what you wished you'd have known or done differently," the rude asshole cut me off, "only what you did do and did know, and how you acted afterward, Mahogany."

I had cut him off too with no warning years ago, had given up on him too soon, and destroyed him. The latter, he would never disclose to me, but I knew. Been there. Done that to me, when I did it to him. Had to help him get over it, somehow... and me too. He didn't have a Majestic to take his mind off his loneliness or his heartache. And I wanted to go to him, soothe him, make it up to him, but he already had plans to let me go again. What I should be concentrating on was upping my chances for surviving him. He didn't have plans for me to do that, though, so I should've been turning him away from the avenue he was about to drag us both down.

"Look, I'm begging for your forgiveness. I promise to never hurt you like that again."

His face was a blank mask as his eyes roved down my body then back up. "God forgives, Mahogany. I don't, and don't worry, you won't ever hurt me like that again. So, are you in or are you out?"

I gulped oxygen like I'd been trapped underground for far too long, sick and tired of saying 'I'm sorry' to him. "Okay, I'm in, Chance."

We both needed closure, and this would be my penance for putting us both into this situation with my secrets and taking off without an explanation.

He checked his watch then set his sights right back on me, who shrunk to small prey in the crosshairs of a big animal sharping its claws. "Good. We start dating by taking a shower together at the resort I'm booked at. We'll have about ten minutes to do whatever I want to do in it if you grab a change of clothes and come on now."

This was going to be one hell of a shower. I assumed we'd work our way up to sex. My defenses weren't strong enough to keep out the warm and fuzzy feelings he always stirred up within me after making love. A thorough lovemaker he was. I had no reason to think that had changed about him, so 'making love' had better not take place.
Chapter Six

~Chance~

Mahogany moved toward her bedroom like she was a dead woman walking her last mile, and the slower she moved, the more time she thought she had alive.

Wrong.

I scooped her up in my arms from behind.

She yelped, then constricted like a snake around me. "Dammit, Chance! Warn me next time!"

Not a chance of that happening if taking her by surprise meant her fastening on to me like this. It was so damn good to carry her again. Inhaling the apple scent in her hair and fragrance of the flowery soap she always used, I moved into the hallway, stopping between two doorways on each side of us. Both rooms were dark. Stark-white closed blinds stood out in the bigger space on my right. I deviated toward the low-sitting bed on a round platform, setting her down on her feet at the end of it. Against the far wall was a crib she probably bought brand new along with a toy box. An old matching nightstand, mirror, and dresser were positioned on the side of the bed closest to the door.

When she adjusted her t-shirt over her ample breasts and flat stomach, my mouth went dry. Her jeans were molded to her hour-glass figure, shapely legs, and firm round ass that made my mouth water. Putting off that shower to take her right here became a real possibility, but my fresh clothes were at the resort.

"Get whatever outfit you need, Mahogany. I'll get your products from the bathroom unless you want all new things."

"No, what I have is fine, but the closet is behind the door, so go out now if you're going."

Of course, she'd turn me down, never one to jump on spending someone else's money. I had better go to the bathroom for her stuff, or my body would overrule my mind and strip her right here anyway.

"Going."

She followed me to the entrance, flipping the light switch beside it. The bedroom was the same as the others: simple, clean, and too damn small. I felt claustrophobic like I was going to bump my head on the ceiling or one of the doorframes as soon as I wasn't paying attention.

"It must be nice to be no taller than knee-high to an apple," I complained.

She closed the door as I stepped out. "I heard that, Chance. Everybody doesn't have the DNA of trees."

I laughed while strolling across the hall into the bathroom, missing the teasing we used to do to each other. Mahogany could always put me in a good space when my day had gone to shit, which wasn't often when she was mine. Shitty days came a lot more frequently once I began coming home to an empty apartment.

As I collected her hygienic products from beneath the sink, piling them on the toilet at my elbow, the tub at the other one, I contemplated on how easily she walked into my trap. The old Mahogany would've put up a bigger fuss, cursing me from one end to the other, then told me to go to hell. This Mahogany gave in too quickly. She could possibly have motives of her own for dating me again... like getting over me.

"Not if I have a damn thing to say about it," I grumbled, wanting her heartstrings reattaching to me as I removed mine from her. The cold son of a bitch in me was locked on his target and loaded with animosity.

"What, Chance?" she hollered through the door.

"I said, are you ready?"

She walked out with a black carry-all. "Yeah, you can just drop that stuff in here."

After she spread the zippered ends of the bag apart, it had just enough space for her things from the bathroom. Incapable of not touching her right then, I palmed the small of her back and guided her back to the car, where she sat quietly, pretending she was invisible. This was one woman who could never blend in with anything. Her zest for life after her shaky beginnings made her stand out and drew me like a magnet. I was afraid it always would and that my quest to rid my system of her might be a fruitless endeavor, but I wouldn't know that until I tried.

Powers Royal Resort sprang up like a wooden castle at the end of a winding road. It didn't have the turrets jutting up from the roof but an Olympic-sized infinity pool if I wanted to use it. Valet took my keys and car. I quickly walked her in the lobby, across the real wood floor with random free-standing walls. Water cascaded down them, pooling in basins with coins in the bottom where people had made them into wishing wells.

I'm tempted to drop a few coins in all of them myself. Got a feeling I'm going to need some luck with my mission to free myself of Mahogany's clutches.

Once we passed the unmanned check-in desk, an alcove with the lifts to the top thirty-five floors appeared. Mahogany was silent as we climbed to the twentieth floor, but she wouldn't be for long once I got inside her. Pity I wouldn't be there long, but she'd know I'd been there, that was for certain.

Unadulterated craving swam through me as I swiped my card and showed her inside where I fast-tracked her through the living area decorated in brown leather and gold accents to the bedroom on the left side of the suite with similar décor. "I'd give you the fifty-cent tour, but we have forty minutes to get back to the hospital, and we haven't covered but one leg of this journey."

"It's fine," she commented nervously. "Let's just get this over with."

"Have it your way, love," I responded, a little miffed that we wouldn't be using the king-sized bed... this time.

Tossing her bag on it, I whirled around and took her waist in my hands and possession of her mouth without warning. She inhaled sharply at the sensual assault I waged on her, her neck forced back under the pressure of my lips. She had no idea of the campaign I was bringing to her doorstep, and this was just the beginning. Nor would I be slowing in my attack to make her more comfortable either. We didn't have that kind of time, and I wanted her now. Greedy for every inch of her flesh to be against mine.

When she finally opened her mouth beneath mine, her tongue demanding entry, I gave it to her immediately, ravenous for anything she was willing to give and going bat shit crazy to get it. When she released that first moan of my name against my lips, I knew I had her. Not quite where I wanted her, but getting there as I stripped her body of her shirt and bra, tossing the barriers over my head to land wherever. She unbuttoned my shirt, pushed it down my arms before halting the kiss to toe her shoes off while unbuckling her jeans. The expression on her face was the one someone would wear when they knew what was coming and going to give as good as they got. This Mahogany, I knew.

Stepping back to wiggle out of the material clinging to her thighs made her breasts bounce, fuller than I remembered and ticking me off that I'd missed out on the changes Majestic wrought on her body. I had no tolerance for the distance separating Mahogany from me, so I tracked her like a wild animal would its intended kill while relieving my own body of its pants, coming up behind her to grasp her ponytail. After I tugged gently on her hair—I could be a cold son of a bitch, not a violent one—she got the message and laid her back against me, then lifted her face, resuming the battle on my mouth. I was dying to suckle at her darker and larger nipples and caress the barely visible stretch marks on her stomach and hips. Those were new. I wanted to get intimate with each one but not ready to lose contact with her lips that had taken over the kiss. Unacceptable when I required all the power at this moment and would get it back from her if it was the last thing I did.

My hands roamed her body, searching for the hot spots that would break her down to a trembling, clinging mess. Massaging her breasts only made her groan and plunder my mouth harder. Nope, not there. Go south.

My fingers glided between her thighs already spread and slick with her moisture. I dipped one inside her, lubing it before retreating to stroke her clitoris, which made her unlatch from my lips to cry out. She wasn't going to get to come that easy, though, but would if I didn't find a saner frame of mind and space where I wasn't more interested in pleasing her than me. This was all about me, and I was forgetting that.

Cruelly, I retracted my finger just before she came. She whimpered, turned in my arms, grabbed two handfuls of my hair, and jerked my head down to hers, crashing our mouths together. I might not have been violent in the bedroom; however, she was... and oh-so-angry with me after the stunt I just pulled. Good. The feeling was mutual or was supposed to be. I dove headfirst into the lip lock, exploring every crevice of her mouth before I remembered why we were even here. Determined to commit more bad acts against her and even up the score, I snatched away and abandoned her in the bedroom. If she wanted more from me, she'd have to come and get it.

On bare feet as quiet as the dead, she followed my footsteps onto the cold tile in the bathroom, where I tested the shower's water temperature. With every step she took past the cherrywood cabinetry into the room her whole apartment could fit inside, I tensed up more and more as her presence loomed behind me like she was a giant. Bracing my weight with one hand on the opened door of the glass stall that stood alone in the back corner, I battled with my outrage at her and the craving for her that grew to monstrous proportions instead of powering down. The son of a bitch in me was slipping away.

That unforgiving side of me usually took root then took over until I forced it behind its cage again. I was having to keep pulling it out of its hiding place where it wanted to cower when Mahogany was near. I had a feeling it had learned its lesson about being ruthless with her and refused to be unkind to a woman that viewed me as a savior, not a killer, but that wouldn't work for the crusade of mine. Yes, I was sticking to my guns of finding a way to unlove her in one way or the other and pleading for the way to my salvation to show itself soon.

"So... is this how it's going to be, Chance? The minute things heat up between us, you leave to go cool off, and I have to chase you to finish what you started."

I wasn't cooling off, instead heating up my unforgiving personality. Once it was firing on all cylinders again and in its rightful place, I turned on her, pulled her close, and hissed, "Yes! I want you to want me so bad that you can't think straight."

She swallowed deeply while gripping my upper arms and leaning back from me, her eyes dropping to my mouth. "And then you're going to leave me?"

"Yes!" I wanted her to feel my pain.

"Okay, Chance. Have it your way."

Was there any other way? I didn't get to ask because she wrenched my head down and began leaving electrifying pecks on the corners of my mouth. I couldn't help thinking that was too easy. Something was definitely up her sleeve. If she thought she'd soften me up toward her, she had another thing coming. I just needed to not weaken in the process.

Then, be bad, Chance.

I lifted her off her feet. Her hands steadied her weight by clutching my shoulders. Her touch sent fire through me, sparking my fury and amping up my craving for her, which incited a frustrated growl from me. She was turning me into an animal, so I growled at her like one.

"Open your legs!"

I'd be damned if her legs weren't spread eagle in the air before I could get the words out my mouth fully. And a glorious sight she was, still slim and agile, battle-scarred from pregnancy but beautiful nonetheless if not more so while she arranged to accept me inside. Unwilling to disappoint, I lowered her down onto the tip of my rod, which was standing at attention, seeking her heat. When her soft sheath closed around me too snugly, her body taking me easily in what was meant to be a punishing thrust, I started to hyperventilate. She wrapped her limbs around me tightly, gasping for air along with grinding on my erection, already moving in a dance as old as time. I wasn't ready and had to seize her winding hips, freezing her in place before I came right then like a stamina-challenged teenager.

We had never been flesh to flesh before. Her scorching-hot, drenched tunnel was like having heaven on a tap, highly addicting. Oh yes, I'd be turning on that faucet as often as I could until I didn't want to anymore. For now, I savored the moment I wished for since discovering her side of the closet and drawers in the penthouse were emptied of her belongings, and my world vacant of her. Unknowingly, my sex life had gone down the tubes.

Sad to say—nevertheless, I was saying it—I couldn't get beyond half-erect with other women. When alone, my dreams and mere thoughts of Mahogany gave me titanium-stiff wood. Safe to assume that my penis didn't give a shit what I was thinking about in other females' presences, it simply refused to properly function, not as stupid as people like to think that part of men was. I had no problems with getting a hard-on now though, and boy was I going to ravage Mahogany's body with it tonight. Lasting long enough to ravish anything today was a nonstarter.

I rotated us around and headed into the shower, temperature just on this side of being hotter than hell and pelting our sides just the way she liked it. She upped the kisses from pecks to a tango of our tongues. I leaned back, planting my shoulders on the cold tile, slanting my body away from the wall, so even her knees didn't touch it. Chivalrous to the bitter fucking end, whether I wanted to be or not, I guess.

The second my feet were as firmly set on the slippery floor as they were going to get, Mahogany took the initiative to pump her hips, beginning a brutal tempo, getting right down to business. That was my plan, and dammit, she was supposed to want to make love, not fuck like rabbits and start off the fuck fest as well. No way in hell I was going to keep letting her take over. Yet, I had no willpower to stop her or access to my unforgiving side that was supposed to take advantage of her. Nope, it had slipped back into its cage, leaving me to hold on for dear life to the globes of her ass and drive upwards into her, seeking the places within her canal that brought her and me the most pleasure.

Next time, I will take charge, I silently pledged as music, from her thighs slapping mine and my grunts mixing with her groans, filled the cubicle. And my God, how pleasant the sounds were to my ears. Her slight weight pressing on my thighs felt like a missing part of me had come home, activating the deadened areas of my heart that hadn't revived when my blood began to pump through the chambers again after arriving in Colorado. A tingling manifested in the bottom of my spine, shooting into my testicles that felt like lead weights. The tingling was a warning to make her come now, or she wouldn't because I definitely was about to. If it isn't one damn thing with this woman, it's another.

"Come now, Mahogany," I commanded gruffly before releasing one of her ass cheeks to stroke her clitoris.

Creating a beam out of my forearm behind her for her to sit on wasn't necessary. She wasn't going anywhere with her arms like vise grips around my neck, knees embedded in my sides. I couldn't help watching her like I had never seen her before her in this position—head thrown back, eyes closed, lost somewhere in ecstasy with the manmade light caressing every inch of her almost flawless skin. Technically, I hadn't seen her this way before, not after giving birth to my firstborn. Somehow, she was more beautiful than ever, and I was fascinated.

Her mouth fell open. "I..." she began, then arched her back outwards, drove her forehead into my chest, relocated her fingers to my upper arms, and squealed, "God, it's too strong, Chance! Make it stop!"

Not likely.

Her walls contracted and expanded rhythmically around the base of my cock, igniting my own orgasm that nearly dropped me to my knees, which locked themselves before we both hit the floor. Head fuzzy, body functioning on autopilot, my hands slipped beneath her thighs to raise her up, then palmed her ass again to push away then pull her to me, pounding into her as we both toppled over the edge into bliss so sharp, so painful I could've screamed. I did curse a blue streak as I emptied so much of my seed into her that it leaked around the seal of our bodies to the floor in a steady stream, circling the drain.

Contented beyond belief, someone could've said the sky was falling, and I wouldn't have given two shits. Drained and close to death already, I wanted to haul her close in my last moments, what I usually did after making love. Except, I was supposed to be exorcising my demons, not making love but screwing her to get closure then leave.

Screwing. Closure. Leave. I repeated the mantra, trying to hammer it into my psyche until 'screwing, closure, leave' felt as automatic as loving Mahogany. Hopefully, one replaced the other quickly. I couldn't leave and was stuck in Arrow until it did. Stuck in love. Stuck in the past. All the above was a real possibility, and I was pissed to the highest point of pisstivity about it.

After setting her down on her feet, I turned my back, facing the shower and my failures. I wasn't supposed to enjoy being with her. She was supposed to feel what it was like to be deserted over and over again, and she would if I could stick to the plan. Where I expected her to ask me what was wrong, and by God, I wanted her to so I could be vicious in my answer, her essence decreased until there was only me in the bathroom. She didn't come back to start her bath until I completed mine as if she timed it that way, presuming I needed space. Negative. I wanted her all up in my space, her feeling brushed off and undesirable as I did, but nothing was going the way I strategized it to.
Chapter Seven

~Mahogany~

While collecting my bar of soap, I waited in the bedroom to hear the shower stall's door open, signaling Chance was finished. Only then did I risk reentering the bathroom, strolling into the shower as he exited as if nothing was wrong. Everything was. He looked everywhere but at me. His deliberate dismissal should've been enough to turn me off. He detested me just as much as he still wanted me. That was my fault, but my body didn't care about who was to blame about what. His mouth was a pilot light that set me afire every time it touched mine. Just a glimpse of his toned physique made me shudder with the force of renewed desire rampaging through me when I should've been sated. Pitiful, Mahogany.

While lathering up, I mulled over his scheme to get over me. There was more to it than I understood, and I was starting to suspect he wanted to inflict hurt while accomplishing his task. I hadn't signed up for that, wouldn't have agreed to date him if I knew beforehand. Selfishly, I was more concerned about how much time I had to get what I wanted from him. Somewhere deep inside, I had stupidly anticipated him treating me as the old Chance had, and hadn't counted the cost of what he'd take and withhold in the process. The fact that we had the same ultimate goal in mind was all I focused on, but I wouldn't waste precious time trying to change his mind or remind him how we still fit together like hand in glove. Our time would've been better spent enjoying one another. If none of that mattered anymore to him, well, it didn't matter anymore. I'd deal with what came as it emerged.

What bothered me the most was how much damage he was willing to do to me before he was satisfied. Well, I hoped he dug two graves when he plotted his revenge. One for me. One for him. If I wasn't careful, he was going to kill us both. If I wanted to be sane after he got what he needed to move on, I needed to find a silver lining in this thundercloud called 'dating' to grab on to, and there were several. If there was one way to get over someone, exposing yourself to them so they could take painful potshots at your heart was it. Check. The distance he put between us immediately after we had sex certainly chafed.

But he still fucked like a God, so that was a plus. I could gorge myself on his sex and still not get enough. Two could play the foul game he put in motion. I didn't know the rules, but I was a fast learner and could turn the tables on him. I wouldn't, but I would have to disconnect from my feelings until the peace he deserved after what I did to him reared its beautiful head. While he chased it down, I'd get several orgasms. I was long overdue for those too.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn't considered that his actions of just wanting nothing else to do with me after screwing my brains out could be flipped on him. My leaving the room didn't fall in line with him wanting me to want him so badly I couldn't think straight, which was why I left. He made a grave error when warning me of what he truly wanted. That warning taught me to not be warm and friendly toward him when he obviously wasn't going to be doing the same. The only thing left to do was place my feelings in a box with a damn near immovable lid on it, so when he took those potshots at my heart, there would only be one area of me mutilated. I just didn't know if containing the damage was that simple, but I was damn sure going to try to make it so.

By the time I dried off and covered with a towel, Chance had dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He was on a phone call in the bedroom, standing at the window with his back to the bed. I ogled his gorgeous form before I realized what I was doing then jerked my attention elsewhere. The muscles bulging through the white material of his shirt were things of beauty, his shirt likely costing more than my sneakers. He was getting to me all over again, making me want him just because he was near. I would lose more than I gained from sleeping with him, but there was no way out of the dilemma I set forth. I wouldn't, couldn't, go back on my word now, not when I wanted to see him happy again. Majestic needed that for him if he was to be a positive influence in her life and willing to come around me to get to her. The hardest part to admit was that having him for a little while was better than not having him at all.

Pretend he isn't there, and this is that room you'd wanted for the weekend. All you're lacking is a good book, Mahogany... which you can't afford either.

Imagining Chance was simply man-meat to be ignored when not in use was not going to be as easy as I thought, not with reality getting in the way. Those moments of riding him like a possessed cowgirl who had no idea what the hell had come over her were certainly going to come up, as well as every other time I'd take possession of his body, reaping the benefits while the getting was good. And it seemed to only have made things worse between us already.

I'm damned if I do continue to 'date' him, damned if I don't. But we certainly weren't dating, this was plain old 'fuck the pain away' for him. I wanted more good times together, good memories before we abruptly ended again, this time at a crossroads. I tried to brace for the trip that would end at a cliff I would surely fall over... or he would push me over it to save himself. It hurt so much to face my reality.

With no time to cry about it, I grabbed my bag and vanished into the bathroom, shutting the door before a shuddering breath escaped from me. I momentarily shut down, thinking about how things should have gotten better instead of worse after that shower. Majestic waiting for me to get back to her was my motivation to get moving.

Getting dressed preceded using a mirror bigger than my car to style my hair in. Reluctant to ask Chance for permission to use the hairdryer mounted to the wall, my only recourse was to tame my hair as much as I could by parting it down the middle, evenly dividing up the loose curls created by the humidity from our shower and the bone-straight parts weighted down with water. At least, the hairdo looked deliberate, saturating the top half of my naked back. The casual, thin blouse I wore didn't cover much, snapping between my legs and comprised of a thick neckband with more material in the ruffles rafting between my unbound breasts than what was tucked inside my dark denim with bleach spots.

God, this outfit was going to be misconstrued as me trying to be cute and was going to draw attention to me, but it was all I had clean that wasn't pajamas. Well, everyone could think what they wanted. Living out of a hospital didn't leave much time for doing laundry at home, but I was definitely going to be putting a load of dingy t-shirts and baggy jeans in the washer as soon as I could tonight. The attraction Chance and I had for one another was going to be our undoing if I didn't tone down the flirty shirts and tight jeans.

"Shit, Mahogany. What are you going to do?" I asked my reflection.

A sudden banging on the door was my answer, which startled the hell out of me. I jumped back from the mirror as if I had done something wrong. I probably had in Chance's eyes, just because I was breathing.

"I'm coming, Chance! You don't have to imitate the sheriff!"

He didn't respond. I pitched my belongings back in the bag and joined him in a living area so gorgeous I hated to leave, but Majestic would always be my first priority over any potential vacation spot. Chance didn't reach for me as we walked out of the room. With me one step behind him, he got on the elevator first, where I stood in the back and made up my mind to follow his lead in all things. I wouldn't put up a fight about anything if it wasn't life or death or to Majestic's detriment. Be as quiet, boring, and accommodating as I could be. If that didn't make him fall out of 'want' with me, nothing would.

In the lobby, I noticed Amari Spencer, now Amari Powers, a regular customer of Tommy's whenever she was in the state. She was leaning back in an adult highchair behind the desk, rubbing her stomach protruding with her third child and spooning macaroni-n-cheese into her mouth. She wasn't tall enough to stand and not appear child-like behind the countertop. I decided to stop and speak as Chance continued out of the exit, where it would take a few minutes for the valet to bring the car. He didn't even look back to see if I was still following him like a good puppy. Bastard!

Amari looked up from her lunch and grinned. "Hey, Mahogany. I missed you at Tommy's a while ago."

"So, that's why no one was here when I arrived, huh?" At the desk, I propped one arm on it then leaned into it. "Hey, Amari. How's little Camron doing in there?"

She patted her stomach. "This is Cannon. Took Camron forever to decide on his name, and Cannon's happy. I'm happy. We're eating mac-n-cheese that should be illegal. I'd go to jail for it, even while pregnant with my third child."

Amused, I knew she meant it. "Tommy does put his foot in his recipes, doesn't he?" And he was the next stop on the merry-go-round Chance was operating. It wouldn't shock me any if I got thrown from one of the horses with him at the controls either.

Having no idea that my thoughts had taken a wide turn from the subject, Amari grinned. "That's the reason I flew from New York last night. Astrid and Blake think it was because I was being a good cousin-in-law helping them out with the guest check-in after their last concierge quit on them. Nuh huh, I was feening for Tommy's mac-n-cheese, and Camron is ticked off because he knows there'll be none for him when I get back home. He's got his own jet, can come get his own food, and I love him but not enough to share my mac-n-cheese with him. How's Majestic... the poor angel," she added sympathetically with a downturn to her mouth.

