Read Online Playing Pretend by Tamsyn Bester - Free Book Online Page B

come again.
    When it did, I sat up in bed.
    It sounded like…like…a baby?
    No. It couldn’t have been. Surely if…
    I climbed out of bed, my footsteps muted, and gently opened the bedroom door. Everything was dark, except for the faintest light coming from further down the hallway. I heard murmuring, and then another cry, and couldn’t help it when my body involuntarily moved closer to seek out where it was coming from.
    I stopped outside another door that was slightly ajar, holding my breath when I heard Caleb’s voice. I’d never heard it so calm, and so comforting before, and it only heightened my inquisitiveness. I told myself to walk away, that it was rude to invade whatever was going on behind the door, but once my palm rested on the wood, I knew there was no going back. With minimal effort, the door slowly swung open, and I stepped into the doorway.
    Nothing could have prepared me for what I found, or what I’d feel when I did.
    The pale pink, and green walls were washed in muted light, cast from a lamp on a dresser beside a dark wood crib. The room wasn’t as large as the one I was in, but big enough for…for…a nursery.
    I covered my mouth with one hand, and watched as Caleb swayed his body from side-to-side, his back to me. He wasn’t aware that I was there, that I was watching him in complete rapture, but when he turned slightly, I caught a glimpse of the tiny person in his colorfully inked arms. It was the most beautiful paradox I’d ever seen – someone so big, not only in size but in stature and presence too, holding someone so tiny, and so fragile with such benevolence and care.
    From the color on the walls, and the letters that spelled out ‘Braelynn’ on the wall above the crib, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that it was a little girl, and looking at how small she was, she couldn’t have been more than four weeks old.
    Blue eyes, so much like Caleb’s, stayed glued to his face while he gave her a bottle. Her little head was already covered in dark hair, and from my vantage point I could see that she not only had Caleb’s nose, but his pouty lips too.
    Oh.
    My.
    It was his daughter.
    Caleb was a dad.
    I gasped, only this time it was audible. Caleb’s head snapped up, and his eyes widened when he caught my open-mouthed stare. I tried to say something, but everything that was fighting to come out of my mouth was either inappropriate or completely nonsensical. My brain was misfiring in every direction, and I was woefully stuck between what the fuck and I must be dreaming. But it was all very much real, and I knew the moment Caleb realized it too.
    His warm, loving expression, clearly reserved for his baby girl, became shuttered, and before he could say anything, I fled. Like a complete and utter coward, I ran the length of the hallway, passing my room, and the all the others, until I stopped in the living room. I had no idea why I stopped there, but I felt the overwhelming need to get as far from Caleb as his huge penthouse would allow.
    Time passed, but I had no recollection of how long. I didn’t hear him come up behind me, but I knew he was there, and yet, I still flinched when he spoke.
    “Kadence,” he murmured. He didn’t sound as angry as what I’d expected. Instead, he sounded cautious, and circumspect with his approach.
    When I managed to speak, my voice was quiet, and just a little hoarse.
    “She’s your daughter.”
    It was a statement, not a question, and I felt the shift in the air around us, as if putting it out there somehow changed things.
    It did. I just didn’t know how .
    “How much did you see?” he asked, his tone hardening as if he was prepared to deny, deny, deny.
    I turned around, and faced him, bracing myself for only God knows what. I didn’t know how to anticipate what he was going to say, or do.
    “Enough,” I whispered. Stepping forward, I searched Caleb’s eyes, running my gaze over his stony features hidden in shadows. With no lights, and only