The Powers and Owens didn't know how blessed they were to have each other. I was envious as hell but couldn't help liking most of them. They were good people. Blake and Camron's relatives, on the other hand, I steered clear of and served as quick as I could when on duty, whether at the restaurant or some function being catered by Tommy's Cuisine. The older Powers were beyond wealthy and could be downright snobbish when they chose to.

"She's in remission finally," I announced with a bright smile that would've blinded me if I saw it.

"That's good news!" she shrieked. "Can I come to see her before I leave?"

"Absolutely. She's in Room 513."

Chance chose that moment to lope back into the building, pulling my eyes to him as if he was the North Pole, and my pupils were needles on a compass. "Can we go please?" he snapped, then went back out the way he came.

I exhaled wearily, tired from digging a hole for myself when I agreed to date him and was going to have to keep digging until I reached China to get out of it. I was in the thick of it, and there was no going back.

Amari's mouth dropped open. "That's who you came here with? I'm surprised you're leaving so soon. But then, he's heated about something, and I'd be leaving too. He seemed nice when he checked in last night, though."

"I wouldn't have been here in the first place if I could've helped it. He's Majestic's father and her savior... and an asshole," I added under my breath, and now, I had to save him from me. How much more unfair could life get?

Oh, Mahogany, don't ask questions you really don't want the answer to.

Amari's eyeballs nearly bulged out of her head as my thoughts spiraled out of control. "No, shit! He's Majestic's father?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, shit. Don't let the good looks fool you. He's a real bastard when he wants to be. See you at Tommy's, Amari."

"Aren't all men real bastards when they want to be? If they can top Camron in that department, you should run, though. Camron's the boss of bastards. And damn straight, you will see me. I'm going to be all up in your business, too," she called after me as I walked away.

I snickered on my way out even though I was about to ride with the devil, who was in a foul mood. I didn't think I rode him hard enough in the shower if he has hostility toward me. Or I rode him too well. Either way, my repayment was his bad attitude. I planned to suffer in silence, not make him madder than he already was.

In the closed confines of the car, Chance was sitting in the driver's seat already, fuming and staring straight ahead. The Chance I loved would've opened the door for me. I didn't know this man, and suddenly, I didn't want to. As I buckled up, the frigid air from the car vents blew across the thin material of my shirt, pebbling my nipples. His eyes rolled to the corner of their sockets then down toward my chest.

Not as immune to me as he would like to be yet, huh? I smirked at the side of his face as his eyes rolled back to the front, with the mean part of me not wanting him to ever get over me. Then, I felt bad for feeling that way when he wanted the opposite. I trained my own eyes out the window and hoped on his behalf that the disease I became to him was cured quickly. I would rather that he feel nothing for me than loath me.

With the tension increasing by leaps and bounds and smothering the oxygen in the car, we drove off. I wasn't sure if he knew where he was going or too prideful to ask where Tommy's restaurant was, and I was about to break one of my rules and say something to him first. I had been gone from Majestic too long. Driving around in circles was going to get us nowhere.

"Chance—"

"I know where Tommy's is," he huffed. "I have GPS."

"I didn't know that," I mumbled to the glass.

Ear-piercing silence reigned as we took crooks and turns on the back streets to town. Tommy's Cuisine's double-glass door entrance finally came into view, the classy interior visible through the long, wide windows. Miniature chandeliers with fluted arms attached to acorn-shaped crystal globes were suspended over various-sized tables sitting spaciously apart, the smaller ones along with black, velvet booths meant for creating intimacy on the outskirts of the dining room. This place was my home away from home, and Chance was about to contaminate it with memories of him being here.

We parked at the front sidewalk. I assisted myself out of the car. He was right behind me as I followed the paved walk underneath the black canopy to the entrance. I felt his eyes drilling into my spine as I stepped past a sign with "Please Wait To Be Seated Saturday" onto the shiny black-tiled floor. His nearness created a shadow over me and reminded me of our double agenda for being here. Servers walked to and fro, balancing trays on their palms. Chatter from the customers filling all the tables attested to the restaurant's success. At the rear, behind a V-shaped, black marble countertop in the far-left corner, stood Tommy Owens with skin the color of dark coffee covering his slim frame with defined muscles beneath his dress shirt, chef's coat, and slacks. He wasn't old enough to be my father. Actually, he was if he started making babies at an even earlier age than I had, but he had been there like a real father should have, and I'd never be able to repay him.

Beside him was Nevaeh Lomax, a dark-skinned, gray-eyed, Amazonian mixologist who worked her ass off for her independence after a nasty breakup. Behind her, Foreign Torres, an exotic beauty, Philippine-born but California bred, with silky-black hair making her pale skin seem lighter under her chef's hat; she was also Tommy's protégé. She was going through the death of a loved one, her father, who didn't often show that he loved her back, which was also probably the reason for them congregating behind the check-out counter. Tommy was undoubtedly discussing the change in his employee's work schedule, the topic he saved for when there was a lull in customers' demands and the kitchen was caught up on orders.

I could tell the minute Foreign and Nevaeh noticed Chance. Nevaeh's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, then she craned her long, slender neck to get a better look. Foreign's slanted, milk-chocolate eyes behind thick eyelashes widened in my direction. I was definitely going to have to explain his appearance to the closest friends I had in Arrow.

"Domestic, is your rude ass even listening to me?" Tommy cracked, then glimpsed behind him while starting in on Foreign, who he renamed Domestic for the hell of it... and because Tommy's Cuisine was his business where he did whatever the hell he wanted to. His words, not mine.

"I'm listening, Mr. Tommy," Foreign chirped back as we approached. "Jerry has two days off. He'll fill in for me who has to work six days next week to make up the hours I'll miss attending my father's funeral. I'll be replacing Jerry on Wednesday, who has to accompany his mother to the hospital for her surgery. Nevaeh will cover his second day off on Thursday to get that day off she's been trying to get for a week now. Hi, Mahogany and baby daddy. Your orders are ready."

No longer did I think I had to explain Chance. Someone already had.

"And you're nosy too, Domestic," Tommy informed dryly. "It's amazing how only women can listen and be nosy at the same time."

When I stood before them, I spoke, "Hey, Foreign, Nevaeh, and Tommy."

Tommy swiveled completely around. "Mahogany, you know damn well I've changed their names. You would do well to call them whatever I do, or we're gonna have some problems here. How's my baby girl doing?"

Giggling at my crabby but harmless boss who thought of himself as a comedian, I replied, "She's most likely the same as when you asked about her thirty minutes ago, Tommy, but I'll give you an update anyway. Majestic was sleeping when I left. After we get the food, we're going back to the hospital." I thumbed over my shoulder at Chance hovering behind me like security. "This is Chance Middleton. Chance meet Tommy Owens, the best boss in Colorado if you can stand his jokes at your expense. Nevaeh... I mean Heaven spelled backward is on Tommy's right, and that's Foreign. No, Tommy calls her Domestic now."

"I can take his jokes, Mahogany." Chance's hand shot out past me then hung in the air, waiting for everyone behind the counter to take it. "Nice to meet you all."

The only thing he couldn't take was being deceived. Everyone but Tommy shook his hand. My boss preferred to give Chance an accessing look instead. I was pretty sure from Tommy's probing glare that he didn't like what he saw in Chance. Of course, he wouldn't like him when I had prejudiced Tommy against Chance years ago. That wasn't what I intended to do when I was applying for my job here, but it was still one more black mark against me in Chance's book.

"Before I shake your hand, how about you join me in my office for a short chat, Mr. Middleton?" Tommy suggested.

Chance's hand disappeared. "It's Chance, and after you."

As they walked away toward the swinging door at the end of the counter, Foreign sighed. "Oh, boy. Mr. Tommy's not going to be nice to your baby daddy, Mahogany."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Nevaeh, on sensible black shoes, whirled to Foreign. "Who is Tommy nice to?"

Foreign closed one eye, thinking deeply. "That would be nobody if you're talking about the general definition of the word 'nice.'"

I concurred and hoped Chance was ready to catch pure hell from Tommy in his office on the second floor.
Chapter Eight

~Chance~

It rankled a lot that I was about to defend myself to a virtual stranger, but I detested his opinion of me and didn't need the extra drama, sideways glances, or saliva in my food when I came to town to visit my family. Visit my family. Three words that should never be put together when one member was your child. But visiting was my fucking future. I was going to have to deal with it along with Mahogany's boss, who had been filling in my spot as the man in Majestic's life. I hated that too.

Tommy slipped into a cream-painted hallway with just a dark wood staircase. We ascended the steps quickly, turning left on the second floor with an exit door at the end of it, then passed two closed doors before he turned the knob on a third one. The second he flipped the light switch inside the room, I noticed the playpen beside his desk with paperwork scattered over every inch his electronics hadn't sequestered for themselves. In one of two soft cushioned chairs, I sat down, normally waiting to be invited to sit, but I wanted to get to the point of this 'short chat.' That was exactly what it would be if my luck was running good. His behind hadn't even made an impression in his office chair before I kicked off the conversation.

"Listen, I could see the close relationship between you and Mahogany when she was on the phone with you earlier. Since you mean enough to her to open up to you about our past, your opinion means a lot to me, so—"

"And you don't like people thinking the worst of you without them at least getting all three sides of the story first," he interrupted with a little hostility in his voice.

I decided to look over his attitude that he had every right to once he was dragged into my mess with Mahogany. "That's right, Tommy, but there are only two sides here."

He flopped back in his seat. "No, there's three: your side, her side, and the truth."

Immediately, I understood what he was trying to get across. "Our perceptions color and distort what happens, giving us our own versions of the story."

He nodded. "Right. She believes you abandoned her before you even knew why she needed you. You think she lied to you by omission by not telling you she was pregnant before she left. If you're in here willing to explain your side, you can't be all bad. But the truth of the matter is both of you were too pigheaded to open up to the other when it mattered the most. I can see you're stubborn from that thick ass forehead you got, Chance, but I know your girl who you're still in love with by the way is a mule because she ignores me when I tell her to be at work. She comes when she wants to. Leaves when she wants to. If that's not the definition of a mule..."

Tommy trailed off and pointed at his chest. "You know I have to see about Majestic sometimes because I have no choice if I want my business to stay running in an orderly fashion, which it is not. You can just look at my desk and tell that, and I'm sorry about my attitude that's probably only going to get worse because I get a little aggressive and scatterbrained when my desk is messy because my accountant, prep cook, and fake secretary can't come to work. All of this paperwork distracts the hell out of me when I'm in here, but I'm too stubborn to deal with it. Now, where was I? Oh, you both made up your minds about kids, you long before her, I assume, since you're older, but you both stuck to your guns when shit happened that no one planned for. Majestic is paying the price by not having everyone that should be in her life, and that is what's pissing me off about the situation. What also makes me mad is that Majestic runs all over me, along with her mother. I blame you for that."

Why was I not surprised at being held accountable for my family's actions and suspected Tommy wasn't as pissed as he liked to portray?

"I'm not the blame for Majestic running over you, Tommy." Not completely anyway.

If I had been in Mahogany's life during Majestic's birth, Mahogany and I would've made a proper family for Majestic. The love was there before she was born. Hell, it still was there on my end. I couldn't say the same for Mahogany because truth be told, I had abandoned her before I knew she needed me because I didn't know she did. I would've been there for her and Majestic if I had known, so Mahogany abandoned me first, believing I couldn't be the man she and my firstborn needed. I wasn't given a chance to be that, and that hurts the most. Pain was leaking from my damn ears because of Mahogany.

"Listen, Tommy—"

He held his hands up, cutting me off again. "Sorry, I don't have time to listen, Chance, just talk... oh, and ask a question. I don't need your side of the story, just tell me what are you going to do for Mahogany and Majestic now? Because I gotta tell you they're heavy ass burdens to me and my business needs its fake ass secretary to have fewer burdens, so I can deal with my other burden, my fiancée. Kat would take over Mahogany's positions if I needed her to, but she doesn't want to. I don't want her to either. Mahogany can't take care of Majestic without her job. I want my fiancée in my bed, not at my desk. The edges of it hurt my legs. Don't ask me what that means, I might just tell you. My main problem is that eventually Kat's gonna want a paycheck for all she does around here, and that's too much of a good thing when she's already entitled to half of whatever I have. In other words, I need some help with your family, so mine doesn't get greedy."

I couldn't help chuckling at the man. He wanted to make it seem like he was in dire straits and dying to be relieved of the weight I should've been carrying since the beginning, but he mostly wanted the best for my family.

"I'm going to take my burdens off your hand, Tommy. First by moving them to a bigger place. I nearly took my own head off in Mahogany's apartment. Next, I'll find suitable daycare for Majestic... which will probably be me for a while. Right now, I'm not as trusting with her health in others' hands as I should be, not even in her doctor's care."

"It's good to know you love Majestic already. That attests to the good man you are, even if Mahogany may feel differently. So, here's your warning concerning Majestic. She's already spoiled and too cute to say no to, but she just mainly wants food."

I snickered. "Yeah, I've learned those lessons the hard way."

He frowned. "What about the mixed feelings rolling off you for Mahogany? Trust me, I was intimate friends with those emotions for a long time. Still can recognize them in someone else, and I know when a man can't decide whether he wants to be near the woman who's causing him pain or keep his distance from her, so he does both. You're going to tear both of you apart if you keep straddling the fence. Love her or leave her alone, Chance."

My humor vaporized. We were supposed to be changing his mind about considering me a deadbeat, not working on making up my mind about how I feel about Mahogany. That was probably not possible at this point. I scratched my head, considering my next answer.

"Honestly, I'm dealing with the mixed feelings the best I can. I'm still pissed with her."

He cocked his head to the side. "I suspect she's still pissed with you too."

His statement took me aback. It hadn't occurred to me that Mahogany may be feeling hurt because I wasn't able to give her the answer she needed when she tried to tell me about the baby. My feelings on the subject were my main concern, as were my own needs three years ago—to not be a killer. I had been selfish when I wouldn't make room for the unexpected turns life took instead of following my schedule and my demands. Because of that, I lost... no, Mahogany took away the best things that could've happened to me, which just served to make me even angrier with her. And myself. I should've found her and made her open up to me.

I should've opened up to her.

Tommy was right. I was just as wrong as Mahogany was when I held back my reason for choosing to be childless, but I didn't know if I could ever get over her decisions that brought us to the slippery slope where Majestic was skating downhill with no brakes because of her present and future health problems. Although I won't ever regret Majestic, I still had to face the same facts that brought me to my decision to not have kids: I could lose them one day. What parent could prepare to bury their children? That was the one thing I couldn't face, prepare for, maybe not even survive. Mahogany made sure that I was about to find out what I really was made of when I never wanted to know.

"Tommy, I'll make you this promise. I'll be good to both of them to the best of my abilities, but there is no future for me and Mahogany, and I won't play with her emotions." I couldn't trust her to trust me, and that was the heart of the matter.

He stood, extending his hand to me with a huge smile on his face. "My man, that's all I needed to hear. Nice to meet you too."

I don't know what I expected when I got here, maybe a dressing down from Tommy for being absent in Majestic and Mahogany's life, even his harsh judgment, but never him accepting my word and having a handle on what truly transpired between Mahogany and I before we split. On top of that, he was understanding and generous. I understood why he meant so much to Mahogany. I, myself, liked him and took his hand in mine as I stood up. He pumped it twice in a strong grip then reversed from his desk to knock invisible wrinkles out of his chef's coat.

"Alright, Chance. Let's go. My staff is in every position but the one they were hired for, and I don't trust them there either. I'm going to give you my number in case Mahogany and Majestic need anything and you're out of town. Mahogany won't ask for anything but time off. You're welcomed to send me a text if you can't get here fast enough to give them what they need."

Somehow, he knew I didn't trust Mahogany as far as I could see her with my eyes closed, and I bet he had experience in that area as well.

I trailed him out of the office while logging his number into my phone. Downstairs, he pushed the door open quietly. When we stepped onto the main floor, Mahogany was gripping the thick, muscular arm of a man my size, height, and race, as she doubled over with laughter and palmed the marble top that held a hefty bagged-up order and a drink tray with two huge Styrofoam cups beside her and him. Foreign and Nevaeh had vanished to parts unknown in the restaurant. I hated the guy that Mahogany seemed so familiar with instantly. Hating everything at this point, inky black jealousy was eating me. She hadn't laughed like that for me in years, and I wanted her to, only for me.

Well, shit, Chance! Possessive much?

In my defense, it was hard not to be possessive when Mahogany had so much of me wrapped up in strings that refused to come undone. My stupid heart wasn't backing off but moving full steam ahead towards her even while I was confused about my own feelings for her and torn up inside because of that. This guy wasn't ugly or old, and I wanted her for myself, so he was competition. Since she was mine no longer, I had a feeling I was going to see every man under eighty-five as a competitor. Why the hell am I feeling this way when I want to hate her? I questioned my emotions as if it would make the undesirable ones go away. They didn't.

The man stared down at her bent head, smiling, not noticing Tommy and me yet. "How many names do you think Mr. Tommy has called your baby daddy by now, Mahogany?" he asked, then glanced up, seeing me, which wiped the smile some women would find appealing right off his face.

"I don't know, Jerry," she responded breathlessly, still unaware of me and her boss in the vicinity behind her. "Thirty? Forty? I do know Chance is memorizing each one for a later date to return the favor. His memory is as long as an elephant's, and his grudges span lifetimes."

And I had one hell of a bone to pick with her.

"I didn't call him any names, Jerry," Tommy answered as I stopped right behind Mahogany.

She popped upright suddenly, then leaped back from Jerry and me as if the gates to hell were opening up on the floor beneath us.

Jerry threw up both hands. "I'm on break, Mr. Tommy."

Tommy propped one elbow on the countertop before crossing his feet. "I figured as much, Jerry. Why else would you be out here talking to Mahogany?"

"We're friends?" Jerry offered.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Tommy inquired dryly.

Jerry side-eyed Mahogany, who was waiting for his response too. "Telling, Mr. Tommy."

Mahogany, wide-eyed and surrounded by us, crisscrossed her arms in front of her, unknowingly pushing her breasts up for better viewing. "Hey, you guys good now?"

I simply stared at her chest, barely able to peel my eyes away, just like in the car. Those nipples were mine, and I still hadn't tasted them yet. Her full, blush-colored lips. Mine. Smooth, blemish-free skin. Also mine. Not anyone else's, and Jerry had better get out of touching range like right now.

"We're fine, Mahogany," Tommy took the liberty to reply. "Jerry Toller, meet Chance Middleton, and I advise you to back up, Jerry. Chance is feeling all kinds of territorial right now."

Jerry sidestepped with an 'I didn't do anything, but I'm going to move anyway' look on his face. I cut my eyes at Tommy next to me. How the hell did he... never mind, I knew how he knew what I was feeling. He had to have walked in my shoes before with Kat. Mahogany wore the same dumbfounded expression as Jerry, which she laid on me, totally hoping I'd be the one to give her an idea of what Tommy was talking about. I grinned evilly instead. She frowned, so clueless it was ridiculous. It should be a crime how much I enjoyed her confusion, but I had been the same way once upon a time concerning her. Now, it was her turn to feel the burn.

"I... ah," Jerry stammered. "I think I'll go back to work now."

"Sounds like a plan, Jerry," Tommy endorsed. "Let's let these folks get back to their baby girl."

"Kiss Majestic for me, Mahogany," the giant, in too-pale skin and blonde crewcut, requested before slightly limping away.

"I will, Jerry," she conceded with a nervous tremor in her voice.

If I had to guess, I'd say he had a bum knee from trying out for some sport, maybe professional football that ruined his dreams of anything more than getting a degree and opening his own business one day. I didn't much care what he did with his life as long as he wasn't trying to tie it to Mahogany's.

Twisting to slip my palm in the center of her spine, I urged her forward. "Let's go. We got about fifteen minutes to get back to the hospital. See you later, Tommy."

He lifted an eyebrow. "If all goes as you're secretly hoping it does, Chance, you will see me... often." A cryptic statement if I ever heard one, which caused me to jack up one of my own eyebrows.

"I'm not secretly hoping for anything, Tommy."

With her head swishing back and forth between Tommy and me, Mahogany stepped toward the bag on the counter near Tommy.

Tommy grabbed the bag up first, plopped it down on top of the drinks, then handed it all to her before replying, "Yeah, I thought I wasn't secretly hoping for something too. Turns out, I was so wrong."

So, Tommy and Kat had spent time apart, huh? His story was unfolding bit by bit and beginning to look a lot like mine but not mine.

"We're not the same person, Tommy."

"We don't have to be to want the same things, Chance. You just have to start being honest with yourself. I had to do the same, and it worked out for me. I get the strangest feeling that it will work for you too... or it will if you're truthful with more than just yourself, and not just openly honest about the things you think will hurt someone but about the things that hurt you. Don't repeat history and close yourself off. Otherwise, you'll keep sailing the same sinking ship that brought you to this point. Eventually, it's going to sink with your ass on it, if you don't get off it."

It wasn't hard to catch his point: tell Mahogany that she still owned me, and it was devastating when she wasn't with me. Ha! Not in this lifetime.

"Ever heard of the saying that a captain goes down with his ship, Tommy?" But was I really ready to drown if Mahogany was willing to save me... from myself? Did I want her to?

Of course, you do, stupid. That's what a third of your problem with her is.

"Ever heard of a watery grave, Chance? That could be avoided if you just docked the damn ship and saved yourself and everyone else that you're going to pull down to the bottom with you. You don't have the right to do that no matter how angry and wronged you feel. It's not just about you anymore, despite what all those feelings bottled up inside you are telling you. Just cuss somebody out already." He pointed at Mahogany. "Preferably her. Release the storm gathering inside you because if you take your frustrations out on me, I will spit in your food. It's the only way I can retaliate since I've gotten enough of swinging on people and almost going to jail for it. Hadn't been for Kat's scuffle with some fake hair that she refused to give back to the owner until the cops intervened, which happened to be my niece Sheriff Astrid by the way, jail is where I'd be. I'm glad as hell to know people in high places. Seriously though, clear your chest. Makes for a good clearing of the air, paving the way for moving on, and putting a lid on that bottomless pit of anger you're working on filling up. That requires a lot of energy that no one has naturally and could lead to a killer stroke, by the way. That would be sad when you're no more than what? Thirty?"

Tommy seemed to be more intuitive than I gave him credit for. Somehow, he knew exactly what was going on inside me.

"Thirty-one," I supplied my correct age through gritted teeth, tired of being called out, and not sure whether to believe him about the 'saved by the fake hair' incident or question him about it until I did believe it.

This man's life was becoming interesting enough for me to want to be nosy in it. Tommy was quite the character. Mahogany had taken the sack and walked away. Immediately missing her nearness, I observed the sensual sway of her hips until titanium-constructed wood pressed against my jeans before I snatched my gaze away from her.

"What do I owe you, Tommy?"

He smiled. "Do you see Mahogany offering up any money? That's because family doesn't pay me for what I do from the heart. Offend me again by talking about money, and I will punch you, Chance... or send you a bill for everything Mahogany and Majestic have eaten here for the last three years. It'll be so big it won't fit in your mailbox. Then you'll punch me. I'll have the right to defend myself and beat your ass to a bloody pulp for old and new. Astrid won't have the right to arrest anyone but you, and I'll be all for it."

I laughed out loud. Tommy wasn't as forgiving as I thought he was, but he was feeding me for free, calling me family, or at least I think he was, and giving me advice, so he liked something about me. Weirdly, I wanted the respect of the good guy behind the one-liners and rude ass comments who was there for my girls when I wasn't.

I extended my hand to him. "No more money talk."

He came in for a bro hug and whispered, "She did what she thought was best for everyone, Chance. You should tell her about why it wasn't best for you, then forgive her. Do it for you if you have to. Freeing yourself is the only time it's okay to be selfish. She could've saved herself from doing the hardest job in the world alone, and from this situation with you that she had to know was coming one day if she had Majestic. She womaned-up and took charge of both of your mistakes by herself and left you to lead a normal life until she couldn't anymore."

"That's what hurts, Tommy," I croaked, stupid damn emotions choking me suddenly.

My life was only normal when she was in it. Tommy was dragging out the honesty in me, and that was painful too. Less hurtful to just be mad.

He stepped back. "You're old enough to know life isn't pain-free. Shit happens, so you should grab the happy moments while they're waiting around for you. They do leave, you know? The opportunity to have what you truly want will be gone for good. Then you'll really be pissy and mad. Use your energy wisely. It runs out after thirty-five. Trust me. Plus, I don't want you bringing all that bad energy up in here. Fucks with the feng shui of the place. Actually, there isn't any feng shui in here, but if there was, you'd kill it dead with all that bitterness and hard feelings you got. Go. I'll check on y'all at the hospital in a little bit. Maybe even relieve you two of sitting with Majestic for the night. Maybe. Depends on what Kat says. We haven't spent much time with Majestic lately. I'm shocked I miss the little monster."

I wasn't shocked about it or that he dragged another grin from me either. From what I knew about Tommy, this was what he did best and was liked the most for—uplifting the people around him after he weighed them down with cold, hard facts. I wasn't quite ready for those, or to be lifted out of the space where I resided miserably with my anger, but I sure as hell wasn't telling Tommy that. I could do with a night of Mahogany to myself, though, only way to get rid of the bitterness and hard feelings... I think.

As I walked away, I called over my shoulder, "Thanks, Tommy... for everything."

"Don't thank me too soon. I haven't said I'd babysit; I said maybe, and it depends on Kat. She could have something for me that I don't want to receive here... anymore, that is."

Laughing my ass off, I exited the building, finding Mahogany standing on her side of my car. Just looking at her, I was angry and wanted to be inside her simultaneously.

She squared her shoulders as if sensing the chaos in me. "Chance, I have to ask. Were you jealous of me talking to Jerry?"

"Yes!" I sniped, cringing as the truth burst out of me. Fucking Tommy had implanted the idea in my head, to be honest. Now, it was coming out of my mouth.

"Well, you shouldn't be. Jerry's just a good friend who saw me looking worried, so he cracked a stupid joke on his break instead of eating his food. That's what we do here: try to hold each other up, even while we're all pretty much drowning."

At the front of the BMW, I glanced over my shoulder at her. "You don't look as if you're drowning to me, Mahogany." But that was what I wanted her to be doing since I was drowning without her, except I wanted to be the one she drowned in until she had to come up for air, begging for a break from the climaxes I was punishing her with.

Punish her with climaxes? Chance, you have lost your damn mind. Mahogany likes to come just as much as the next woman, dummy.

"But I am drowning, Chance, because you hate me."

I didn't miss the sadness in her tone. If only I could hate her, and yeah, I was furious because I couldn't. I needed to release my steadily growing frustrations on someone. That someone was her if I heeded Tommy's advice. Oh, how I was going to heed his advice.

First, I circled the car again, coming to her side in an instant, just to smash my lips down on hers and bring her body flush with mine in a true collision that forced a groan from her. I wanted her to feel what I really felt for her, a lust so sharp it was cutting me in the deepest of places while making other parts protrude through my clothes. Mahogany latched onto my shoulders with both hands, parted her lips, and let me have my way with her mouth. When she got in the first swipe of her tongue across mine, I heard, "Go get a room, goddamnit!"

I turned my head to Tommy, who was shouting and leaning out the opened door of his building, "My parking lot isn't a hotel either, by the way! Jesus, I didn't need to see that while at work! Now, I need to call Kat because I got something for her! Thank you so not much, Chance!"

I chuckled. Tommy disappeared into the building. Mahogany was staring at me like I had two heads.

"What did I do to deserve that?" she gasped out finally.

"Being you." The bane of my existence. Deceiving love of my life. Chosen but shouldn't have been the mother of my child who held all the special places of my heart that I couldn't free of her no matter how hard I tried.

"Is that a good or bad thing, Chance?"

Needing distance to not kiss her ruthlessly again, I abandoned her to open her own door while I crossed to mine, just to stand in between it and the car's body. Resting both forearms on the roof, I was ready to be honest with her suddenly, and I thanked Tommy for that.

"Both Mahogany."

She removed the food from the roof and muttered under her breath, "I figured that."

"Did you figure that I'm angry with you because it feels impossible for me to let go like you did, too? And you know what else? I'm angry with me for the same damn reason."

She opened her door. "I figured that too."

"You did?"

She took one last look at me. "Yeah, and I'm going to help you with that."

While I pondered if anyone could help me with that because I really wanted someone to, she got in the car and slammed the door shut. I hadn't thought of one person who could help me besides Mahogany by the time we arrived back at the hospital.
Chapter Nine

~Mahogany~

He thought I had let go of him. Bullshit! More like I suspended myself in time and didn't move until he and I were face to face again. Time sped up yesterday and caught up with all my decisions that had come home to roost, crowing everything wrong I had done since college. Looking back, most of those choices were foolish or selfish. Withholding Majestic from Chance, selfish. Leaving Chance, foolish. When someone said twenty-something-year-olds didn't know shit, they were right. I had been undone by my ignorance, lost Chance but gained Majestic. Had to almost lose Majestic so Chance could take his rightful place in her life. Now, he wanted to penalize me for him wanting me. Vicious damn cycles were going to leave me shattered. This twenty-something-year-old didn't know what to do about that either.

We walked into Majestic's room after Chance reached around me and opened the door because I was in the front, loaded down with the food, and we weren't going to get inside any other way. Doris was sitting with Majestic, who sat up and colored every inch of the page in her lap, except the shapes that needed the color. Seeing her resume her normal activities was enough to bring me to tears when I wasn't sure this day mixed with the good and bad was ever going to come. I edged toward the backside of the bed through air heavy with Chance's silence loaded with his fury.

He hadn't said another word to me since we left Tommy's, but he had lots of words and kisses for Majestic after scooping her up in his arms that swallowed her. As long as he didn't treat her like an outcast, I was okay with his mistreatment of me, which always led to us kissing. And which didn't make a damn bit of sense. Lively, as she always was before cancer set up shop in her body, she patted his jaws, gave him a loud smack on the lips, and kicked her feet. The back of her gown exposed a fresh diaper.

"You're glad to see your daddy, aren't you, princess?" Doris chirped from beside Chance as I spread out the food on the bed.

Her words stopped me dead. I hadn't explained to Majestic who Chance was to her. Although I knew I would have to someday, she was only two. Yet, the day had arrived.

I cleared my throat while lifting the lids on the trays of food. After depositing the drinks on the TV stand beside my chair, I sat down heavily, then palmed my thighs. "Chance, we need to talk to Majestic about you."

Majestic giggled. "Daddy's in trouble."

I supposed I had a certain tone of voice that she recognized as the one I used when I was serious.

Chance glanced down at his daughter. "I was in trouble from the moment I met your mommy, munchkin."

I sighed. "I'm not going to take that personally, Chance."

"You should." He found his seat with Majestic, where he eyeballed me over the bed and her head; his tone of voice was dead serious too. "Nothing is ever business-related when it comes to you."

"Okay, I'm not sure how to take that, though." I did know he hadn't found a way to disconnect from me yet, and it was slowly killing him. And that was slowly killing me.

"And I'm going to leave because things just heated up in here," Doris announced before scurrying as fast as she could to the door.

When she was gone, Chance addressed his daughter. "Majestic, do you know what daddy means?" Of course, she didn't.

Her forehead furrowed like she had assumed 'daddy' didn't mean any more than just being one of his names.

"It means the same as mommy does, Majestic, so if I say you can't have chocolate, you still can't have it."

Her head whipped around to me, her eyes wide and mouth opened, conveying 'Mommy, say it isn't so' when she couldn't get the words out her mouth. I nodded. Her little chin wobbled. Leave it to Chance to get down to a two-year-old's level and get through to her the first time about such a difficult topic only two days into being a father. Most days, I had to work to get through to her about just touching a hot stove.

He tilted her chin up and whispered something in her ear. Then, she was all smiles again. I knew he promised to sneak her chocolate when I wasn't looking. About to reprimand him, he lifted his palm in the air and told Majestic to give him five. She placed hers against his and held it there while beaming at him. Just the difference in the size of their hands was enough to bring back the damn tears. Witnessing Majestic become a part of a whole family unit to call her own, to support her, and give her the boost needed to soar high brought the waterworks on full force. Chance's shoulders were a lot closer to the sky than my own. Majestic finally had what I wanted for her the most: a father, next to living a hell of a lot longer than two years.

"I'll be back," I declared before jumping up from my chair to find a place where I could get myself back together in private.

The en suite bathroom was the closest and on the other side of the television. Five minutes later, I came out to Majestic sitting in Chance's lap with her lips pressed tight, denying entry to the spoon of soup he was trying to feed her. He had removed their food from the bed to a rollaway table. Wondering what he was going to do next to get her to eat, I watched as he put the spoon back into the soup. She tooted out her tiny lips pathetically, silently begging for anything other than the broth, then she pointed at his baked potato. If Chance wasn't firm with her, she'd be eating his food, him the soup. He huffed, then lifted a spoonful of his potato in her direction.

"Chance!" I rebuked, making him pause.

"Look at her face, Mahogany," he whined. "I can't eat in front of her like this."

Majestic reached out, took the spoon from Chance, and fed herself, taking the matter out of both of our hands.

"You know what, Chance? You..." I cut off the sentence before my insult could get out in front of Majestic, who was going through enough without having to watch her mother lose it on her father too.

His face morphed into a mask of coldness. "What were you going to say, Mahogany? I dare you to finish."

Oh, he shouldn't have said that.

I mouthed, "You suck balls, Chance. No willpower whatsoever with her."

His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"I suck balls?" he asked, shocked and too damn loudly. "You were the one who was going to let her starve on broth."

"That's not starving, and Dr. Blane said it was better for her!" I defended.

"I want balls too, Mommy," Majestic informed at the top of her tiny voice, with no idea of what she was asking for.

Chance closed his eyes, discovering his mistake a little too late. "I need to learn to turn down my volume in front of her, don't I?"

"You think!" So, he's not a perfect parental unit, after all.

His chest started to heave as silent chuckles erupted from him, infecting me. Majestic aimed the spoon at Chance's baked potato and dipped out some more. I gave up. When she made herself sick with the too heavy food—I doubted she would though—she'd quit eating what I told her not to. Yeah, I doubted that too. This little girl loved to eat, so I sat down to feed myself.

Dr. Blane entered the room and caught her going at it with the potato. "I need to check your vitals, Majestic, and then I'll get out of your way and leave you to the potato."

"Blame him," I tattled, pointing the fries in my hand at Chance. "I was going to give her the broth."

Chance rolled his eyes, chuckling quietly.

Dr. Blane shifted his stethoscope from his neck to his ears, to listen to Majestic's back and chest. "Her stomach is made of cast iron, isn't it?"

"Yep," I agreed.

"Well, if she can hold it down, she can have it... besides chocolate. She's had all she should of that for the next year."

"Chocolate!" Majestic screeched.

Why did he have to say that word? The poor child was going to be in withdrawals soon, sweating and shaking. Someone was definitely going to call child services on me then.

Dr. Blane stepped back. Chance reached around Majestic to cut into his steak. No one was going to address her demand but me.

"No chocolate, Majestic. You heard the doctor. Don't make me the bad guy here, please." But I knew I would be deemed as such, I seemed to be the only one willing to stand up to her.

Jesus, she's two, and adults fall like dominoes under her demands, I silently griped as I scooped up ketchup off my plate with more fries. Majestic swiveled her head in my direction, homing in on me, lifting the fries to my mouth.

I hesitated to eat them. "Seriously, Majestic, you want more potatoes?"

"Just one, Mommy." She popped one chubby finger in the air adorably, as if I couldn't count. One being the only number she knew besides two.

Chance's erupting amusement reached new heights, which nearly caused him to blow steak out his nose.

"No, baby," I cooed to her, feeling like a mean bully. "Fries tomorrow. We gotta watch your calorie intake since you're not moving around as much as you should be."

"Tomorrow," she recapped, with a determined look on her face that meant I'd be keeping my word.

"How does she know when tomorrow is, Mahogany?" Chance asked before submerging a forkful of food in his mouth.

"During one of our emergency visits here, I explained the difference between today, tomorrow, and the purpose of the sun. When it disappears, tomorrow is coming, and today is going away. When it comes back, tomorrow is here, and whatever she wanted is available... usually for her consumption. She doesn't know what the night is for because she goes to sleep when she wants to and is obsessed with food. I think that's why she and Tommy get along so well. He supplies the food. And now, you're the... c-word factory."

Dr. Blane wrapped his stethoscope around his neck again. "Mahogany's right about Majestic's calorie intake. I still want her in the bed or being held but not walking around yet on the floor. We don't want her falling if she becomes dizzy. Our non-slip socks don't come in her size, but she's welcomed to put her weight back on with real food like potatoes that have the nourishment she needs, so daddy, keep the... c-word to yourself. Majestic, I'm going to wish you a good day and see you in about twelve hours to give you another bag of daddy's amazing stem cells along with a little chemotherapy."

Majestic, spoon in mouth, scrunched up her face at him as if saying 'no thank you.' Chance found that hilarious too, but I looked at him in awe, amazed that he could save his daughter when no one else could, even while a part of him wanted to be a bastard to me. Shouldn't the 'bastard' part of him have canceled out the amazing parts of him? I wondered why it didn't and tried dissecting him with just my eyes, hoping to separate the bastard section from the savior's or find the origin of each at least. He caught me looking. I dropped my eyes to my plate quickly and ate the fry Majestic had wanted.

"Bye, guys."

Dr. Blane left. Day slipped into night. Entertaining Majestic wasn't easy when she was restless after being comatose for a week, wanting to get out the bed and get into things she shouldn't, with Chance too close and staring me down. Adult conversation with him was at a standstill, and I was pretty sure he didn't have a damn thing he wanted to talk with me about. I relented and let Majestic walk along the bed, her waist ensnared in my hands. Had to somehow work on wearing out her energy that was returning.

Chance observed with dark intent in his gray orbs, which served to only make me jittery like I was overloaded on caffeine. By nine o'clock, Majestic was all chattered out and tired. I needed a break from the tension-laden silence in the room, and there was another hour to go before Dr. Blane made his reappearance. Something had to give.

I retook my seat in the chair and watched Majestic doze off on her back. "So, Chance, when are you going to tell your family about Majestic?"

"I already have." His eyes never lost the sinful quality in them, and only God knew what was on his mind. "I called them today, and I had my secretary look into you some new places to live. Your choice which one. The family is flying in in the morning. We'll have to post a guard at the door to collect the candy that'll be on their persons. My mother will be the first to sneak Majestic the c-word every time she asks for it. As for you, I can't promise they won't—"

"Stop right there, Chance. I'm not a part of the family or need any of them to treat me as such. As long as Majestic is treated right by them, I'm good. We're good."

A knock at the door followed my ruling. Chance cursed quietly, then got up to greet the newcomers, Tommy and Kat, in jeans and t-shirts, which reminded me I needed to go do some washing that I usually did in the middle of the night when Majestic was passed out and wouldn't miss me.

Kat, with her thick, long hair bound in a ponytail holder on top of her head, hugged me tightly first. "We're here to babysit, so you can catch up on the things you haven't done... like sleep."

Sleep would be nice; however, I could sleep when I was dead, I guessed. "You mean wash clothes, Kat. I look like I'm trying to attract men when I'm not, but nothing I have loose-fitting is clean."

She gave me the once over. "You do look good, that's for sure."

Tommy pounded fists with Chance. "This is my fiancée, Katara Johnson. Kat meet Chance Middleton. How's my girl doing?"

Kat hugged Chance too, taking him by surprise. He patted her awkwardly on the back, which he had to look down to find under the curtain of her hair. "Good to meet you, Katara, and Majestic is good, Tommy. Dr. Blane is going to give her one more bag of stem cells and chemo. If all goes well, she goes home the day after tomorrow. It should go well since there's virtually no risk of her getting GVHD."

Kat winced then stepped back. "Call me Kat. All my friends do, and you definitely are my friend since you came to the rescue of your daughter the minute you knew she existed. God, you are intense up close, Chance. But what is GVHD?"

"What in the hell does that mean?" Tommy queried. "Ain't I intense too? Wait. Was that a compliment? Because if it wasn't, I don't want to be intense."

Chance snorted. "Trust me, Tommy, it wasn't a compliment. I've been accused of that a time or two. It means I'm in demanding-mode, and it shows. GVHD is a graft-versus-host-disease. It's where a donor's stem cells attack the recipient's, but the proteins in our blood match, so Majestic is out of the woods in that area and should be back to her old self in a few weeks hopefully. I don't know if I'm ready for that. She's high maintenance now while ill."

Tommy scratched behind his ear, looked off, then uttered under his breath, "She gets that from her daddy."

I agreed with him. The door opened behind Tommy and Kat.

Dr. Blane entered with an IV bag that contained the stem cells and a needle full of the chemo drug. "Hey, guys. I'm early because I need to get off early, but I want to be around if Majestic has a delayed reaction to the stem cells. I don't expect her to, but I hope for the best and prepare to divert the worse."

We got out of his way as he set up to transplant the stem cells in a sleeping Majestic. Two hours passed as we observed her for any signs of distress. As we whispered around her, she had no idea her second chance at life came in plastic and was sluicing into her body as she slept. I was in awe with Chance all over again. This time, I was caught staring and dissecting him by four sets of eyes instead of one, Dr. Blane in and out of the room periodically.

When he pronounced the danger zone had passed, Kat shooed Chance and me out. "Now, go while she's sleeping. If anything goes wrong, I'm sure the hospital will have called you two way before I can get it together enough to even find my phone in my purse."

I hesitated to leave but really needed to do laundry. The faster I seemed unattractive to Chance, the faster we both could move on.

"She's right about not finding her phone," Tommy cosigned, "because that purse of hers is a black hole. It almost sucked me into it once while I was looking for the restaurant key. Not doing that again. I'll just break into my own building next time."

Chance and I both snickered on the way out, clutching my generic bag that could never be compared to Kat's Gucci purse, but I don't have the funds like she, a corporate lawyer, does either. The minute we walked into the hallway, the easy atmosphere that developed in Tommy's and Kat's company dissipated like smoke. The elevator ride was quiet as a cemetery. In the back parking lot, I veered toward my Dodge Avenger parked two spaces down from Chance's rental. Space from him and his intensity was a requirement at this point.

"Where are you going, Mahogany?" he asked, stopping midpoint between his car and mine.

"To my car to go home and do laundry." I stuck the keys in the door.

A horrified expression crossed his face as he pointed at my car. "Oh, my damn. That's your car! I saw that damn thing at the airport."

I exhaled and shook my head, asking for patience from any higher-being listening. First, he hated me, then my apartment, now my car. What didn't he have a problem with?

"Yes, Chance, this is my car."

"Not anymore it isn't. It can't be safe." He was grimacing as if my car was a broken-down horse and buggy used for everyday travel in modern times.

Okay, so it was clear the car was on its last legs with bald tires and rust spots the size of golf balls everywhere, but I wasn't walking either... for now.

"Judge much, Chance? When I can replace the car, I will."

He strolled toward me, then grasped my hand to press the BMW keys into it. "Here. It's been replaced temporarily. I'll drive the Dodge to your apartment where we'll park it forever. Tomorrow, we'll find you a vehicle that won't put you down before you put it down."

"I don't want a car note," I protested. "This car just has a few... minor things wrong with..."

LIE, MAHOGANY!

Okay, so when you added up all the repairs needed, things wrong with the car became major. I wasn't any more thrilled about being stranded on the side of the road than he was, even less with a two-year-old, but I couldn't do better until I could do better. Chance could help me do better; however, I didn't think that I could trust him—

LIE, MAHOGANY!

I really wished my conscience would just shut the hell up and let me finish a thought. And yes, I was full of shit for even thinking he might add 'destroy her credit' to his masterplan, or gift me something with payments attached. But if I wanted to make my situation seem less despairing than it really was, or make Chance into the same untrustworthy monster he believed I was, I should be able to tell falsehoods, whether to him or myself, in peace. What was a little white lie here and there going to hurt?

You and, eventually, Majestic!

My decisions did seem to have a trickle-down effect.

"Who said anything about a car note?" he asked while jiggling the key to manually unlock the driver's door that doesn't like to be bothered, even less on rainy days. "You don't have financial issues anymore, Mahogany. Get used to it."

Get used to it?

"Well, you don't have to be an ass about it. Jeez, people are usually much nicer when they're giving you shit."

He swung the door wide, then glared at me over the roof of the car. "I'm an ass, Mahogany. That's what you made me into. Get used to that as well."

He had no idea who he was talking to. I could get used to anything thanks to the Jefferson's.

"This is a case of 'I broke it, and now I have to pay for it,' isn't it, Chance?"

"Pretty much."

Multiple orgasms, a nicer place to live, a new car, and dealing with his bad attitude was a weird combination of compensation for his broken trust, but okay then. Only one of those things was going to come back to bite me in the ass, and I absolutely expected Chance to literally sink his teeth into my ass cheeks at least once while he was here. He had done it before, which I enjoyed oddly.

Stop remembering shit that has no bearing on the here and now and move Mahogany.

Obeying, I turned toward the BMW, got in, then led the way to my home. Probably wasn't supposed to enjoy driving the luxury car as much as I did, but there it was. When Chance was in a much friendlier mood, thanking him for putting himself out for Majestic, and therefore me, would be a priority. He got the short straw in driving the Dodge. Once a month, I had to buy steering wheel fluid, or the steering wheel fought to go back to its original position whenever you tried to turn it. The required bottle hadn't been bought for the car this month. At least the interior would be clean as he struggled to drive, but the seats weren't in the best shape. The seat belts stuck and didn't like to let you out once you were fastened in them. The poor man was going to suffer here more than I had before this was all said and done.

Imagining him running back to Utah screaming had me sniggering at my own thoughts as I got out of the BMW in front of my apartment. Chance was tussling with the seatbelt as I knew he would, his curses ejecting through the rolled-down window. I laughed a little harder, then went to release him. That required bending over him. There was no telling what my nosy neighbors were thinking.

"Mash the button, hold, then wiggle the seatbelt out, Chance."

When it finally slid back into its compartment, Chance threw himself out of the car as if he feared it would snatch him back inside. Or the seat had grown hot. Maybe he had developed a severe case of claustrophobia. Whatever the case, I reversed out of the way just before he nearly collided with me.

Standing in the middle of the street and straightening his clothes, he stated, "You two are never getting back in that trap again. Neither am I for that matter."

I shrugged in 'fine by me' fashion. The Dodge just a way to get from point A to B. No love would be lost if it was gone. He stood and glared at the car that he had yet to turn off and get the keys out of. Unconvinced that he would, I got them myself, then went in the house, guessing he would leave and come back to pick me up after he went... wherever he was going. Intending to flip on the living area's light first then take him the BMW keys, I reached out for the switch on the nearby wall. My hand was snagged in midair by another. Instantly, I knew who had walked up on me silently. Like a magnet, I gravitated around to him with moonlight pouring in from behind him, suspecting he'd come for his keys.

"Chance, the BMW keys are in my other hand."

"Don't want keys or talking." He stepped inside, compelling me deeper into the darkness.

Here we go with the 'dating' again. I had no idea how many times I was about to come and most certainly wanted to find out.

The door slammed shut, leaving us in pitch blackness. Phantom hands glided under my arms. My back was to the wall bearing the light switch before I knew what happened. His mouth was on my jaw, traveling towards my mouth. He wasn't getting there fast enough, and I was heating up like an oven. Turning my head slightly brought my lips into contact with his. His hands were at my breast, kneading my nipples into hard points. The rise in heat made me seek out the deeper crevices of his mouth to press harder into his lips until I couldn't tell where his began and mine ended. To be a part of him again. For a little while, Mahogany.

Who cared about the correct thoughts I should be having? Fingers were dipping into the neckline of my shirt. The shredding of material bombarded the quiet in the apartment. My breasts spilled out of the ragged ends, which I should be mad about, except it felt like he had done me a favor. He could take me to heaven faster. I could almost see the hell I'd endure when he was gone, though, and I didn't like the destination.

Somehow, someway, I had to get us off this road we were on. Nothing lay ahead but destruction, mostly for me. If Chance didn't care about that, I had taken more than his heart from him when I left him. His ability to be kind and understanding was missing, and I should give both back to him, even if they were in pieces. It took more strength than I had to pull away.

"Chance, I am sorry for hurting you by not telling you I was pregnant. I never had any intentions to cause you pain."

He leaned in until I felt his warm breath fanning my face. "You know what they say about intentions. The road to hell and all that, but I don't want to hear you're sorry, Mahogany. I want to hear you scream my name over and over again."

My womanhood pulsated, basic instincts loving his unusual roughness and jagged edges, and the bastard side of him too, when he wasn't aiming it at my heart but at the secret tunnel into my body. Desperate to feel him there, I grabbed for the button on my jeans. The zipper sliding down must have been a cue for him because he dropped to his knees, finished removing my pants and shoes himself before hiking my leg over my shoulder.

"No more fucking jeans, Mahogany. Takes too damn long to get off."

Accommodation seemed to be the key to this 'dating' thing.

"Well, if you're going to be that pissy about it, then no more fucking jeans, Chance, but I don't have any fucking skirts clean either."

"Good."

No, not good. I had no bottoms and couldn't go out in public that way.

His mouth assaulted the very part of me that wanted him more than my heart did.

"Um, Chance... ohhh!" I began to count the climaxes instead of asking what the hell he actually wanted me to wear, too busy becoming addicted all over again to the way he brought me to completion and climbing the walls with my hands.

Heaven and hell, here I come. And come I did. After number four, he scooped me up and carried my limp body to the bedroom in the dark. Wouldn't have made it there on my own. Couldn't see straight to save my life.

On arrival, Chance laid me down more gently than I thought he was capable of with his emotions twisted up because of my actions. Then, he stripped off his clothes, and didn't thrust into me but drove through me, angrily, with my body responding to his hammering with masochistic delight for hours. Just the way I liked it. We were always good at sex if nothing else.
Chapter Ten

~Chance~

Mahogany snuggled her perfect ass into the spoon created by my hips like she used to do when we were in bed together, as if that was the place her ass preferred to be while we slept, waking me from a sound sleep every time. Tonight was no different. Another part of me was already awake and ready to repeat what occurred when we first walked in the door. I was all for it, but first, I needed my phone, which was on the floor on Mahogany's side of the bed. It was like nothing had changed between us, but everything had. Or the old was fitting in nicely with the new. I wasn't sure which was the truth, but I had to check on my daughter.

The clock on Mahogany's nightstand boasted it was two in the morning. I hadn't planned to be gone longer than an hour or two from the hospital to wear Mahogany out right along with myself while slaking my thirst for her. Sliding into her tight canal steamrolled right over the idea of screwing her and leaving to get a shower at the resort before coming back for her tonight. Well, I would have except I couldn't get enough of her.

"Damn it all to hell," I grumbled. "At this rate, I'll be begging her to marry me by tomorrow night just to put me out of my misery."

She turned over in her sleep and mumbled, "Yes," before settling face down on my pillow. Her answer stopped me dead in my tracks.

Would she really say yes if I proposed to her? Why in the hell was I even considering that? I shouldn't propose to her after what she did... and I should've thought I wouldn't propose. Right, I...

But 'wouldn't propose' just would not flow through my mind, however. A slip in one simple auxiliary verb was all the warning I needed to know that my plan to get over her was unraveling. But dammit, I needed a woman who would fight with me until we were on the same page and not run when I shut down. Plus, there was nothing else I felt passionate enough about to shut down on besides having children. Unless, I included loving Mahogany, the only thing left to make me an unreasonable jerk. I wouldn't give back Majestic now that I had her despite my original choice on the matter, but loving Mahogany... that was a deed I wanted to undo but couldn't.

I still have time, though. It's only been a day and a half since I got her back in my life. You can still do this, Chance. Give it a little more time, like one week. After that, I was out of there, whether I had stopped loving her or not. At least, I could say I tried.

With a new and hopefully doable pledge made, a new plan in place, I strode around the bed, retrieving my phone from the pocket of my jeans. Texting Tommy took a second.

Me: How's my girl doing?

Tommy: She's fine. Asleep. You're interrupting me trying to talk Kat into meeting me in the janitor's closet off the hallway. Be here by six. Now go away!

Me: One more thing. Can you ask your niece to stop by the hospital this morning, about nine forty-five in uniform? I've got a large donation to the sheriff's office if she can make it. My family is coming, and they carry a whole candy section on them. Only a real cop could make them give up the sweets because they think they are the law unto themselves. Plus, my father would see it as a prank and try to one-up me.

Tommy: R U SERIOUS?????

Me: As a heart attack.

Tommy: Fine. Her name's Astrid Powers. She'll be there and would've helped out anyway. She adores Majestic too, but the money donated to the sheriff's office won't hurt. Stop texting me now.

I swore he was the only one that could be rude and make someone laugh while doing it, but I was unsure if Mahogany would blow a gasket if I let her sleep until six. Better to err on the side of caution. After I shook her shoulders, she turned onto her back.

"Chance, what is it?" she asked tiredly, then popped up to a sitting position. "God, what time is it?"

She wrenched around at the waist to see the time, then spewed a four-syllable curse word that would've offended my mother. Gasket officially blown, she threw her legs over the side of the bed.

"Why did you let me sleep so late, Chance? You knew I had to get back to the hospital! Ah shit, I can't, you tore my only clean shirt! Give me forty-five minutes to wash and dry a few outfits and shower, then we'll go."

I sat down as she got up, then snared her hand in mine before she ran off. "You don't have to rush, Mahogany. I've already checked in with Tommy. He said, be there at six. You've got four more hours. Majestic is fine, sleeping, and doesn't know you're gone."

"She wakes every hour on the hour after chemo. It makes her irritable. I should be there when she wakes up. Usually, I'm the only one that can calm her."

"She didn't wake last night after her chemo and stem cell treatment, and she has the stem cells working this time too, remember? Just breathe for a minute. If Tommy calls, I'll be awake, so I'll hear the phone, wake you up, and we'll go."

I started to worry that Mahogany had been doing too much by herself for too long. She took on too much, and she wouldn't have had to do that if she let me in on her secret. How often had she jumped up to run to the hospital in the middle of the night? How many hours, no, days of sleep had she lost since Majestic's illness began? How much did she have left before her body shut down and took the break she wouldn't allow it? I didn't need two sick family members on my hands.

"Mahogany, if I promise someone will always be with Majestic until you get to the hospital in the morning, will you sleep for a little while longer? I know you need it. I'll even drive the Dodge. Majestic needs you to be—"

She swiped at her eyes. "Chance, I've heard this all before from Dr. Blane."

"Then, maybe you should listen this time. Majestic doesn't just have you to depend on to be there for her anymore. She has me. And Tommy and Kat. My family after tomorrow. Let us be there for her so you can take care of yourself. I promise not to sneak her any chocolate... today. I can't say what I'll do tomorrow."

She exhaled. "I better not find out you've given her more chocolate."

"You won't. I promise."

Her piercing stare stabbed through the darkness blanketing the room to rest on my face. "Why does that not make me feel better?"

"It shouldn't make you feel better. Majestic has a way about her that just makes you want to give her everything."

"That's the damn softie in you." She dropped her head suddenly, muttered something I couldn't understand as the moonlight crept through the blinds to caress her spine. "I need to start a load of clothes."

That again.

"No, Mahogany, you need to sleep. I can start a load of clothes... I think. The dials on the washing machine are self-explanatory, right? Don't get mad if your white underwear are pink the next time you see them, though."

What are you doing, Chance? You're not supposed to be offering to take care of her personally.

But I wanted to. Taking care of Mahogany was taking care of Majestic, who needed her mother. I was going to keep justifying my suggestions of doing things for Mahogany myself by saying it was for Majestic's sake until I didn't need Majestic's mother any longer. Denial was not just a river in Africa.

"Oh, hell no, Chance, if you're asking if the washer is self-explanatory, you still haven't used one in all this time, so stay away from mine. I can't afford to replace any more clothes you ruin or the machine. It came with the apartment."

"Okay, I'll stay away from the washer and replace your shirt, but only if you sleep. If you don't get back in the bed, hundreds of dollars of your clothes will be ruined on purpose the next time you do sleep. You have to close your eyes sometime."

"You wouldn't!"

I snickered malevolently. "I would. Would you like to test me?"

"Oh, I don't trust you at all after you said that."

"I don't trust you either, Mahogany, so we're even," I joked but was dead serious, although I trusted me a lot less than I trusted her.

I didn't want to trust her at all when she had complete control of me. I stayed away when I thought she wanted me to, came when she called and had no idea what I'd be doing next.

"I wish you would take a chance and trust me, Chance, then we could stop this crazy idea you have of us dating. It's not like you can knock me up again, so you would see I'm not as bad or as deceitful as you think, and we could work on becoming at least friends for Majestic's sake." Her voice was small, as if how I felt about her really bothered her.

What she had just asked of me bothered me much more.

"Friends!" I laughed humorlessly and loudly at that.

Was she nuts? I couldn't be friends with someone I couldn't stand to see another man around simply because she wasn't the other half of a couple that included me anymore. I didn't want to fuck my friends every minute of the day until we both were cross-eyed and trembling. Damn sure was not about to stop dating her. The happiness I got out of it was tinged with agony because she still technically wasn't mine, but again, this was the happiest I had been in years. Nope, not about to let that go. The part of my brain that held my strategy for healing my brokenness demanded that I add 'yet' to the end of 'not about to let that go,' so I tried... but couldn't.

"You and I will never be just friends, Mahogany."

"I see," she whispered, a trace of pain in her hushed tone.

When she sniffled as if starting to cry, I got concerned. "Mahogany."

She shushed me, then cleared her throat, fingers gripping mine tighter. "Sorry. I'm fine."

"Sorry about what? What did I do?"

Whatever emotion had overtaken her, I had ignited it, and now, I was sorry too. When I shouldn't be. Her 'yes' had flipped on my kindness and concern for her wellbeing that I had deliberately turned off before setting foot in Colorado. I was a fucking softie for sure, which didn't work well with my plan. This was not good.

"You didn't do anything but be honest," she whispered.

"True." Partly true anyway.

She didn't need to know I would probably be hers until I died, possibly afterward, too. Hell, I didn't want to know it. I just wanted to be mad with her but couldn't ignore that she needed me to be more helpful to her than hurtful, or I'd hurt Majestic. Mahogany took precedent over my brokenness regardless of what I needed from her, or I wasn't as broken anymore.

"And I appreciate your honesty, Chance."

Yeah, well, I didn't want her to appreciate it, I wanted her to fight to change my mind about her. Fight for me. For us. Our family. She didn't, instead laid back down and pulled the covers up to her neck as if she had no fight left in her. Suddenly, I was deathly afraid that I accomplished what I started out to do—push her away enough times to break something inside her too.

Oh hell, what happened to 'screwing, closure, leave'? There was nothing about fighting for me and anyone else in there anywhere. It didn't start out that way, but it sure as hell ended up like that. Apparently, revenge was a double-edged sword and a shovel. While I fought to cure myself of her, I'd dug up what I truly craved from her, doing more damage to us both in the process.

Immediately, my heart sought ways to undo the harm I caused, starting with telling her the truth. Or maybe I should start telling it to myself, admitting that nothing happened to my mantra of 'screwing, closure, leave,' nor did I ever embed it in my psyche. It was just a ruse I grabbed onto in a desperate moment when I was trying to hold on to my bitterness laying like a cloak over my own eyes, making it easy to convince myself that being with her and then leaving her was actually an option.

The ruse had come undone by one word from her mouth, that sleepy 'yes' to a proposal, which she doesn't even remember or knew I was being flip about when I spoke it. My eyes that were wide open but covered at the same time were just opened now to my own selfishness. Wasn't a pretty sight. I wanted to believe she was never who I thought she was when I got her first voicemail, never who I needed her to be, and I had to believe that to treat her badly. I lasted a whole day and a half in semi-bastard mode, but I was still ashamed, along with finding it ironic that she believed I had fallen short the entire time we'd been apart.

At least, she didn't hold my shortcomings against me, while I let myself be turned inside out by her faults. I allowed myself to get so angry about Majestic, no, not about her but me still loving Mahogany. Now, I had made things worse by intending to use her to loosen her grip on me. Well, she turned out to be more loving than I ever imagined if she'd marry me even when I was trying my hardest to be that cold son of a bitch that ran her off in the first place. She was much more than selfless, by choosing to save Majestic from me when she thought she had to, even when she had no support anywhere. She was more than devoted, raising our child alone, taking on all that entailed along with risking her health to be there for our daughter. Mahogany's loyalty knew no bounds if she could choose to reveal her deceit when she knew it meant she had to pull the last person she wanted into their lives: me. Or so I thought I was the last person she wanted. That drowsy 'yes' she gave me said something else entirely.

She became more self-sacrificing than I knew was possible when agreeing to help me find closure from a relationship gone sideways, and yet, I tossed her away every time I couldn't understand why my traitorous heart was holding on to her. That part of me knew, even when I wouldn't let myself see, that by dating me, she was fighting to bring happiness to Majestic and me.

She didn't have to concern herself with my wellbeing because there was no Mahogany and me anymore. My happiness no longer her responsibility. I made it hers nonetheless, and she took on the burden, showing far more inner strength than I ever possessed. If I lost her for good now, I had no one to blame but my ego, which was dented, bruised, and vengeful when I came to Colorado. But my heart was smart enough to not let my pride get in the way of loving Mahogany. At least one part of me got it right; I loved my child the minute I knew she existed.

While I was acknowledging that, I might as well confess something else. While Mahogany fought for the happiness of our family, whether we all were in one household or not, I was simply fighting her, and her hold on me. Nothing whatsoever to do with Majestic. Mahogany had no idea what I would do next once I learned of Majestic's existence or when I suggested dating to get over her, but she didn't let that stop her from doing what she thought was right. She would always do what she thought was right, and I would be stupid to let a woman with that quality slip through my fingers again. Couldn't ask for more than that from anyone, and it was up to me to make her see that I would do the right thing as well, right by her side... if she would have me.

"I'll sleep 'til six, then wake me, Chance." She flipped over, facing the wall across from the window and away from me.

She thought I didn't want her back, but she would get no rest if I did what I wanted to right now—take her in my arms and tell her she was my everything and I still couldn't breathe without her. But I would rather she rested than keep her woke a moment longer. Tomorrow, I'd tell her for sure, or better yet, show her.

"Okay. See you when you wake up."

"Yeah," she murmured, not knowing I was creating another plan as she laid still as death near me.

Dating for us was just the beginning. With patience, I would ease her into our happily ever after... somehow.

********

~Mahogany~

Chance's tormenting words 'you and I will never be friends, Mahogany' resonated in my head like the hook to the saddest love song as I stared at the wall. The bassline was the bittersweet, steady throb between my thighs, a leftover from the extreme pleasure he had given me while using me. And that broke my heart. Working like hell to keep my emotions in check eventually tired me out. I drifted off, then found myself slipping back into consciousness more exhausted than usual, without even the foggiest of ideas of how I slept at all after he split my heart right down the middle with his brutal truth and brought me to tears I had to quickly shake off last night.

At this rate, I didn't think he was ever going to get over me having Majestic, and there was only so much of me I was going to sacrifice for removing his pain fueled by my betrayal and breaking of his trust. Ultimately breaking his heart. Mine was aching too, and with nowhere to run to lick my wounds, I readied myself to face the day and Chance. The throb I went to sleep to still rolled through me, serving as a reminder that Chance would only connect with me on a physical level now, not cellular. I had torn us apart at the core, and there was no mending the rips.

Opening my eyes brought me to the sight of him, folding what looked like one of my t-shirts at the foot of my bed. Short stacks of neatly-folded clothing littered the mattress at my feet. That couldn't be right; Chance didn't do laundry, which meant I was seeing some unreal shit happening. I shut my eyes and would try opening them again to actual reality in a second.

"No going back to sleep, sleepyhead. Time to get up," he commanded sweetly, with no animosity in his tone.

That was odd enough to make me do as told and think I had woken up in an alternate reality. In whatever reality this was, if Chance was here, Majestic still existed, and Tommy and Kat were waiting to be relieved of babysitting duties. I moved to an upright position while holding the sheet to my chest. Yep, there were clean clothes that I didn't wash on my bed.

"Are you folding my clothes?"

'Who in the hell washed them?' might be the better question, which no longer mattered when he released the old Chance's smile. The one where he was a good guy who was accommodating instead of demanding to be accommodated. The sexy uplift of his lips, free of the predatory threat I had seen more times than I care to count lately, was captivating and creating a longing for the old days when I would've started something with his mouth that he would've gladly finished then held me afterward. This wasn't the old days, though, and wouldn't ever be again.

"Yes, Mahogany, they're yours, and I washed them too, even when I told you I wouldn't. I had nothing else to do since work is on hold until I have you and Majestic straightened out. There's still another load in the dryer. You can fold them if you want to. This is boring as hell."

Unable to prevent it, I cracked up, sniggering all over the place. "It is boring, but somebody has to do it, so yeah, I'll get the next load after I come back from the hospital today. Thank you for the loads you did do. I just hope you ruined the granny panties and not the expensive lacey ones you bought for..."

Stop with the damn reminiscing already. That's in the past, and all you got is the present. But something was wrong with this present. Chance seemed content in it.

He placed the shirt down on a pile then fisted the bed. "All of your panties are fine. I sorted by color and washed everything at the appropriate temperature. I believe I spent more time reading the instruction on the tags for washing your clothes than washing them."

A yawn broke from me. "You did better than me. I'm usually too tired to do more than throw a pile of similar colors in and hope they don't bleed on each other. Nothing's new of mine, so I don't need much hope, thankfully. But I get really uneasy when Majestic's stuff is in there. Your kid used to stretch out like there was Miracle-gro in her shoes before she got sick."

"So, Majestic has new stuff, and you don't? Do you want new clothes?"

And the generous Chance was back along with his smile that I preferred. Seemed too good to be true, and I wasn't going to get sucked up in his mood swings only to be blindsided when the self-centered Chance reemerged and pushed me away again.

"I'm good with what I have, Chance. Work uniforms, t-shirts, and jeans are perfect for this life."

"What happens if you get another life?" Dude was asking a lot of questions that pertained to dreams not in reaching-distance yet.

"I'll worry about the clothes that go with a new life when I get a new life."

"Hmmph. Okay. Well, you got five minutes before we have to ride. I've already showered at the resort and eaten. Your breakfast biscuit from Tommy's is in the microwave. How fast can you get ready?"

I blinked, shocked he was feeding me too, and wondering if I should eat the food. He did have it in for me. "I need six minutes instead of five, I think. I'm a little sluggish here."

"That's because you need more sleep, and I shouldn't have attacked you last night at the door. Sorry, not sorry."

If that was attacking, that crime would never be reported. His half-assed apology drew a grin from me.

"What is wrong with you this morning, Chance? Did you not get enough sleep?"

It was a breath of fresh air to be able to get along with him for a change, however. Maybe I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth and should accept him as he comes until he's gone.

"Nothing is wrong with me. I'll sleep when Majestic is home. Besides, if I had gone back to sleep after last night with you, I wouldn't be awake right now, and me shaking the bed to wake you on time wouldn't have happened."

At least he was in a better mood this time after sex. What did I do differently? Whatever it was, it was the least I could do for him after all I had done to him, and it wouldn't add any more black marks to the ones he already had against me. With my ego swelling to the size of a mountain, I threw the covers back, then groaned when tenderness manifested in my center as I got up.

"You okay, Mahogany?"

I stood upright, not minding the aches at all. "Yep. Shaking the bed also works every time for Majestic when she sleeps with me and gets up before I do. If I'd known the damn crib would end up just collecting dust, I'd have used the money I spent on it for diapers and groceries."

"My family is coming to the hospital at around ten." Did he have any idea that he had just quietly revealed a shit show in the making?

The lightness of the atmosphere around us shifted to pensive and strained. I grunted my displeasure with his statement, then impounded myself in the bathroom. His family was a variety of more intense and weaker forms of Chance. His mother was the more intense version who didn't acknowledge me when I came to family functions. I made excuses to not attend after I realized the only invitations I got for the Middleton events came from Chance through word of mouth when everyone else got their invites in the mail. I didn't have to be told by Dania Middleton that she didn't think I wasn't good enough for her son or that she didn't want me around. That certainly wouldn't have changed after the bomb I had dropped on her son. She may be even more upset to have learned that her bloodline was now attached to mine.

While brushing my teeth under the hot cascade of water I hoped would ease my soreness, I decided to make it my business to blend into the woodwork while his family was there and to wear more than jeans and t-shirts in their presence, so I didn't feel sloppy and underdressed while I tried to press myself into the wall. They wouldn't be here for long if all went well.
Chapter Eleven

~Chance~

Mahogany used exactly six minutes to get ready, and now, she fidgeted in the passenger seat in a white sundress and sandals, nibbling at her food that the buzzards flocking at the roadside ate more of than she did. All signs that she was anxious and expected to be greeted by my mother's cold shoulders. However, Mahogany had no idea what all she had done when she gave birth to Majestic. If she hadn't cut me off in the hospital yesterday just before Tommy and Kat arrived, I would've explained what she brought on herself. And she was going to regret wearing a dress on this day in that color.

Where my mother wouldn't give Mahogany the time of day when they first met, Dania, along with my sister, Cena, were going to try their damndest to propel Mahogany down an aisle with me at the end of it. The only thing unpleasant to me about that image was the propelling. I rather Mahogany be on an aisle of her own free will, but I wouldn't dare give her a hint of the booby trap that she was about to walk into. She would run in the opposite direction for sure, literally, especially after the way I had treated her. Past time to make that up to her.

"Mahogany."

"Yes?" She picked at a piece of bacon on top of the biscuit, stuck it in her mouth, and dogged the windshield with her eyes.

"You ever going to get married?"

"One day. Gotta get over you first, though, or I probably won't ever have sex again after you go home."

How could she be honest with me so easily after all I put her through? Just another testament to this woman's character that overcame, her backbone that withstood, her inability to hold grudges even in the harshest of environments. Losing my way after finding out Majestic was mine, then using Mahogany to find myself again was pretty damn rough for us both. I could learn a lot from her, would never be good enough for her, but I would try my hardest to measure up.

"You do like sex," I coincided, one of the best damn things about her.

"Very much. Just can't seem to be attracted to anyone else but your ass." Her dry lilt indicated she was resenting me for that, so she had one grudge with me. Then, she rotated in her seat to face me, knee resting against the gearshift. "You ruined me for other men, you know that?"

She was doing what Tommy had advised me to do, clearing her chest. I shouldn't have been glad to hear she was ruined or eager to admit that I was ruined too, but I did anyway.

"Ditto, baby."

"Oh, you are not ruined, Chance."

"Says who, Mahogany?"

"Says me! At least you tried to date. I didn't."

"Really? And it was a waste of time for me. There was no getting over you, and if I didn't use my hands, there was no getting off if you know what I mean."

"Really?" she mimicked in disbelief, as we drove into the hospital's backlot.

"Really. Why didn't you date?"

"Waste of time. I grew frigid after you. Didn't even need my hands." She splayed them in the air in front of her, after balancing the remains of the biscuit on her purse laying in her lap.

"Okay, you can put them down now. You've proved they're masturbation-free. We'll do something about some of the 'getting off' you didn't get to do when the family is gone and Majestic is napping today." The janitor's closet came to mind, thanks to Tommy.

I had a lot more to make up to her than I thought. It seemed she left something behind in Utah—her sex-drive that was high for a woman. I guessed I brought it with me because she blazed up every time I kissed her. For the first time, I alleged that she might have gotten pregnant eventually anyway. The overpowering urge to get her that way again manifested in the middle of my chest and sat there like a rock. The woman beside me had proven I could not only curse my babies but also un-curse them. If I couldn't, my family would be glad to step up to the plate and give more blessings like Majestic a chance at a full life. In a complete turnaround, I craved to witness parts of Mahogany and me merge inside her and develop then be delivered. I didn't experience that with my firstborn and felt cheated. Turned out, it was me who cheated me. Mahogany just did what she thought was best for Majestic, which perpetuated the cycle I had already started by demanding no children.

She swiveled to the correct position in her seat as I parked and muttered, "Sure. Why not get off? That's what I signed up for."

Someone thought she was still being used.

Although I tried like hell to do that, it didn't work out so well. Had the opposite effect actually. I wanted her more than ever, and it was time she learned that. Putting the car in gear, I turned toward her. After sweeping her hair from her shoulders, I slipped my fingers under the strap of her dress and pulled her to face me.

"Chance, what are..." My lips were on hers before she could finish, tongue tangling with hers before she knew what the hell hit her.

The slow grind of her mouth on mine reassured me she was receiving the affections I had cruelly denied her outside of sex. Heartbreaking to think I could be that way with her, but I had because my love for her was all-consuming, mind-altering, devastating when she wasn't returning it. She had the power to turn me into the bastard, who usually only dealt with enemies. She pulled me out of my character effortlessly, but most importantly, turned me around with a single word she wasn't aware she had said. Now, I owed her for making her choose between my child and me, then letting me just take from her to build myself back up until I was in my right mind again. None of that was fair to her. God, I hoped she forgave me.

When out of breath, I released her, sitting back in my seat to ogle the delicate bones in her face under her dark oval-shaped eyes that fluttered opened. "I need you to know that you are beautiful and irreplaceable, and any man would be lucky to get you off, Mahogany."

Somehow, she had gotten more stunning after giving birth. I perused the perfect assembly of her facial features as she panted and pressed her thighs together, needing me between them right now like I knew she would before I even kissed her.

"You've got to stop doing that, Chance."

I did have ulterior motives when I kissed her, and it was so low down to set her up now so that she'd let me satisfy her later, but what can I say besides I was a bastard when it came to her?

"Why would I stop doing that, Mahogany? Kissing you is one of my favorite pastimes, remember?"

Her eyebrows shot up and crinkled up her forehead. "I'm surprised you remember."

"If I could forget, we wouldn't be dating again, now would we? Stay there."

I got out to open her door. When I reached inside for her, Mahogany gave me a leery lift of her eyebrows before climbing out with the aid of my hand. She let go of my fingers immediately. I placed them in the middle of her back, then smiled to myself when she threw me one of the cutest scowls that Majestic had inherited. I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to see that Mahogany was suspicious of me. She was in for a lot more surprises. More kisses too, which wouldn't all land on her face.

The second we walked into Majestic's eyesight, she squealed with two pink bows clasped around her sandy-brown curls in two bushy ponytails, then crawled at warp speed to the edge of the bed.

Kat and Tommy stood up from the chairs they pushed together and chanted, "Hey, guys."

"Hey, guys, right back." Mahogany freed the biggest grin before scooping up our daughter. "Hey, munchkin."

Majestic pecked Mahogany on the lips before swinging her feet happily. "Hey, mommy! Fries!"

Mahogany shook her head while smiling. "You've got to be kidding me, Majestic. It's six-thirty in the morning. Can I get a little more love before you tell me you're ready to eat?"

Majestic went in for a sloppy kiss and a hug.

Kat swung her purse up on her shoulders, then stretched, the chairs comfortable but no substitute for a real bed. "She politely declined breakfast an hour ago but ate some of Tommy's granola bar, so she should definitely be hungry enough to eat whatever by now."

Tommy smirked. "That means I'm starving too and should get out of here to find me something to eat that I don't have to share, then catch a few hours of sleep before going to work. Do not expect me to volunteer to babysit in a hospital again. Or ask me. It ain't happening. Besides, Kat was not interested in the janitor's closet."

Kat swiped up the backside of his skull with her opened palm. "You should've never expected me to be interested in the first place, Tommy. It's in a damn hospital!"

He rubbed his head. "I thought you were adventurous, Kat. My bad."

"That's not adventurous, Tommy, that's just plain disturbing," Mahogany piped in.

He shrugged. "Well, I had to try, or I'd never know if she was into it. Now, give me Majestic so I can say goodbye."

Mahogany handed our daughter over. Tommy's idea of farewell was asking Majestic when she was coming to get her playpen out of his office. Majestic informed him that she didn't want the playpen but fries. They went back and forth until Tommy gave up and left a peck on her cheek. "You're just like your mama, Majestic, a mule. Go back to her, and I'll send you something good to eat by here this afternoon."

Majestic showed her appreciation by leaving a kiss on his chin before Tommy gave her back to Mahogany.

Leaning over her shoulder, I placed a quick smooch on Majestic's forehead. "I'm gonna make a trip to Tommy's for fries, baby girl. You tell me what you want, too, Mahogany, and I'll come right back."

"I'm not hungry." And she wouldn't be until my family had come and gone.

I promised to come right back with her something anyway.

She gently jostled Majestic around. "Munchkin, say 'no problem' to your daddy."

"Munchkin, say 'no problem' to your daddy," Majestic repeated her mother word for word with a big smile, very aware of what she was doing.

"You were supposed to just say 'no problem, munchkin." For her troubles, Mahogany received a smug toothy-grin from the toddler.

I followed Tommy and Kat out, had halfway closed the door behind me before I realized I forgot something, then retraced my steps to kiss Mahogany goodbye. It took half a minute until I was satisfied. Majestic looked on, spellbound as if she'd never seen adults kiss before. There really had been no men in Mahogany's life up to this point, and I knew she was truthful about it when she told me that. Looked like I had gone right back to trusting her completely without even knowing it.

I tipped my nose to Mahogany's and whispered, "I'll be back."

"Oh, you better be back after that." Her tone was filled with enough heat to set a dry forest ablaze.

Thirty minutes passed before I returned to find both of my girls on the bed, chattering away. They looked up at me and smiled. At that moment, my world felt almost complete. The circle we were meant to make wouldn't close until we all were Middletons. No one had to convince Majestic to eat, but I worked on Mahogany until she ate a few fries from my hand, and there was pressure in my jeans that could only be offloaded inside her. It was her who brought up the time a few hours later as Majestic was napping again, just before my phone rang. I answered, then was notified by Cena that everyone was a few miles away. I needed to find the sheriff pronto, so I got up, stuffing the phone in my pocket.

"Mahogany, I'll be right back."

Overhearing the call, Mahogany sat up straighter than an arrow beside our daughter. "Where are you going this time?"

I touched her shoulder. "I'm not leaving you to fend for yourself with them, Mahogany, just checking on someone that should be here by now."

"Who?"

"Let me find them first, then I'll tell you why they're here."

If Astrid was on time, she was already in the building looking for me. I had no idea who I was looking for, just someone in a sheriff's uniform, who sauntered into the room as I took a step toward the door.

Mahogany leaped to her feet. "Astrid!"

Astrid paused in the center of the space between the door and entrance. "Hey, Mahogany, I'm here." She peered at the bed. "Ahhhh, Majestic's sleeping, so I won't bother her, and this is a weird call I'm on by the way."

"What call?" Mahogany asked worriedly. "I didn't call the cops, certainly not on myself!"

I ensnared Mahogany's hand in mine then walked us both forward to greet the tiny package of a woman wrapped in different shades of brown and came with a ponytail that had more hair than she had body. "Hey, Sheriff Powers. I'm Chance Middleton, and I called her, Mahogany."

Mahogany palmed her chest. "You called her on me?" Her tone was high-pitched and filled with horror as was her face.

"Sweetheart, calm down. I did this for you. I know you worry about the amount of sweets Majestic eats, so I called Astrid on my family."

"What are they going to do?" she shrieked, losing it big time, and it was impossible to not smile as her unnecessary hysteria grew.

"Astrid's going to collect the candy off of my family. If they get in here with it, Majestic will smell it, then the older ones will give it to her. They also won't give it up for anyone but an authority figure. They think they are the authority figures. Trust me on that."

"Chance, your family is going to think I called the sheriff on them. They already hate me. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I promised they won't think that, Mahogany. I got this. Take a chance and trust me. Please."

It was low of me to use her own words against her again, but I meant to help not harm her.

She slammed her mouth shut, exhaling out of her nose. "If this backfires—"

"It won't, baby," I assured, pitting my forehead against hers. "Stay in here with Majestic while I threaten to have my own relatives turned around at the door if they don't turn over their candy."

"This is highly weird," she noted dryly.

"I know, but it's more of an expensive joke for my father to get a kick out of; the rest of my family is used to being collateral damage. You're gonna have to get used to this too, babe. My father is ruthless with the pranks. Wait for me here." With any luck, she'd marry into the pranks.

Astrid and I quit the room just in time to meet the loud mob coming down the hallway, my sister and mother at the forefront of the group. They all quieted down as they noticed the sheriff standing beside me, more like under me. Colorado must attract short people.

My family drew near, most frowning, some open-mouthed.

Astrid stepped in front of me. "Before you enter this room, you all should know that you're subject to 'search and seizure' for anything sweet. This is probably highly illegal, but Majestic will rob you of the candy, then eat it, so her father has resorted to drastic measures. Dr. Blane doesn't want her to have sweets right now. So, if you have candy in any form, hand it over, please. It'll be returned to you when you leave."

The older generation sighed and thanked heaven that it wasn't anything more serious going on. Cena smirked, knowing it was truly not above her brother or her father to go over and beyond to get anything done. All began to pat themselves down or open purses. They extracted the contraband from wherever it was concealed and passed it over. More chocolate bars than pieces of individually wrapped toffee was deposited in Astrid's hands. I whipped a sack from Tommy's out of my jeans for her to dump the goodies inside.

"That's definitely your kid in there, Chance," my father, Lenox Middleton, commented in his deep, gravelly tone as he navigated around the crowd.

The younger family members ranged from college students to freshly-graduated high schoolers all the way down to teenagers who hadn't grown into who they'd be yet. The youngsters from Utah were in Western gear like my father, some from Mumbai in custom Indian gear. The rest wore pieces from each country and were making one hell of a fashion statement, but my father was the oddball—built like a Viking, muscular in t-shirt and jeans with midnight-black hair that was gray at the temples. Whereas my Indian relatives were brown-haired, slim, and preferred the custom kurta, a colorful loose top that reached to the knees with leggings underneath, my dad had no Mumbai-blood to speak of. He was the only one with no hidden sweets on his person and an orphan like Mahogany. Only his parents died in a car accident when he was three.

"Congratulations, son, on the new baby and good joke calling the sheriff for the candy, but I would've done better. There would've been fake Homeland security agents with earpieces out here. By the time the in-laws figured out no one really thought they were candy-toting terrorists, half of them would have been admitted as patients." A prankster down to his steel toe work boots and completely unremorseful about possibly causing someone a heart attack just to get a good laugh.

"You are horrible, dad. Majestic's not a baby, she's two going on thirty, and this sheriff is real. Talk to me when you can get authentic agents in on one of your pranks."

He laughed as he pounded my back. We chatted until everyone had emptied their pockets, then I opened the door for them. The family descended on the room, surrounding the bed like locusts. My great-grandmother, the oldest but apparently the fastest, reached the sleeping Majestic first. She claimed her for herself while my sister tried to talk her into passing Majestic to her. My mother didn't even stop to speak to Majestic or me. She browsed the room until she found Mahogany, who had backed into the wall at the rear of the room. She appeared determined to become a part of the surroundings while my family was there, but her beauty and the white dress that stood out from the tan paint made her too damn noticeable. The second my mother found what she was looking for, she dashed across the room to stand in front of Mahogany, who looked terrified suddenly.

Dania bent at the knees, grabbed two handfuls of the hem of Mahogany's dress, inspecting it. "Oh no, no, no, dear, this is too summery and casual. We need elegance like lace and maybe pearls in the bodice. Or do you want diamonds? I can get a venue in Utah at the last minute, but we can find something here for you guys to rent if you want. It must have a reception hall and hotel suites nearby, though. My family drinks like they're fishes."

Mahogany's head whipped around to me, the 'what the hell is she talking about, Chance' look on her face priceless. Or maybe it was 'save me now please!' More than likely, she was projecting both, and leaving it up to me to intervene. I waved my hand in front of my mother, who was intent on designing Mahogany a wedding dress right this instant. Mahogany was totally overwhelmed.

"Hey, mama. Do you not recognize your own son anymore? Where's my hug?"

If Mahogany didn't run after I got my mother's attention, she was never going to get away.
Chapter Twelve

~Mahogany~

Too stunned to move, I stared at the top of Mrs. Middleton's dark, wavy hair with gray weaved through the strands and thought, What the hell just happened?

She hadn't accepted me in her son's life before now. Now, she was speaking wedding lingo as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say to me of all people. What did Chance say to her on the phone the other day besides we had a child together? Whatever it was, he should've said it to me first, or warned me of what was coming next: a shotgun wedding.

"Mama! Do you really not recognize your own son anymore? Where's my dang hug?" he reiterated. Thank God for Chance trying to come to the rescue.

His mother, the feminine, shorter and slightly plump version of him, twisted her head in his direction but held on to the skirt of my dress, and instigated a trapped sensation that spiraled throughout me. Oh, how I felt trapped. Weird that she was the only one making me feel that way when her son had entombed me in a promise to ease his hurt and was utilizing my body to do it.

Damn, I liked being trapped by him.

That made me weird as fuck, and I should be telling his mother, 'There will be no wedding, Mrs. Middleton. Your son can't stand me after what I'd done to him.'

But you wish there was a wedding.

Shut up, conscience. Wanting a real wedding with the Chance I met years ago was much easier thought than saying out loud and would expose my vulnerable side, so I said nothing and ignored the catch in my chest. All the while, I prayed Mrs. Middleton would forget I was a human with feelings again and just go away. She didn't.

"Son, I'm busy working out the details of your wedding to the mother of your child."

Chance wrapped an arm around her shoulder, hauling her upright by his hand on her arm. The hem of my dress rose with her hands, which he tugged from her grip, so it fell along my thighs again.

"Well, you're scaring her, mama. Look at her face. You wouldn't even speak to her when you first met her or afterward. Now, you're accosting her clothes and pushing her down an aisle... and you still haven't spoken to her," Chance chastised, and I loved him for it.

She glanced up at him, clutching her pearls over her own summer dress. "You're right, son. I'm being rude and have some explaining to do." Her attention switched to me. "Mahogany?"

"Hmmm." Humming my acknowledgment to my name was the best I could do when totally shell-shocked.

"Can I have a word alone with you later?"

"I-I guess," I stuttered, looking to Chance for aid because I didn't know how to take his mother right now.

The snobbish lift of her nose was absent, along with the dismissal turn of her head to look anywhere but at me when I was in the vicinity. Yeah, well, she was eyeballing me now, and the regretful expression she wore was puzzling.

"No, mama, you cannot have a word with her because you're getting ahead of yourself," Chance butted in. "We're dating right now. It's been years since we were together, and we have to get to know one another again, so no wedding, no meddling. Just say hello to Mahogany, then go meet your granddaughter."

I so loved this man right now, but why did he make it seem as if we were dating in the traditional sense of the word? He was still 'fucking the pain away' with me as far as I knew. Obviously, I needed to have a word with him. We were no longer on the same wavelength. As long as I knew what I was getting into and what to expect, I could deal. Deal was what I did best. Changing up on me suddenly pushed me out of my comfort zone. He was doing that to me, first with the laundry, then helping me out of the car after saying the sweetest of things to me in it.

Mrs. Middleton smiled brightly. "Hello, Mahogany."

I waved with a shy wiggle of my fingers. "Hey, Mrs. Middleton."

She stepped forward, then heaved me by the shoulders into a hug and murmured by my ear, "Call me, Dania."

"I— okay," I agreed, with a glimpse at Chance, who was clearly embarrassed and motioned with his head for me to go out the door, but I never got to it.

The family members that couldn't get to Majestic got to me halfway on my escape route. Some of his relatives I knew already, like Cena, who was kind and unmarried and wanted a hug too before she tried to wrestle my daughter from Chance's great-grandmother again. The old lady held on tight, claiming she had one foot in, one foot out the grave, so that gave her first dibs on all children born after her. The people I didn't know personally because they weren't kind, like his aunts and uncles and older cousins that were just as dismissal as Dania years ago, bombarded me. His father stood back, still straddling the fence when it came to me—friendly when Dania wasn't near, avoided me when she was.

One of Chance's aunts wanted to dress me up too, soliciting my and Majestic's sizes to send me custom Mumbai wear from her boutique in Fredrickson so we wouldn't feel out of place when we visited their native country during the annual family trip at the beginning of the year sponsored by Chance. The terms of 'dating' Chance did not include family gatherings, but I couldn't bring myself to tell these people who wanted nothing to do with me years ago that I didn't want to be in their family fold now just because my uterus worked properly.

Holy hell, what had I lugged into my world when I jerked Chance into it? A nagging premonition that warned I was about to find out dropped like dead weight in the bottom of my stomach.

Astrid announced she had to leave for another call thirty minutes later. I almost pleaded with her to deputize me, then take me with her. Instead, I used the excuse of walking her out to her cruiser to get a break from the people clamoring to get to me as much as they were Majestic. After Astrid dumped in my hands the candy sack that would bring any kid joy on Halloween, she drove off with a promise to come to see Majestic when fewer people were around. I watched her brake lights until they vanished on the open road, then plopped down on the hood of Chance's rental car, exhausted.

There, I sat for an hour until he walked out of the building. Looking a little troubled, he took the initiative to pull me off the car, spun me around before stealing my seat on the hood, then hauled me between his widespread legs where he cupped my spine with his hands. Only then did my own troubles recede.

"Don't worry, Mahogany. The novelty of you and Majestic will wear off soon, then you two will just be one of us. If it doesn't, my relatives visiting from Mumbai have to go home tomorrow, the rest back to Fredrickson. Your timing is perfect to meet just about everyone but not have to deal with them for long."

I tipped my head over into his chest. "That's a relief. I'm not used to everyone liking me."

But when was he going home? Couldn't bring myself to ask him. I didn't want to know. Didn't want him to go. Didn't know how to make myself feel any other way about it either.

His chest began to vibrate beneath my brow as he chuckled his ass off. "You know my father went through the same thing with my mother, except it was her mother that didn't think my parents' relationship would last long because of the differences in their cultures."

"Did your mother hide you from your father for two years before they accepted him?"

"Nope, they broke up three years before I was born for the same reasons my grandmother predicted. A year after the breakup, they reunited then broke up again. Then my mother discovered that she was pregnant with me before they accepted him. My family has a rigid belief that we should marry someone Indian so we can't forget where we come from, but they also think if you can make a baby together, you can damn sure stay together to raise it... unless one partner is too undesirable to keep around. Domestic violence amongst a few other no-no's is not tolerated."

"So, Lenox was accepted into the family by default too, huh? Who pulled on his clothes and assumed he and your mother would be getting married?"

"My mother's mother did about five years before she died. My parents have lived happily ever after most of the time too."

"That's not our future, though, Chance," I said quickly to remind myself and those damnable hopes of mine that would float to the top if I wasn't paying attention.

"You don't think so?" he asked quietly.

"I know so."

"How's that?"

I moved to get eye to eye with him. "Because you're trying to get over me, remember? And I'm trying to get over you." That wouldn't be the case if life was fair, but it wasn't. I had to remember my lot in life was what it was and had always been. I would have to do without what I wanted the most. Majestic was my only miracle.

He sucked air through his teeth. "How could I forget that? Well, in that case, I should get in another kiss while you feel responsible for helping me to get over you, don't you think?"

Truthfully, I wanted him to say something else like he didn't want us to get over each other. He didn't. A piece of my soul splintered, so I lifted my head and stole his mouth for my own, to kiss the damn pain away, and created a ruckus in my panties instead.

"What is it with you two kissing in parking lots?" Tommy asked out of nowhere after much time had passed. "Do the lots have to have specific requirements, or do you two just eeny meeny miny mo it?"

Chance snickered like a dry-throated dog. "Mahogany is being adventurous with me."

"Lucky bastard," Tommy grumbled good-naturedly.

I wasn't in a joking, grumbling, or good-natured mood, more interested in eye-raping Chance, with my hands draped on the thick cords of his neck. In my side view, Tommy held a sack from his restaurant. The smell of the food made my stomach grumble. Chance swiped hair out of my face then removed one of my hands from his neck to stuff the BMW keys in it. A rather strange thing to do, I thought.

"What are these for?"

"For you to run off if you want to. I should get back inside. Come in when you're ready... or don't. I don't want you uncomfortable, and my folks will understand. They know they can be overpowering, you need to get used to the new status quo, and they should be hungry by now. Tommy, I'll be bringing twenty-one customers by the restaurant in a little bit, so get out the menus, push some tables together, and I'm paying."

"If you're bringing that many people, damn right you're paying. I can do one or two free plates at a time because business is good, but not 'empty out a whole freezer for free' good. Gotta draw the damn line somewhere."

In no hurry to return to the strange acceptance currently located in Majestic's room, I backpedaled after leaving a tiny kiss on the corner of Chance's mouth, thanking him for considering my needs when he didn't have to. It was past time I forgave myself for deceiving him even if he never did. I wasn't so sure that he hadn't forgiven me when he planted a tiny kiss on the corner of my mouth then winked before getting up.

Tommy crossed over to my side. I finally noticed his car a few spaces away along with two big tour buses Chance's family must have arrived in.

"You're not going back inside?" Tommy asked with a frown.

"No time soon," I stated while observing Chance disappear through the hospital doors.

Tommy's grimace deepened in my side view. "Why?"

I swung my attention to him. "Because everyone has flip-flopped on me, including Chance."

"What does that mean?

"Well, when I was with Chance, his family didn't think we'd last, so only his sister wasted her time being nice to me whenever I came around. The rest of his family were right, though, we didn't last. Now that I have Majestic—"

"You're a welcomed addition to the family, and it's disturbing," he inputted.

"Yes. I don't like it when people change."

"What about when it's a good change? Do you want me to make them feel bad about treating you like shit years ago?"

"I never know when people change for the good because they rarely flip in that direction, and oh God, no, don't cuss anybody out!"

Imagining Tommy speaking his mind to Chance's family horrified me. Their mistreatment was years ago. If I had held a grudge, it was well past time to let it go, at least for Majestic's sake. Grudges made for tension neither she nor I needed.

"People change all the time, Mahogany. That's why we take chances on them or take off running when shit goes bad or gets worse. Sometimes, they surprise the hell out of us by changing for the good, though, and let me know if you change your mind about me having a word with his folks. Delivering a good cussing out is a stress reliever for me, and that's always free. Won't ever change. Now, what about Chance? What did he change up?"

"I don't know if he changed up or if he changed back to the Chance I knew and loved."

"You still do know and love him, and of course he's changed; it's been three years. Change is hourly these days, but him being a man you can stand is good in my book."

"Not good. He's trying to get over me."

Tommy rocked to the side as if I had swung at him. "With what I just saw, it's more like he's trying to get something out of you, literally. Dude was damn near sucking your spine out through your mouth."

"What did you see?"

"Nothing."

"Tommy!"

He pushed the sack into my stomach. "All I know is I stopped by with lunch as promised. The container with mac-n-cheese is Majestic's, but if you take a few bites of it for yourself, I won't tell her. Anything else you need to hear needs to come from Chance."

Suspicious, I took the food with a pinch of Tommy's good soul from his hands. "Thank you, Tommy... for everything, even keeping secrets. I know you know something."

"There you go with thanking me for everything. Don't thank me. Just be happy, and pleasssse come back to work."

"I'm trying to do both, but..."

"But what?"

"It's hard to explain. One is easier to do than the other at this point. I should be back at work by next week. Have to come back anyway. Money is running out. Majestic should be home by tomorrow. I can ask Chance how long he'll be here and if he can babysit until Mrs. Kindleton isn't laid up with her broken hip. Regarding being happy, this is the hard part. I think I just have to accept that happy comes in a different form for me."

"Which is?" He leaned against the BMW's hood, with me following suit.

"Happy is... whatever's working out in my life at the time."

"That's not different, it's the same for everyone, but you don't just have to wait for life to throw you a bone either. Some things can be fought for and won."

Could I fight for Chance like I fought for Majestic? Why was he the first thing to come to mind to put my dukes up for now? Should I? Would he even want me to?

"Will I have to swing on someone for Chance like you did for Kat?" I joked, lightening the mood weighed down with questions I couldn't answer.

He puffed air out his mouth in a condescending fashion. "Girl, don't even try swinging on nobody. Your right cross ain't shit like mine."

"Do you think that because I'm a girl? Because if you do, I'm offended."

"No, I think that because I haven't taught you how to fight and you're more laidback than anybody I damn know. There's no way in hell you can fight. Quick lesson: if you have to punch a bitch, which comes in girls and guys, wrapped your thumb tightly around your second and third knuckle, not inside them. When you reach out, keep your arm level with your shoulder, chin down. Make contact with your center knuckle. Never punch someone anywhere on the skull. That includes the forehead in case you didn't know. A quick way to break your hand. If you knock Chance's ass out, we never had this conversation. He thinks we're friends, and he'll feel betrayed when he learns I told you how to beat him up. When there's a ring on your finger, then he and I will be real friends. Don't tell him that, though. People love me, and he might use marrying you to get to me. I gotta go before his fam shows up at my business, though. Call me if you need anything."

I hugged him tightly before he got away. He embraced me back.

"Everything's going to work out for you, Mahogany. I can feel it."

"I hope so, Tommy." But I wasn't counting on it.

My slice of good luck with Chance had probably fizzled out when Majestic received what she needed from him.

When I released Tommy, he glanced back with a self-satisfied smile as he walked away. I wondered what he knew about Chance that I didn't, but I wasn't going to get it out of him if he didn't want me to. Chance, on the other hand, was giving out mixed signals, but if I ever discovered there was a real opportunity for us to reconcile, there definitely was going to be a fight put up to make us a couple again. Still, I had to keep in mind that us being a couple again might not be possible. I'd have to let him go, and it was going to have to be soon too. The more he was around, the more I wished for the things he was tempting me with just by being in touching distance and acting like his old self.

Then you better start weaning yourself off him now, Mahogany.

Any more of him in my bed or against a wall while seeming like the old Chance, and I was going to put my dukes up anyway. My heart and hopes needed to be kept locked down, except both were slippery as shit to handle and had minds of their own.
Chapter Thirteen

~Chance~

Mahogany came back inside with a perturbed expression, but I was proud of her for showing up when I had given her an easy out. Majestic screeched 'Mommy!' like Cena was trying to kidnap her, except they both were grinning from ear to ear. Mahogany slipped through the crowd unmolested. Once she reached Cena's side, Majestic dove for her mother.

Mahogany giggled and caught our daughter to her chest. "I bet you smell the food in the sack, don't you, baby girl? Let me get you on the bed, and then I'll feed you the mac-n-cheese Uncle Tommy sent you."

"No fries?" Majestic questioned.

"No fries, munchkin," I jumped in, sliding next to Mahogany on the bed. "But I guarantee the mac-n-cheese is good. Mahogany, I'm gonna go with my family to Tommy's and give you a break from everyone. I'm not sure if everyone is coming back here today or this evening, but they will be back, so prepare while we're gone. I'll try to keep them away as much as possible and bring back something for you to eat. Just one more day, love, and things will settle down."

When Mahogany's forehead wrinkled up, I recognized I'd forged too far ahead in my plan to reunite us again with the pet names. So much for easing her into the rest of our lives. She'd catch on to what I had in mind for us in no time. I pecked both girls on the forehead and got the hell out of there. My father had to practically carry my thick glasses-wearing great-grandmother out the hospital. She struggled by throwing elbows and threatening to kick his ass as he pleaded, "Rashi Patel, we're coming right back, I swear. Everyone else is hungry. Stop jabbing me in my ribs, dammit."

The woman had osteoporosis, weighed as much as a small bird, and shouldn't be that damn stubborn. Better my father than me tussling with her.

I led the buses to the restaurant. Tommy greeted us himself then took charge, making sure there was enough room for everyone, their orders placed correctly, delivered promptly, and cups refilled before they were empty. By the time an hour had passed, I felt like I was detoxing. Mahogany and Majestic were too far away, my relatives enjoying themselves too much to speed up with eating and risk indigestion. Their chatter filled the building. I sipped from my iced tea in front of an uneaten plate as my knee bounced under the table. Any minute now, I was going to leave everybody here. It wasn't like they were going to be stranded.

My father's hand plopped down on my kneecap, stilling the nervous tick. "I got one question, son."

"What, dad?"

"Have you gotten over being a killer yet?"

"More like accepted it. I still think I'm a killer, but I would love to have another baby with Mahogany... if I can convince her I'm not a bastard all the time, just some of the time. When I flew into Colorado, I started pointing fingers immediately like I'd done nothing wrong to Mahogany, and demanding she give me everything I wanted from her as if she owed me something."

"I can imagine how you felt when she called and said you had a child who was dying, but your broken heart and ego, both a man's downfall, by the way, had a lot to do with your finger-pointing and the debt you wanted paid. I'm sure payment had nothing to do with money either."

He shouldn't have known any of that. I cocked my head sideways, wondering how he knew.

He cocked his head too. "Son, even a blind man can see you're still in love with Mahogany, but your family could tell you never stopped loving her. Love turns into an ache when it's unreturned, so it's natural to look for a painkiller. Sometimes, we do it in the stupidest of ways. But now, Mahogany knows you would drop everything and literally part a vein for your children, and I'm sure she thinks you're less of a bastard and more of a good guy who can be forgiven for losing his head in the face of what could've turned out to be a tragedy while you were already suffering through another tragedy—your heart wanting what it couldn't have. Your little girl is still on this side of heaven, thanks to you, so that makes you a savior and a real parent. I'm sure your heart isn't as broken as it was now that you can touch what it desires. And I bet you've been doing a whole lot of touching."

"And healing, finally. Only one thing wrong with what you said though. We saved Majestic, Mahogany and me together, what we should've always been. It had to be a difficult decision to call me after I made her feel like she was on her own with our baby. I didn't make things easier for her when I got here...I shouldn't have to save my own children."

"Chance, what the hell do you think parents are for? To save their children who sometimes don't want to be saved depending on the age. Teenagers bring on the real drama. They don't call parenting the hardest job in the world for nothing. I need you to know that every parent has the same nightmare of losing their children, whether their kids are perfectly healthy or not. Nobody is perfectly healthy, though, and there are a thousand ways for us all to die suddenly. Have faith in yourself. You two have already saved Majestic once, and I bet you could do it again and again without breaking a damn sweat. Me, however, I lost my shit every time you sneezed because I didn't have what it took to cure your cancer and still don't know what I'd do if it came back and I lost you. Imagine Mahogany in my shoes, and there probably isn't a number for how many times she wanted to call you for support. To tell you that you were a father. It would've been worse in the middle of the night for her when there was nothing to distract her from thinking about the things she had done wrong or could've done differently, better, or couldn't change."

That gave me pause. I took none of that into consideration when I got to Colorado. How many times had both my girls needed me, and I wasn't there? How crushed did Mahogany feel when she was told she couldn't give Majestic what she needed? Felt alone before and after cancer raised its ugly ass head? And I couldn't even call Mahogany back to tell her I was on my way, too busy wallowing in my own misery. Then when I got here, I demanded she pacify my ego. The list of things to make up to Mahogany was growing, and I had yet to make a dent in it.

With perfect timing, Tommy approached with a carryout tray in a sack for Mahogany. I jumped up from my seat.

"I gotta go, dad."

Tommy frowned while giving me the bag. "Is there a fire under your ass, Chance?"

"Yep."

"Good." Then Tommy walked away, knowing all he needed to know, I guessed.

Before I could take one step away from the table, my father grabbed my forearm. "Wait, son. I know you and Mahogany have a lot to talk about, and you'll need to get back to your business in Utah soon, so spending as much time as you can with your new family, together and individually, is a must. If you need some time with Mahogany right now and a babysitter, I'm sure your mother would be glad to stay at the hospital overnight. Or your great-grandmother. Sister. Aunts. Cousins. I'd do it, but I need my beauty rest. Chairs don't provide that, but I can solicit a babysitter for you like a pro. In-laws are good for that if nothing else."

"Majestic sleeps through the night." I was too damn troubled to laugh at his joke and certainly needed one on one time with Mahogany.

"Majestic likes her beauty rest, too, huh? It's good to know she has something in common with her grandfather."

"I'll ask Mahogany is she good with mama babysitting or great-grandma, whoever Mahogany's comfortable with the most."

"Yeah, that would be Cena. And son, I have always liked Mahogany, but I sleep with your mother, and I like sleeping with your mother, so I chose to keep Mahogany at arm's length while Dania was looking. But when she wasn't looking, which wasn't often, I snuck and talked to Mahogany. Dania still found out about the two short conversations we had, and I paid dearly for them."

I felt just as bad for him as I did for me. Making an enemy of my mother was not the thing to do. Since she was my mother and I didn't sleep with her, I continued to date Mahogany until she no longer wanted to date me. Or at least that's what I thought was the case. To learn she'd only been protecting her child's heart was a game-changer. She'd have mine to protect too if I had anything to say about it.

"Mama does seem to know every damn thing that happens, doesn't she?"

"Right, so cover my ass and mention Dania first as a babysitter to Mahogany, then Cena. I'm too old to be getting divorced now."

"I'm sure mama feels the same, dad." Who wanted to start over at fifty-five?

He sat back in his chair, tilted his head back, then closed one eye. "Son, Dania better love me too much to ever let me go. I put up with your great grandmother for your mama, so damn settling for me, I want Dania's undying devotion."

"You got it, Lenox, damn!" my mother shouted down the table around a mouthful of crab meat. "Now, let your son go get Mahogany's devotion. Oh, and I'm babysitting, not Cena."

"Mama, not fair," Cena protested across from her.

My father winked. "Don't forget about covering my ass, son. Dania first. Cena second. What happens from there is not on me, and I stay out of the doghouse."

I patted his shoulder in 'I got you' fashion, then jogged to my car.

Astonished that I didn't get a speeding ticket on the way to the hospital, I raced inside to where Mahogany was just laying a dozing Majestic down for a nap. As soon as our daughter was on the bed with her fist propped under her chin sweetly, I dropped Mahogany's lunch tray on the bed with Majestic. She yelped as I spun her around to kiss the ever-loving shit out of her. We should've been talking, but spitting out words was the last thing on my mind, the first was relieving the withdrawal symptoms presently whipping my ass. She was my habit, my drug of choice. The closer I was to her, the worse the symptoms got, but I had nowhere private to lay her down. Swallowing her essence in semi-private would have to be a temporary fix. She was currently sucking on my bottom lip, driving me insane as I palmed her ass with both hands.

"I don't have to feel you right now, Mahogany, but I need to at least taste you. Are you with me?"

She released my lip to evil-eye me. "I am not going in the janitor's closet with you, Chance."

"What about the bathroom?"

She peered around me at the connecting door to the en suite bathroom rarely used and came with a lock. "That works."

I slung her up into my arms and hauled ass to the other side of the door, locking it. Setting her on her feet in front of the sink, I dropped to my knees. She watched as I pulled her panties down oh-so-slowly, stuffing them in my back pocket before lifting one of her toned thighs over my shoulder. Her nostrils flared just before I flipped her dress over my head, then had my way with her. Stifling her moans and groans with a hand towel, she coated my chin with her orgasms, begging for me to stop. Only when I heard someone say, 'She's going to be pissed,' in the other room did I stand up and pull her close. I was revolving in her orbit now and wanted to stay there.

"I'm not done with you, Mahogany. I'm just getting started on you, love. To work on getting you off some more, I need you to myself tonight, and we need to have a serious talk. Mama's volunteered to babysit, and she knows why, so we can't even play off what we're going to be doing half the time."

She straightened the collar of my polo shirt like someone who cared would, maybe not even aware she was doing it. "Okay, but I don't want to be gone long, though. Dr. Blane says he should be releasing Majestic around nine. We'll leave about three tonight, but I want to be back by seven. Majestic should be passed out during the time we're gone."

"I love it when you come up with a plan, woman."

I expected her to put up a bigger fight about my mother being left alone with Majestic, but I guess I did a good job of assuring her that Majestic would always be in good hands with my mother, even when my mother hadn't taken care of Mahogany's feelings.

"You love plans anyway, Chance."

"You know me so well." Smacking her on the lips gave her a taste of her own essence.

"One day, I hope to," she mentioned quietly, suddenly shy.

We had grown a lot as well as grown apart, and the differences in us needed to be addressed.

"That day is coming faster than you think, now go, beautiful. I need to brush my teeth, and someone has to keep the natives from waking Majestic, but it's probably too late, and they're already fighting over her. Great-grandma is probably winning... again."

Mahogany gave me one last lip lock before quitting the room. Upon opening the door, she shrieked, "Majestic, you're supposed to be sleep! Who gave her the chocolate and fries?"

I knew exactly what happened. Mahogany had left the confiscated candy in an easy-grabbing distance of Majestic, the carryout from Tommy's. Before Mahogany could put either away for safekeeping with her purse on the nightstand, I had kissed her, and she was going to figure that out any minute now. No way was I coming out of the bathroom before she cooled off, so I locked the door.

"Chance!" Mahogany yelled as soon as the lock clicked into place.

The knob began twisting back and forth furiously.

"No one gave them to her, Mahogany," my mother answered with amusement evident in her tone. "She had the bag and food opened when we got in here, and she was too adorable to take it from her. The bathroom door was locked, so we decided not to interrupt whatever you two were doing in there."

"Oh, I know whose fault this is, Dania. It's your son's. He distracted me before Majestic was fully asleep, and before I could hide the food. Chance, you can't hide in there forever! I need a washcloth for Majestic, and you've got to come out sometime!"

She was right. The bathroom didn't have a window, and I couldn't take up residence in there.

Well shit! Might as well get this over with.

*******

~Mahogany~

"Keep your heart and hopes locked down,"

Mahogany, I repeated to myself in the cafeteria that I was ushered to by Chance and Dania, once he braved coming out of the bathroom. I sat alone and attempted to eat what was left on my lunch while they cleaned up Majestic and her bed. She had ten whole minutes to stroll mac-n-cheese, lightly-salted fries, and candy wrappers all over the sheets, and discover a new sweet to eat: toffee. That wasn't anywhere near as bad as her father's syrupy kisses that were doing me in mentally. The multiple orgasms he gave were taking me under, and the good side of him was messing with my head.

My strategy, to endure until he was done with me and gone back home, was failing. I was slipping further into him as his goodness manifested more and more, making it harder and harder to not fall deeper for him. Except, I wasn't sure if he had switched up plans while still meaning to hurt me or if there was or wasn't a booby trap lying in wait for me after this one. Therefore, I was feeling low about my failure to maintain distance between Chance and my heart and wanting to hit something. Just how vulnerable was I when it came to him? A whole hell of a lot apparently, and the strength to deny him anything wasn't in place, as usual.

You should've remembered that before you agreed to 'date' him.

Hindsight twenty/twenty and appetite gone, I picked at my food.

"Okay, we're done," Chance announced from behind me.

I whirled around as he approached, grinning at me. For the first time, that smile was a slap in the face, and I didn't want to see it, so I turned back around, continuing to toy with my food.

"Question, Mahogany, what do you want the most?"

"A vacation," I muttered as I stabbed the fried chicken thigh, desperately needing a getaway from my own stupid heart.

Chance took a seat in front of me, crossing his arms on the tabletop then leaning heavily on them toward me. "To where?

I sighed. "Well, the other day, I dreamed about a room at a lodge and a good book. If I'd had the book, I'd have robbed you of your bed at the resort. Hijacking your suite is the only way I'd ever stay somewhere besides my place, so I'm stuck with imagining a vacation and the book I'd read. Why?"

"Because you've earned whatever you want after Majestic, and I want to give it to you." More spoiling from him that would boomerang on me later somehow probably. Yay! Not.

I paused from killing the meat twice to eye him. "You don't have to."

"I know that, Mahogany but I want to do it, and it's as easy as dropping you off at the resort tomorrow night and going back to your apartment with Majestic. No hardship, so how fast can you pack?"

"I wouldn't pack. No intention of wearing clothes, and I wouldn't leave Majestic so soon after she got home, though. Talk to me in about three months when she's feeling well enough to dump out her shampoo in the tub when I've turned my back to grab a towel after giving her a bath. You don't need to go out of your way from me though. I'm sure I can get a room for a night and a book in about oh... sixteen years. Children get more expensive every freaking year."

He snorted. "I'm about to find out just how expensive, aren't I? And I'm not going out of my way for you." No surprise there concerning the new Chance, who had a bone the size of Mount Rushmore to pick with me.

"Who are you doing it for then?"

"Us."

It was amazing that he thought there was an 'us,' after he made a point of seeking my help so he could leave me behind in every way only a few days ago. Playing with me still. Ticking me off further.

"Why do it at all, Chance? There is no 'us.' Now, why am I reminding you of this?"

He reached over, stealing a fry from my plate that Majestic hadn't gotten to. "Oh, there's an us."

"Since when?" I shrieked, tired of the games. "I thought you—"

He shook his head and grinned. "Don't think. Just go with my flow."

I was caught in his flow after the first voicemail was recorded on his phone. "You're confusing as shit, you know that, Chance?" And taking me by storm, with no shelter to be seen anywhere, not even inside me where my feelings and heart were supposed to be safe from him.

He angled his head sideways. "Am I confusing you?"

"Ah, yeah."

"Hmmph, well, I guess you're going to have to figure out what I'm up to now, aren't you?"

"Now? Has your original plan changed? And you could just tell me if it has."

"Where's the fun in that?"

I guess his game plan had changed, but what did that mean for me? I had the sneaking suspicion he wasn't going to tell me, and that only made me overly alert, precisely what I should've been around him from the beginning.

"Well, not knowing isn't fun for me, Chance."

If I could just catch one break with this man, I'd be grateful.

"Well, I am enjoying the hell out of you not knowing, Mahogany, and I think you might enjoy what I have planned."

I might enjoy it now, but what about later? My fork clattered against the plate as I dropped both elbows on the table and glowered at him. Suddenly, I was just too fed up with my gullible self and his damn plans to not lash out.

"There was a lot of I's in that sentence, but it was all about you, wasn't it, Chance? Just be straight with me for a change. How much of you coming here was all about you? Did the opportunity to pay me back for leaving without telling you I was pregnant drive you here instead of Majestic almost dying?"

He held my gaze for what seemed like the longest time as the light in his eyes dimmed. I hadn't seen them that bright since the day before the last one when we both were in Utah. It was official. I had hit something soft in him, though no physical smack had passed between us, his expression was darkening as if I had struck him. I had broken the first rule of fair fighting: use 'I' and your own feelings to get your point across. I had used 'I' alright, referring to him the whole time. Because I knew the rule, read it somewhere, there was no excuse for what I had done. Only, I had valid excuses. I just wanted the truth, wanted our old relationship back, except I may have just fought too dirty to establish a direct line of communication, all because my emotions were in upheaval.

I rubbed at my tired eyes. "Shit, Chance, I'm—"

"Stop."

I froze, with 'sorry' dangling from the tip of my tongue.

He swallowed deeply. "All this is my own fault for keeping secrets, so here's what you wanted to know. That sentence was about you, Mahogany, who couldn't have struck a lower blow when insinuating I came here mainly to get back at you, my dying daughter just an afterthought or excuse to do it. It was more like get here, do what I had to for Majestic, then get back with you, but I didn't know that's what I really wanted until last night. When I tried 'all about me,' it was still all about you. If I was capable of making it all about me, you would have never gotten away in the first place. I would've handcuffed you to my bed the first time I laid you down on it, so you couldn't get away, and no other man would ever see, let alone, touch you again. I wouldn't have kept my feelings bottled up inside so as not to scare you with how intense they were after I'd already scared you with how much of a bastard I can be, and you would've known long before now that there was no getting over you like I've found out. Especially after you gave me someone as precious as Majestic. Thank you for that because if you hadn't done what you did, I wouldn't know what I was missing out on when I decided having kids was not for me. I wouldn't trade Majestic for the world. As for it being all about me..."

He paused to rock in his seat as if getting more comfortable, settling into the serious talk he wanted to have tonight. "...if I was really that selfish, we would've married while you were in school. Vacation would've consisted of us being in a room together, a book nowhere on your radar because I'd have been inside you until it was time to go home, and it would've been our home that we returned to. I am sorry that I couldn't see past my own hurt pride to how much I still cared for you when I got here. Because of how much I cared for you, my pride was able to get in the way. It's no fun loving someone that can just up and leave you without one word, only to find out they left because they were hiding something or rather someone from you. But I've learned since then that maybe you've got some things bottled up inside you concerning me too. It's just not all that I thought you were feeling."

"What did you think it all was?" I asked so quietly my own ears struggled to hear me.

"I hoped love, Mahogany."

"It... it is, and since we're speaking truthfully, it's impossible to get over you too. I've tried, strategized, and failed. I think that shit only works for you."

"Maybe so, but you're a little bitter now like I was too. Sad thing is that I didn't know I was. When I realized it last night while watching you sleep, I was already getting over the bitterness and the reason for it; you didn't fight for us. You're not over yours yet because it's just started for you, and I caused it by trying to erase you from here." He palmed his chest. "I'm sorry for that. I wish I was perfect, but I'm not, so I'm going to give you time to get past what I've done to you now. No hurry, though."

"I'm over it," I confessed.

His heartfelt thank you and apology and once-desperately-sought-after openness with me lessened years of hidden pains down to twinges, left me speechless, and wondering about the future that didn't have to be perfect, just have him in it.
Chapter Fourteen

~Mahogany~

'There was no getting over you,' he'd said in the past tense. 'Would've been our home' was declared in what sounded like 'but not now' form. Had there been a chance for us to reunite when I woke up this morning? Had I just closed any opening to be with him by taking my anger at my heart out on him? I had no clue about any of the answers, but I wasn't the only thing clueless in the room. My mouth didn't get the memo that no words would be exiting it anytime soon, so it flailed open and closed while my mind filled up with questions. The sorrowful look on his face attested to him not forecasting pain for me anymore, but where exactly did we stand now? Did he think he had done what was best for me when he didn't track me down years ago? How wrong he was, and I'd have told him that if his phone hadn't rung the very moment I could speak again.

"Chance Middleton," he answered while watching me. "I'll be back Friday morning, Julia... Most of the things I wanted to do have been taken care of here so far, but I still need to show Mahogany the properties you found then get her and Majestic moved before I come back home for work."

'Home' meant we had arrived at the point of no return. My heart dive-bombed into my lap as I began to hyperventilate silently. Someone sucked all the air out of the room, and my lungs didn't have enough in them to make any sort of noise. I was worried about when he'd go and now, I knew. Would have to let him go much later than I anticipated, but it was still too soon. If I had him forever, it wouldn't be long enough.

God, I will always love this man, faults and all, I complained to myself, suddenly even more exhausted than I had been this morning. Today had been the longest of days and it was only midday. I had just enough energy to watch his mouth closely as it ejected the prediction for my future that would take place without him and Majestic at the center of it.

"No, Julia, reschedule the meeting for the following Monday but leave all my weekends free from now on. Oh, I'll email you some ideas I have for the presentation... Okay, see you then. Bye."

My last chance to make him understand I never stopped loving him was pending but quickly fading as he resolved himself to a weekend father. Nothing else was possible when his home and business were out of state.

"Chance—"

He swiped through the air with his hand. "No, I wasn't done. I was keeping things I wanted to do for you to myself because I wanted to inch you into our happily ever after with surprises, each one better than the last, cementing how much I still loved you, eventually proving I was still the good guy you knew. I didn't think I had the right to rush you to be with me after I'd rushed to get over you, but the one thing I will never do is be with someone that could think I'd put my own needs before my child. The idea to love you physically until I didn't emotionally didn't enter my mind until after you left the second message when I was airborne over Arrow's airport. No matter how angry or foolish I'm being, Mahogany, the people I love will always come first."

"Chance, I needed to know why you were truly here. Yes, I was being nasty when I asked because I was angry with me and you, but you took the brunt of my pissiness, but we're different people now, and I didn't know where I stood with you or how much you've changed after we separated like we did. I was angry because my heart won't let me extract the feelings for you from it, and it probably will never let them go. The surprises would be great if I knew which part of your heart they were coming from: the bastard furious with me or the good guy that once loved me."

"The thing is, Mahogany," he stopped to take both my hands in his, "both sides of me loved you. Even when I was trying to cause you pain, I was causing myself more. I didn't last two whole days before I realized being shitty to you was the same as being shitty to myself, which is just stupid. I would've done anything you wanted, no matter what it was."

Was. Past tense again. I had finally killed whatever he felt for me by mistrusting him. Well, killing his feelings was the plan, wasn't it? But I was dying inside now that the task was over. That wasn't supposed to happen.

I dropped my head and railed at my own damn self for being so paranoid, but what else was I supposed to be when someone demanded me to date them in the name of getting over me while intending to hurt me in the process? And then, he flipped on me. So, I should've been suspicious of him, my doubts right on point. I wouldn't apologize for them though they had cost me what I wanted almost as much as I wanted my baby girl to live. Now, I had to live without Chance, with only the part of him in Majestic, and be okay with it. Again. Easier said than done for a second time.

Attempting to get myself together before I shattered into pieces, I balled my fists up in his hands and squeezed my eyes shut, pushing my feelings deep down inside me until later when they'd be allowed to bubble to the top, to be felt thoroughly, vented, lived through, then laid to rest along with any relationship I once had or could've had with Chance. When I lifted my head again, his regretful smile greeted me. He didn't know regrets like I knew them, though.

I choked on a sudden lump in my throat, close to the unhappiest I had ever been, watching our child slowly leave this world the worst. Chance slowly leaving my world was running a close second. Pure torture was him still being here, holding my hands, holding me together when I knew he'd be gone in five days. What would happen when he let go of my hands? God willing, I'd survive that too. Would love the pieces of him that he'd gift to me until he went home if he gave me anymore. Would say goodbye, whether I was ready or not.

I gripped his fingers tighter, then smiled back. "Chance. I'm so glad you're free of me now, little bird."

At least one of us was released from this painful love finally. Giving him what I couldn't get was something I cherished being able to do for someone, anyone, and I was satisfied with that until he flew into my world. Generosity wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I wanted to be selfish, tie him to a bed, and keep him forever, but I wouldn't.

He tilted his head and chuckled. "What about you? What are you free of?"

Nothing.

I heaved air into my lungs only to sound strangled when I replied, "It doesn't matter about me. I just wish you all the best, and never will I doubt what you'll do for Majestic again. You've proven you'd do anything for her at the drop of a voicemail, no questions asked."

His smile became brighter than any sun. "Good. That's what I wanted to hear, the part where you won't doubt me again, not that you don't matter because you do. You always have mattered. Always will to me." Just not in the way I want to matter to him anymore.

He slipped his fingers from mine unhurriedly then stood up. "I have to get back. My mother has probably stolen Majestic away to the nearest store and bought whatever her grandchild pointed at with the card I gave her for emergencies. Come to the room if you want or go home and rest if you want. You need it."

I nodded. Couldn't speak as he leaned over to kiss my temple, cupping my cheek. When he strode away, I hugged myself, unable to watch him leave just the cafeteria. Knowing he'd soon walk away for good was breaking me down one fine-motor skill at a time.

Life taught me that I needed to break apart fully to pick up the fragments left behind then glue them back together in whatever way that allowed me to function, but if I went home to grieve Chance, he'd be stranded here. I decided to put my big girl panties on and meet head on what I had set in motion with my mistrust: being on the outskirts of his world but never really a part of it. It was about to become everyday life for me.

********

~Chance~

I promised Mahogany I'd give her space to get over what I'd done to her, and she had five days to do it. If that didn't work, then I'd give her five more until the right amount of time passed, and she was willing to meet me at the end of a wedding aisle where we'd promise each other a lifetime. Whatever it took to get us in the same house, same bed, same last name, I'd do. If she thought she had gotten rid of me, she was going to have to think again. I anticipated egging along her recovery process while refusing to play fair, but I never did.

With a secret grin while emailing Julia and texting Tommy, I watched Mahogany do her best to merge with the back wall again. My family wasn't having it, taking turns entertaining her when Majestic wasn't entertaining them or sleeping. They were assisting Mahogany into the family one relative at a time. Sometimes, two relatives talked over each other to insert her into one event after another.

Three hours slipped away quickly as they wiggled permission out of her to pen to her calendar a wedding, playdate for Majestic, a college graduation, and a baby shower for one cousin too pregnant to travel a few miles in Fredrickson without having to stop to use the bathroom, plus a family reunion in Hawaii, and the annual family trip to India. She had no idea what we all had in mind for her: to make her a part of the clan right along with Majestic. Mahogany mixing the best parts of herself with mine had earned her this family's loyalty. She would be comfortable with us from now on if it killed every member in it. Once we put our minds to something, usually it was as good as done. I flaked on moving past her to another relationship because it wasn't meant to be. My heart was completely into moving into the rest of my life with her.

When Mahogany braved leaving the back of the room to take a chair amid the people damn near climbing over each other to get to Majestic in my father's arms, I knew she was tired, the last few months catching up with her finally, my truth laying heavily on her shoulders. I was a big man, so my honesty had to weigh a ton when I chose to give it, but my love was heavier, so I spared her from that. For now, I gave her time to come to grips with how even more demanding I was about to become of her. Except, there was no time frame or pressure for her to give into me. We were moving at a much slower speed now. Would become more friends than lovers, confidants while parents before we were old and gray with matching rocking chairs.

When Tommy finally arrived with his crew, carrying heavy double-handle bags after I had ordered enough food to feed an army and a replacement for Mahogany's meal that Majestic got to first, he separated Mahogany's carryout tray from the others and gave it to me. "I'm going to love when you're in town, Chance."

How often I come here or leave at all depends on Mahogany, I thought, while moving toward her. "I'm sure you will love it, Tommy, since I've spent more money in your restaurant in one day than I spend all month on just me eating."

She took the carryout while looking thunderstruck. "Chance—"

"Don't say I didn't have to do this, sweetheart. I did after Majestic picked over your food because of me. Now I want you to take it home, eat, then sleep. For me. Please. You look like you're about to drop at any second now. That's no good for you or Majestic, and you need to be rested for when she comes home tomorrow."

She yawned, then covered her mouth. "You're right. I am tired. How are you gonna get home though?"

Her eyes bugged out after realizing what she said. 'Home' sounded perfect to me, even if it meant being in her tiny apartment. She and it had humbled the hell out of me.

"I'll get home the best way I know how."

"Not necessary. I can Uber home."

I leaned over her, bracing my weight on the arms of the chair. "It is necessary, Mahogany. I don't want you riding with strangers when you can drive yourself. If you're too tired, I'll drive you."

"No, I'm not that tired yet, but getting there. You should spend time with your family while you can. I'll just take a two or three-hour nap then come back."

"Okay, call me when you wake up, so I can meet you outside." I highly doubted once her head hit the pillow that she'd be getting back up today at all, but I'd say whatever to get her to rest.

"O-okay." She was still hesitant to accept that I wanted only the best for her, which was probably not like me, but I'd be doing my damndest to prove otherwise.

Sliding my hands under her arms, I helped her up, then had to postpone walking her to the car as everyone wanted to say goodbye. Some hugged her, while I grabbed her purse from the stand that great grandma's plate was on, too close to Majestic, who was relieving it of its apple slices.

Tommy snickered. "Once that fiber gets where it's going, I do not want to be the one changing either of their diapers."

Rashi threw him a one-eyed gesture from behind her glasses that couldn't mean anything good.

Tommy threw up one finger. "Okay, time to go, Chance. Your great grandma is giving me the evil eye, so pay me now, or I sue you tomorrow. Up to you."

Mahogany shook her head on her way out the door without me, while fumbling with her keys.

"Walk with me, Tommy," I commanded, as I followed her and reached for my wallet.

On the elevator, I handed him a few hundred-dollar bills then escorted Mahogany to the car where she slid in untouched by me. When she reached for the seatbelt, I got there first and buckled her in myself then looked her square in the eye as I bent over her.

"I'm returning the favor from last night. Forgot to thank you for releasing me from the Dodge."

She simply stared at my mouth. I swore she was holding her breath.

"Breathe, Mahogany," I demanded for selfish reasons. When she inhaled, I moved in for the kiss that had been premeditated before we reached the car, but I wanted it to last longer than a few seconds. Drawing back slowly, I uttered, "Sweet dreams, darling."

She raised her fist up, then opened it in front of me. In her palm laid a key.

"It's an extra just in case I don't wake up by five and you can't wake me by phone, then wake me when you get there please."

"Thank you."

Making no promises, I took the key, deposited it in my pocket then closed the door. Watching her drive off, I hoped I could wait at least eight hours before I got my next fix of her. A deeper pull of her essence. A longer high. A slower come down.

Ten o'clock took its precious time getting here. A few hours after Mahogany left were spent dealing with issues brought to my attention by Dr. Blane. Issues that I took pleasure in dealing with my way. Not confident if Mahogany would appreciate it, but it was done, and I was on my way home in the Uber she wanted to take. She might get a little pissy about that too, rarely wanting people to go out of the way for her, but I was sure I could appease her... in my way.

My family fought to stay after visiting hours were over. Dr. Blane declared Majestic had had enough excitement for one day, and it was best if everyone left. Because I was leaving, Majestic a minor, Dania and Cena were the only relatives allowed to stay overnight, but they would've found a way to stay anyway. Persistence was the Middleton's and Patel's greatest strength and our weakness.

Getting into the apartment was a noisy affair. The knob was loose, so it put up a fuss as I turned the key.

"Chance?" Mahogany called out worriedly.

"It's me," I answered before stepping into the bedroom.

"Hey," she said softly from the side of the bed that I had claimed for myself. "What happened to waking me at five o'clock? Who's with Majestic? Hmm... that was kind of weird to ask."

I began to strip off my clothes at the foot of the bed. "I didn't wake you because I knew you needed to sleep. You still do and would still be if the slack in your knob didn't double as an alarm system. Not a safe substitute, by the way. Moving you out of here asap, and I imagine it would be weird for someone used to leaning mostly on themselves when it comes to Majestic. My mother is still at the hospital with Cena, who refuses to leave though she's been barred from babysitting by mama, who wants to do it. It would hurt their feelings if you showed up right after I left, and you didn't forget that I told you I needed to finish making love to you, did you? I promise to be quick... but not too quick."

"I really do need the rest, I guess, and no, I didn't forget," she whispered. "One hour, Chance."

We'll see about that.

"Then open for me, Mahogany."

Her legs coasted apart. I crawled up the bed slowly. The air thickened as I began to leave kisses on her thighs, gradually covering her whole body with my lips, leaving my brand in light pecks, the longest and deepest reserved for the soaking wet place at the apex of her legs. By the time I reached her mouth, she was breathing shallowly and begging me to enter her. Who was I to refuse?

Two slow pumps in, she tugged hard on my hair with both hands. "Harder, Chance."

"Not tonight, Mahogany. Harder is for punishing you. I have no reason to do that." Only love her.

"Well, you better find a reason because harder is how I like it, but you know that."

"Never forgot it, and you are high maintenance, Mahogany."

She snorted very unladylike in my face. "When it comes to this, yes. At least you can relate to high maintenance. Now, fuck me, Chance."

"You asked for it."

Like a good obedient man, I hammered the treasure between her legs until she began to shake and scream. I filled her twice with my seed. The second I got her near an aisle, I was going to start talking babies.
Chapter Fifteen

~Mahogany~

At seven on the dot, I woke, well-rested for the first time in a long time, feeling like something was missing... besides Chance, that was. Majestic. It was a lot later than I wanted to get up, but I didn't regret the forty winks I got. Plus, I trusted Dania to take care of my baby girl, along with the hospital staff. It was a little darker in the room than it should've been for this early in the morning, too. I readied myself to face an overcast, if not a rainy day, and a slowly-slipping-away Chance before crawling out of bed. It was going to be a good day, regardless. Majestic was coming home.

On the way out the bedroom to the bathroom, I peeked into the living room and got a glimpse of empty boxes stacked in front of the couch. Behind it was two clothes racks loaded down with apparel of all kinds. It took two seconds for what I was seeing to register fully, causing me to skid to a stop in the bathroom's doorway.

"What the hell! Chance!" He hadn't had clothes delivered for me to try on since before we broke up.

I had been down this road before with him, the old Chance, who wanted me to have whatever my heart desired, including him, but the organ in my chest was a fool and couldn't afford to be toyed with. The more he gave me, the more it wanted to give him. No point when he only wanted one thing, to be free of me. Unless Chance was going to hang himself from a hanger on one of those racks. Even then, he would unknowingly provoke my heart into putting its dukes up for him eventually when I was committed to letting him go for good.

It might just be easier on both if he left already, but then, I'd regret the time I didn't spend with him. I had enough regrets already.

"In here, sweetheart!" he hollered from the kitchen.

That was the umpteenth sweetheart he called me. You didn't call people you don't want that, so who the hell was in the kitchen, and what did they do with my Chance?

Your Chance?

Well, he was mine until he was gone.

I speed walked to where he was fully dressed and pouring coffee into a mug on my table, seeming at home. His hot gaze fell over me, burning me as his eyes roamed from the top of my head to my feet then back up. Then, I remembered that I was bare-assed.

Well, hell, no reason to be modest now. He had seen the goodies with Majestic's mark on them at least twice at this point.

I flung a finger in the direction of the clothes racks parked between the kitchen's doorway and the couch behind me. "What is that?"

"Ah, that would be racks with women stuff on them." He placed the coffee pot back on its base situated on the peeling countertop and sipped from his mug.

"You know what I mean, smartass! What are they doing here?"

"Waiting for you to get up and pick what you want off of them."

"Wait. What? This isn't what you do for people you can't even see yourself being friends with, Chance. This is what the old Chance would do, but he's dead." Which makes me a freaking killer.

I didn't want to be that, and I'd be damned if Chance and I weren't finding more and more common ground to stand together on when he didn't want to stand with me at all, except it didn't seem that way anymore.

I'm so fucking confused.

He peeped at me over the rim of his cup. "Who said the old Chance was dead?"

"I said it." I redirected my finger towards him. "You've just been acting like it... or you were all the days before yesterday."

"Why can't there be a combination of the old Chance and the new Chance in here? People have layers like onions, Mahogany. They don't shed their old selves like snakes do their skin."

"I like the old Chance better."

"Well, the old Chance was broken into angry pieces, remember? But the new Chance thinks you should give him a chance to be friends like you and old Chance should've been, friends that communicate. The new Chance is better, a father who's been built tougher, stronger, and smarter because of it."

Is he a Ford truck or what now? The only thing I knew for sure was that he was scrambling my brains with the back and forth of his personality.

"What are you talking about a chance? The other night, there was no chance for us to be more than fuck buddies until you felt better about wanting me or didn't want me anymore. The new Chance told me he couldn't be with someone that doubted him. I can't just be friends with either of them, so give him, whoever you are at the moment, a chance to be what to me?"

He slanted his head to the side. "There's just no easing you into anything, is it?"

"No, I like to know what the hell is going on at all times now."

"Noted, and no, I can't just be friends with you either, because I most certainly want to be your fuck buddy. I know you don't doubt me anymore because you said so. You wouldn't have if you didn't mean it, and that's what I love about you. What I want to be to you is a lot sweeter than ever before and more loving while adoring you, therefore, the designer clothes, purses, and shoes. However, when it's time to pack the boxes with yours and Majestic's things, I'm going to magically disappear so you can't ask me to help you. Just kidding... sort of. I will go missing a lot of the times, though. Women have too much shit."

But he never said he wasn't still going home and I didn't add more meaning to his words because my heart couldn't take it if he rejected me later. So, I dead-eyed the man who'd changed overnight, the other night.

"I never thought the day would come when I'd find an alien in my house, and I don't have a lot of anything. The furniture isn't even mine. Majestic on the other hand has it all and toys. All would fit neatly in a car if you hadn't brought the gigantic boxes and stayed around long enough to help me take that damn crib apart. I should just throw it away really."

He grinned with one side of his mouth. "That's noted too, and an alien is not what you called me last night... and yesterday or the day before that."

"I knew who I was getting before... I think. This morning, I'm not sure who you are at all."

"You'll find out soon enough, and it's not this morning. It's seven in the evening."

Shock smacked me in the face. "It's... it's seven in the evening?" I stammered then yelled. "Dammit, Chance! I told you to wake me this morning!"

"Oh, I didn't wake you at all, love."

"Duh! And what's with the calling me 'sweetheart' and 'love' all of a sudden? You're scaring me. What are you up to? You know what? I don't have time for this, Chance! I need to go get my daughter! But we are going to talk soon, dammit!" With that, I stomped away.

"Our daughter, who's doing fine and asleep in her crib in the bedroom. You've probably woken her up by now, though."

I stomped back to my original spot, to look at him strangely. "Say what?"

He grinned. "She's here, love. Discharged earlier since twelve this afternoon because she's doing so well. You've been out like a light all day and curled around her whenever she went down for a nap. I think that's why you slept so long because she was home and she wouldn't sleep anywhere else but in the bed with you. You knew she was there subconsciously. I think she missed you more today than ever, too. She wanted to wake you a thousand times. Daddy will do when it comes to feeding and changing her, but he's not you. Then you woke up..." He checked his watch. "...two minutes after I put her in the crib because I was about to wake you with coffee. I've been missing you my damn self. You just caught me in the act of bringing you coffee in bed before I took you to an early dinner, but then you started to act up. I kept my distance and drunk some of your coffee."

He extended the cup to me from ten feet away. He outweighed me by a house, but he might just be scared of me. Now, that was funny, and I started to laugh, beginning with tiny giggles breaking loose that turned into an explosion.

"No thank you to the coffee. Are you telling me that you took care of her by yourself, Chance? How did you discharge her from the hospital? You're not..." My hilarity and voice ebbed away because I was about to hit a sensitive subject with a Chance that I didn't know completely, but his smile that I recognized and loved never faded as he set the coffee down on the table.

Moving to stand in front of me, he hooked his thumbs in his jeans' belt loops. "Yes, I took care of her by myself here. My mother helped at the hospital... a lot and I believed you were about to say that I'm not legally registered as Majestic's father or allowed to take my own child anywhere without your permission," he finished for me, and when put that way, it had to sting him.

"Yeah, but those weren't the words I would've used."

"You may have found a diplomatic way to say it, but I've been working on fixing it."

"What does that mean?"

"Dr. Blane started the process for discharging Majestic yesterday after you left. He found a fourteen-thousand-dollar bill added to the paperwork. He discreetly brought it to my attention that Majestic's hospital-stay and the medical bill had exceeded the state's portions of her insurance."

My stomach bottomed out. My credit was okay for now, but it wasn't going to be. Weekly checks from Tommy's Cuisine and the little money left over from the financial aid for school provided necessities and a few extras, but not enough to pay for a five-day hospital stay that costs more than my car when it was brand new.

Chance's expression switched from amused to concerned. "Mahogany, I can see the thoughts whirling around in your head like a tornado, but everything's okay. The bill's been handled, and I have to tell you something. With the bill, I saw an opportunity to get something done that would be to your and Majestic's benefit, so I took advantage."

I stopped panicking about what I was going to do about the hospital bill and started worrying about what opportunity the debt had presented for Chance. "What did you do?"

"I struck a deal with Dr. Blane. I would pay her doctor bill in full right then if he could start the paperwork to unofficially make Majestic a Jefferson-Middleton on her birth certificate, or he was going to get installments. Everyone likes paid in full better."

"You applied to change her last name without asking me first?"

Nothing would change unless I signed on the dotted line too, but I was impressed with Chance for taking to being Majestic's daddy like a duck would to water: effortlessly. Doing things for our daughter without consulting me first sounded just like a daddy and him. I'd rather argue with him for doing too much than not enough for her.

"I started the process of changing her name so she'll officially be my heir," he explained, "and everything I leave to her and you in my will can't be contested because she's mine."

The forceful way he said 'mine' was hard enough to jolt my stomach, hot enough to create a firestorm between my thighs, and make me see him in a different light. The same light I thought would never shine from him when I tried to tell him I was pregnant. What would've happened if he had said I was his? I would have spontaneously combusted for sure.

"That's all, Chance?"

He grinned, his eyes dipping to my breasts. "Unless you decide to make her just a Middleton."

"Just Middleton is fine. Her last name doesn't matter to me."

Majestic's near-death had put a lot of things in perspective. Last names weren't even on the list of things that mattered, but I'd bet my last dollar that her name mattered a hell of a lot to him. She had earned it just by being born. I screwed up my chances for taking his name but took comfort that I hadn't messed it up for her.

"I do have a question though, Chance," I announced as I palmed my hip and dropped all my weight to one foot. "How did you work all this out with just Dr. Blane? You should've had to go through the courts to change her name."

"Right, but the hospital's birth records department is just as good as a court if you know the right people. Dr. Blane hooked me up with a very nice clerk that didn't mind helping me out with the changes for a favor. Once you sign the certificate, she'll stamp it and file it, making it legal herself without there being a big fuss with a judge. The new birth certificate can be picked up a few days afterwards."

"Did you say Dr. Blane hooked you up with a... very nice clerk who wants a favor?" If 'hooked him up' meant what it usually meant, the clerk was going to have to wait her damn turn to get to Chance. I wasn't done with him yet.

His predatory gleam graced his mouth, but he was about to become my prey. I hadn't just signed up for the 'dating pact' to help him but to help me, too, with four days left to perform that miracle. Clearly, I was nowhere near close to it because I was about to go nuclear on somebody. He and the clerk were absolutely cruising for a bruising if they thought I'd share the little time I had with Chance. Life would be so much easier if I could move on from him like he had done from me. Or moved with him to wherever he wanted us to go as a couple. Utah didn't sound so bad either. I would go anywhere as long as I came home to him and Majestic.

Well, you're not coming home to him, so back off that idea, Mahogany. But I couldn't because I was pissed, couldn't think straight. And jealous. About to put up a fight anyway for the good guy in my kitchen and the bastard side that came with him whether he wanted me to or not, once I put some clothes on.

"Yes, Dr. Blane hooked me up with someone that could get what I needed done quickly." Then, he stepped closer. "But the sort of hook up you're thinking about isn't the way we went about it, Mahogany. I have a confession. I exaggerated the situation with the clerk. She's older than my grandmother and was sharp enough to get more out of me than I got out of her. Want to know what that is?"

Damn him and his mind games.

"Okay, I'll bite. What does she get in return?"

"A donation to a soup kitchen she runs in Spindle."

He moved nearer until I had to crane my neck to maintain eye contact. His hands slid around my waist and pulled me into his rock-hard chest, then he licked his lips. Suddenly, I needed to cool off, or I'd be climbing his body like a tree to start a real fire from the friction of my mouth on his when I kissed him and me both senseless.

"I'm going to go take a bath before my munchkin wakes up, then we can go back to the hospital to sign her birth certificate."

"Not yet. I haven't said hello to you today."

His hands glided up my back, arms pushing up mine, then he dipped his head. Oh God, he was going to kiss me, and I hadn't brushed my teeth yet.

I quickly covered my mouth with one hand. "Morning breath, Chance, that's spilled over into the evening."

"Coffee breath, Mahogany, same length of time." Then, my hand was down by my side, and his lips were on mine.

If I could just resist him.

Well, I couldn't, so I waged war with his tongue until we were both breathless and his phone beeped in his pocket.

*********

~Chance~

With one hand, I dug out my phone and held Mahogany to my chest. The text that had come through frustrated the hell out of me immediately, though I tried to hide my reaction to Julia summoning me back to Utah this Monday, not the next one.

Mahogany's eyes bounced between my phone and me.

"Chance, what's wrong?"

Damn, she must've picked up on my pissiness. "It looks like I have something else to confess, baby. I have to go back to Utah earlier than I expected for work. It seems Orion Townsend, a potential client I was meeting with when you called me about Majestic, can't wait until next Monday or he's going to take his business elsewhere. It's a big account if I land it. Since children really are expensive, I figure it would be wise to go—"

She covered my mouth with one hand before I could finish. The saddest of expressions crossed her face. "Will you consider something for me before you go?"

I reached for her hand to remove it, but she pressed tighter. "Just nod or shake your head, Chance. Don't s-speak yet." Her voice wobbled.

I frowned as much as I could around her fingers and nodded, would do anything for her. Would tell her that if she'd let me.

"I need you to work on being friends with me. That's all I ask of you, not a new car or house, clothes or even money. It's for Majestic's sake, not mine."

Then she stepped back. I practically heard her heart breaking as she reversed, a bad but good thing. I was finally in tune with my girl again, and she didn't want me to leave but would let me if she thought it was the right thing to do. It wasn't.

"I didn't say I'd be gone for good, Mahogany. I said for work. There's a difference. Unless..." I pulled her right back into my arms, where she belonged. "...you want to go with me to Utah. I want to live here, you see. I've changed my mind, I think you still owe me, and I want all I'm due. Your love, your heart, your body, because I need them all, so I don't have to go through another damn day without you while loving you. Not being able to touch you or kiss you. Working myself to death to keep from thinking about you. Not being able to feel anything other than you even while dating useless bodies of flesh so I can feel wanted, but they are not enough. They're not you, and Majestic has a damn good oncologist here. If she needs him in the future, I want to get her to him faster than I can say I love you, Mahogany."

Her mouth fell open. "Why didn't you say that when you first arrived in Arrow? Why let me stay gone for three damn years? Letting me be without you if you felt that way? Missing you and trying to trick myself into believing I could live like that every damn day for the rest of my life?"

"One question at a time, love. I would never force myself on you if you didn't want me, but when I got here, all I knew was that I had to have you again in any way I could get you. Desperate enough to con me and you into believing you owed me something to get what I was dying for. You."

"I did owe you."

"You didn't. You had every right to do what you thought was best for Majestic, but I took the first chance I got of relieving some of the ache from being without you. Only you could lessen the pain. Then, you made a mistake while you were sleep the other night."

"What did I do?"

"You said yes to me while I was complaining about proposing to you to get me out of my misery. I knew you still loved me then. Now, you're stuck with the old and the new Chance all rolled into one."

And then she smiled and lit up my world that felt like it was spinning the correct way on its axis for once. "That's not being 'stuck,' Chance, that's being blessed with a good man who gets really angry sometimes and wants to fuck the pain away, really well I might add, and he just about gives everything he has away, including his heart. That's all I, we need from you... and your strength. I can't carry that damn crib by myself, although we could just leave it here for the next single mother. It serves no purpose after ten minutes anyway. Majestic climbs out of it when she's tired of being in it or wants to get in the bed with me."

"It's good you feel blessed because I'm not going anywhere, and the next time you run, I'm chasing... when I'm not chasing Majestic. Sounds like she needs her own room badly, and we need a lock on our door now."

"The new Mahogany knows to run towards you not from you, Chance."

No other words sounded sweeter.

"Thank God. That saves me a lot of time and jet fuel. It's expensive. Although I can afford it, I'd rather be spending the money on my girls in some exotic location we've all flown to on vacation... together, the only word that best describes us who should've never been without each other from the start."

"Ditto, baby."

"There are some other words I like to hear from you though."

"I love you, Chance." She didn't even hesitate.

"And I love you, sweetheart."

I leaned in for another kiss. A thump in the other room where Majestic was halted my progress. The noise was too close to my child. I turned to walk off. Mahogany caught my waist with both hands, pulling me back into my original position.

"Mahogany, that came from the bedroom."

"I know. Count with me. One." She pressed into my side, her hand wrapped around my shoulder, unconcerned.

"Do what?"

"Count, Chance." I realized she knew what had happened, so I said 'one' with her.

On two, Majestic veered around the corner of the bedroom then ran to us. Mahogany was right, the damn crib was useless.

My daughter wrapped around my leg and announced, "Mommy's woke, daddy."

I bent over to tousle the curls on her head. "I know, baby girl. Finally."

"Let's eat chocolate."

"No!" Mahogany and I chanted together.

Majestic huffed then eyeballed Mahogany before leaning over to get a good view of her mother's ass. "Mommy?"

Mahogany sighed. "I know, Majestic. Mommy should be dressed, but it's your daddy's fault I'm not. He distracted me again."

Majestic grinned. "Can I walk around naked too now?"

"No!" Mahogany and I hollered again... together.
Epilogue

~One month later~

Mahogany

Fifteen miles away from my apartment, I stopped in the street at the beginning of a long curvy driveway running up to an upscale red-bricked home in a gated community that seemed too uppity for my taste, just like all the other houses that Chance's realtor had suggested to me. This was the umpteenth time I entered an atmosphere so stiff the neighbors would probably turn up their nose if I walked to the mailbox hand in hand with Chance. Since he was out of town for the next two days, and it was my day off, I drove myself to this house showing with Majestic for company, and I wasn't feeling the love here either.

House hunting was starting to get tiring, boring, and I was about to pick something just to be done with it, completely sure Chance would approve of this house when he got back from Utah this time. Orion Townsend was just as demanding as Chance and requesting almost daily meetings about architecture designs for his new cellular companies that he liked one day, then didn't like something about them the next. I was over that too. The flying back and forth was wearing Chance out, so he decided this morning he'd come home tomorrow after he either finalized the plans with Orion or referred him to another company. I had three years of missing sleeping next to Chance to make up for, and Orion was getting in the damn way. My pissiness and already missing my man might've been why I couldn't pick a house.

"Majestic, what do you think of this house? Is it too big?"

A pretty big question to ask your two-year-old, Mahogany. Who else was I going to ask?

I glimpsed back at Majestic kicking her feet while munching apple slices out of a Ziploc bag in the back of the BMW that Chance purchased from the rental company because it was relatively new and I couldn't decide on what kind of car I wanted.

"Don't know, Mommy. What's 'too big' mean?"

"You can't wrap your arms around it, baby."

"Yep, that house is too big." Doesn't mean she didn't like it.

"It's a status symbol definitely, though."

"Definitely, though, Mommy."

I turned in my seat to glance back at her. "You know what a status symbol is?"

"No."

Laughter shot out my nose. "I didn't think so, but daddy can entertain business associates in comfort here and not bump his head on anything."

"Don't want daddy bumping his head. It hurts."

Majestic shook her head in a serious manner that reminded me of her father, who grew sillier by the day, especially when his father was around. And he tinkered around the apartment, fixing things whenever he was there. Our love and Majestic were lightening Chance up, and I couldn't be mad about that. He deserved to have a real home to come to when he wasn't working, though.

"Right, so we'll go inside and meet the realtor then. I think this is the house. If I view another, I'll probably shoot somebody."

"Shoot somebody," she repeated loudly just as a car with its windows rolled down rode by us slowly.

Nosy neighbor number one was an older white lady who frowned at us then hit the gas.

"Changed my mind, Majestic. This is definitely not where I want to stay. One more house, and then we're either moving in it or staying put in our apartment, and Chance can just stoop down until we luck up on something."

I drove off. My cell phone's ringtone cut through the air already filled with Majestic's crunching on the fruit. Chance's name displayed on the car's radio screen. I touched the green icon on it and answered, "Hey, baby."

"Hey, baby yourself. Where are you?"

"Getting the hell out of the third snobby community that your realtor keeps finding. Can she find something with less houses and more land so if I want to walk to the mailbox hand in hand with you, I don't have to worry about who we're making frown up?"

"Curse, Mommy," Majestic chastised, now an official member of the swear police, thanks to Chance, who convinced her that her job was to catch the bad words and remind us we weren't supposed to say them around her. She has been doing a damn good job so far.

His snickers reverberated through the car's sound system. "Well, you're in luck. The realtor just called me with another listing. Park and put this address into the GPS, then go check it out and let me know what you think."

"For you, I'll do it even though house hunting is not fun anymore."

I quickly did as he asked, then got back on the road. He hung up after we exchanged 'Love ya, babe,' and Majestic added hers. Another nine minutes took us into the outskirts of Arrow to a one-level, sprawling ranch-style home that sat a good walking distance back from the street. It was for sale with several acres cleared in the front and on the sides. Thick woods a quarter-mile back from the house sat beneath the Sangre de Cristo mountain tops serving as a backdrop. The place was beautiful. Breathtaking. Felt like home immediately, and the long driveway was filled with cars of competitors vying for the same property.

"Shit!" I hissed. "Soon as I find what I like, so does every damn body else."

"Curse," Majestic chirped.

"Sorry, baby girl, but I like this house, and there're so many people here, there's no way we can beat out everyone's bid."

"Out, Mommy."

I assumed she liked the property too.

"Coming, baby."

I mounted the three steps connected to the wooden porch with Majestic on my hip. The front door opened as if it had a motion sensor, but no one stepped out to greet me. It was so quiet inside I could hear a pin drop, which was odd considering all the parked vehicles.

Since what I could see of the living area was well-lit, I cautiously strolled into a large room with chairs and tables that looked a lot like the ones I busted at work, plus a long table with Tommy's company's logo hanging over the side on a tablecloth that he whipped out for catering events. It was pressed against the far wall, lined with party supplies, punch bowls, a three-tier cake, and warming pans piled high with food. In the corner of my eye stood the crowd I was looking for. Most had drinks in hand behind a man on bended knee.

The second I turned to them dressed casually in tee and jeans like me, they all screamed 'Surprise!' startling and stopping me dead in my tracks. The faces of Kat, Tommy, Amari, Astrid, Lenox, Cena, and everyone else I knew because of Tommy and Chance became familiar quickly. When I recognized Chance, he held my gaze because he was the one on bended knee with an opened ring box in his hands.

"You should probably come closer, baby," he recommended. "It's just not the 'it' thing to do to propose from a mile away."

"Yes!" I squealed, over-freaking-joyed that everything in my life was coming together by merely joining mine with his.

It was a damn good thing Dania had squashed her beef with me, and we were starting to make regular and pleasant visits to each other's home because her son was about to officially be mine forever. Nor was I ever letting him go.

Applause exploded in the room.

Chance glanced around. "Wait a minute, people. I didn't get to say everything I wanted to her."

I ran to him, who had to stand quickly to catch me, then placed the ring on my finger. Everyone that didn't have a drink kept clapping. The rest sipped from their plastic cups with grins. Whether they were happy to be drinking or because I said yes, who knew?

"Sweetheart, nobody let me tell you about the house." He was absolutely annoyed and too adorable.

Tommy patted him on the back. "Friend, most of these people are tipsy from drinking while setting up for this occasion. The only words they wanted to hear was yes. Where did the bartender go to?" He looked over his shoulder. "Where did my bartender go to? Nevaeh! Jesus Christ, good help is hard to find, literally. Congrats, guys. I gotta go find the damn help... again!"

Tommy vanished, but I couldn't stop staring at the man who had given me all I needed a month ago: him.

"I have you, Chance, so I don't need a tour of the house."

"I do," he griped, "I worked hard to find something I knew you'd love. It's spacious but not too big. The street doesn't get congested with traffic. The houses are hundreds of acres apart. You hated the penthouse, so I searched for something completely different, but they ruined my whole plan and speech by clapping too soon. I had a tour of the house planned and everything."

"You mean this house is ours when I've been on duck runs around the city, looking at houses I hated while you'd bought what we both wanted all along?"

"Yep. Couldn't let you find it first. It needed some remodeling. Took a month. A lot of the supposed Orion meetings were me supervising the construction crew and sometimes putting in work to get it done on time. The deal has been done with Orion for weeks. He's here too and going to be here for a while. The first building is already being constructed in Arrow, and somebody has already tried to burn it down. He's declared himself security until it's completely built."

"No wonder you've been so tired, and are you telling me that was Orion's building that I heard about on the news three weeks ago?" There wasn't much information given about the incident except the police already had a suspect who'd been carted off to jail for the crime in the same week.

"Yep, but no shop-talk because I have another surprise for you. We'll be sleeping right here tonight. The bedrooms are completely furnished, and the pieces that go in the rest of the rooms are waiting for you to pick them out tomorrow at whatever store you choose."

This man and his surprises. I chose him, grinned so hard my damn jaws ached, but who cared? "You did good, baby."

"I knew I had the minute you spilled coffee on me," he gloated openly.

"You're bragging, but you probably should've run away back then."

"Why, when I'd found what I was looking for? Nothing worth having is easy to get or get to, so what's a minor burn when it led to this?"

"I guess I can't complain since I didn't suffer the minor burn, can I?"

He grinned deviously. "Not all stories have to have a beautiful beginning and middle to have a beautiful ending. The best stories usually don't. It's the trials and tribulations in between that make it special, and I have a confession. The suit was water-resistant with an inside lining that has the same quality... and your coffee was lukewarm. But who cares? I have you now, Mahogany."

Oh, the secrets just kept coming to the light. "So, I didn't burn you?"

He hugged me tightly into his side. "No, I just wanted a date, so I lied. I told you I'd do anything to date you, and that was true from the start."

Thank God.

"Well, you don't have to do a thing to marry me but meet me at the end of the aisle."

"And meet me," Majestic joined in, not about to be left out of anything.

Chance took her from me. "Meeting you is how my world became what it was supposed to be, so I'll meet you on the moon if you want, Majestic." I seriously thought he'd try to get them both there if that was what she wanted.

"Let's kiss now!" she yelled out suddenly.

As I said, Majestic refused to be left out of anything, so kissing together happened often and meant Chance and I locked lips while Majestic kissed both our cheeks, her favorite thing to do... besides eat chocolate. We even did that together now too, but not often.

The End of Mahogany and Chance's Story brings the beginning of Nevaeh and Orion's story.

Mahogany's love for her daughter forced her to face her past, but Nevaeh Lomax's past collides with her present when a carefully-laid plan to get someone out of her life for good is unraveled by Orion Townsend.

Snippet from Undone by Fire

Mahogany's Surprise Engagement Party

~Nevaeh Lomax~

"Don't I know you?" a man asked from behind me, startling me as I stood on a shady back deck, looking out over the vast property attached to a home that now belonged to a good friend.

Mahogany Jefferson deserved this beautiful place and so much more after all she had been through in the last few years. Today, life had finally decided she and her adorable daughter Majestic should have the best and that it was time for me to get what was coming to me who had frozen in place, mind whirling at a thousand miles per hour.

My head jerked in the guy's direction before I thought better of it. Probably should've dove forehead-first for the ground and covered my face instead, but his voice was like a magnet. Impossible not to turn toward it.

Holy hell, it was him.

As my luck would have it, Mahogany's fiancé was in business with the poor fool that I nearly killed after he got caught in my web spun to get another fool out of my life. I would recognize the first fool's voice in the midst of a riot after hearing him speak only twice. Didn't think he'd find me so quickly at the party full of guests. Not after the women had flocked to him and I had ducked out of the room after spotting him in the crowd that was invited here for Mahogany's surprise engagement party I should be serving drinks at.

I wasn't doing my job, thus provoking my teddy bear but bear all the same of a boss. Tommy Owens was totally looking for me. Going to curse me out for going AWOL when he found me too, but shitty luck always brought the wolves to my door first. I had no doubts that the man who just noticed me wouldn't be hesitating to rip into me with his pearly-white teeth.

After clearing my throat on the newly constructed back deck of Mahogany and Chance's new home apart of the surprise for her, I came face to face with the business owner whose insurance rates were probably sky-high because of me. I wouldn't be bum-rushing him again, however.

Apparently, I didn't know my own strength. He might not have survived it a second time, but there was nowhere to hide from him again either.

"No, you don't know me." Self-preservation demanded I lie to save my ass.

With a bit of luck, denying what he knew was true would be enough to make him go away. In any other circumstances, I'd want him to stay a little while longer. Long enough to get my rocks off but that was it, that was all. Had no interest in tying myself to another man long-term after Jason, who took my virginity, then ruined the rest of me emotionally. I was completely distrustful of the opposite sex now but not dead, so my hormones still worked properly, and this man was beyond gorgeous.

What races had to mix to produce that extraordinary shade of his pupils and the cool blush tone of his skin. European? Caucasian? Egyptian? African-American maybe? Only thing I was positive of was that he was probably tasty when licked, absolutely beautiful even with his compressed lips and his eyes snapping in my direction.

I should be more terrified of what fate had in store for me now that he had practically busted me, but I wasn't. Just a sliver of fear snaked through me. Once you had gotten over fearing for your own life, there wasn't much else to stress about, not even doing a bid upstate for a crime you committed.

He stepped closer for a better look. His expression morphed from puzzled to furious, looking even more attractive while angry, if that were even possible. I could tell he was unconditionally convinced that he recognized me now, and nothing would change his mind about it. His looming nearness, exceptional height, and flawless good looks combined with the tiny bit of anxiety I had from being caught finally was a powerful mixture. It sucked the air right out of my lungs. I wasn't a hardened criminal yet, so I still had the ability to dread the unknown.

And you can still spot a fine ass man when you see one. Not the time for browsing for beefcake, but my conscience was determined to speak on behalf of my vagina regardless of the predicament I was in.

His brow furrowed until his eyebrows threatened to form a unibrow. "Yes, I do know you. You're the woman that almost killed me while my building burned down, but a disgruntled ex-employee went to jail for it because his fingerprints were found on the gas can left at the scene. Jason Leer swears he wasn't there that night. Thanks to the concussion you gave me, I can't be sure if he was or wasn't, but I was there, and so were you."

Oh, Jason was much more than just the disgruntled owner of the gas can for sure that I had stolen from his car. At least I had sense enough to not layer his fingerprints on the tin with mine. He was in jail for the wrong crime only because it was much harder to send someone to prison for their real wrongdoings when you were scared half out of your mind of them and what they'd do if you called the cops on them.

By the time I had gotten over my fear of being punched, kicked, and struck like a hooker who hadn't turned in enough money to her pimp, it was me that was about to do time in a penitentiary for planting a blade in his neck for a punch I hadn't deserved. The night that happened was the only time I was glad to have fresh and old signs of abuse sitting plainly on my body, and didn't care what Jason was doing time for as long as he was out of my life, which I had committed to making happen by any means necessary. For my methods, the man before me, his noggin, and his building had almost paid the higher price. I regretted that more than I could believe was possible.

"Don't know what you're talking about, Mr." Townsend.

Orion Townsend, cellular company mogul who I knew all about now. Couldn't help googling him after our literal run-in that started my recurring nightmares, which wouldn't let me rest most nights and had me guzzling anything with caffeine to stay awake most days when I was questioning others about him. Finally, I struck gold when I mentioned him to Katara Johnson, who had no clue of the guilt that constantly ate at me for what I had done to her best friend and his property.

Now, I was further ahead than I had ever been in my schoolwork and knew more useless facts from surfing the internet than one brain should be able to hold. Facts like Orion had lived in Arrow before he bought a failing cellular phone company in London ten years ago, right after he graduated from the college I was currently attending. The fact that his near-death experience affected me more than Jason's pending demise ever would came from my own sense of right and wrong, which didn't mind working overtime on me on Orion's part. Stupid conscience didn't know what 'all about me' stood for, I guessed.

Orion spread his legs apart and crossed his arms over his broad chest as if barring me from leaving another scene. "Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about, huh? Maybe the sheriff can fill you in. She's right in the other room and intimate with my case because I call her every damn day to see if she's found you yet. You stay right there, and even if you don't, there're enough people here for her to question until she finds out your name and arrests you later. Somebody in here will admit to knowing who you are, so it'll do you no good to run."

Everybody here knew who I was. All he had to do was describe me as the tallest woman in the room with weird eyes to Astrid, the sheriff. She'd know who he was referring to instantly. If he was telling the truth, and Orion didn't seem like a liar either, he had already given her my description. So why had my feet been able to come and go as I pleased for a month if she already knew who was to blame for Orion getting hurt?

Dumb question, Nevaeh. Astrid and I were good friends through my job as a bartender at her uncle by heart's restaurant, Tommy's Cuisine. Five ten in bare feet with a-little-too-curvy hips for my liking on a thin frame and gray eyes in dark skin didn't allow me to blend in. Even worse, I was in my thickly-padded work shoes that put me at six feet even. Yet, Orion towered over me. He was at least six-five, breathtaking, and determined to see me in an orange jumpsuit. I couldn't blame him, not after I tampered with his livelihood and nearly cost him his life.

He turned away and vanished into the kitchen. I wasn't going anywhere. It felt like I had been running from one thing or another since leaving Jason. I didn't have it in me to escape again, if only for a little while, not since failing to get rid of Jason twice and hurting Orion.

Running wasn't solving anything anyway. God only knew why I felt so damn bad about what I did to Orion when I didn't really know him, but I knew I didn't deserve to be free after what I did to an innocent. If I kept evading my just desserts, I was no better than Jason, who had gotten away with multiple counts of assault against me and had no remorse about it.

I'd be damned if I was ever grouped together with the likes of Jason. Orion was owed justice, and he would get it if I faced the music... or jail time. Five years in prison, to be exact. It was better than being available to Jason when he was released from his false imprisonment, which I would make sure of. Didn't even want to be in the same prison system as a man who was quite vicious when he was angry. He couldn't get to me if I was locked down. Jokingly, I had considered that as my option once, during one of those long nights of having nothing better to do when sleeping wasn't a choice. My dreams belonged to Orion, which brought no rest for the wicked.

Maybe I should put some real thought into going to jail myself. It seemed like the only avenue left after things refused to turn out as I had hoped for with my first two tries to separate Jason from his life in some way.

Well, the third time was the charm supposedly, and it was whatever worked at this point for me. I was just that damn determined to be free of him. Five years should be enough time for him to get over me giving him fifty stitches a year ago and having him arrested for a crime he didn't commit. If he should find another woman to beat then stalk when she got tired of the abuse; hopefully, she'd finish the job I started with trying to kill him. Or do better with framing him.

Mind made up, I waited patiently for Orion to return with Astrid, who would handcuff me in front of my friends and my most important family member, assisting me in destroying Mahogany's party and tainting her home before she spent the first night in it.

If I could pick another place to do this at, I would, but Orion was already snitching on me. If I was going to hit rock bottom, it might as well happen around my family and friends, so they wouldn't have to wonder what happened to me or find out from a third party like they did about the abuse I suffered at Jason's hand for two very long years.

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