Father by Choice. Amanda Berry

I’d known. I wish I could have been there for you and Amber. To have to do that all on your own…”

      Maggie flushed and dropped her gaze. “My mom was there for us when she had good days.”

      “Good days?” Brady couldn’t remember much about Mrs. Grace Brown, but she’d always been nice to all the kids at the town picnics.

      Maggie looked back at Brady. “Mom had breast cancer. She underwent treatment while I was pregnant and we had a few good years before…”

      With the revived memories of his own mother still battering his heart, Brady lifted a napkin to the tear that trailed down her cheek. “I’m sorry to hear about your mother.”

      They both froze at his action. Maggie shifted back and he pulled away quickly, looking at his hand as if it were the hand’s fault. He’d stepped over a line. They hadn’t ever been emotionally involved.

      “She fought it to the end.” Maggie’s smile was distant, as if she caught a glimpse of some memory that strengthened her. Ten years ago he’d been devastated by his parents’ absence from his life. He couldn’t even stand to be in the community he’d grown up in.

      He had no idea how he would have reacted at twenty to Maggie’s pregnancy. He glanced at the posed, smiling face with a few scattered freckles across her nose. Amber. It felt as if a fist squeezed his heart. Had his daughter ever needed him? He winced at the thought of not being there for her.

      “I want to see her.” The words burst out of Brady before he could stop himself.

      Maggie’s mouth dropped open.

      “I want to be part of her life.” A sense of rightness went through him. It’s what his parents would have wanted. It’s what he wanted. “If you’ll let me.”

       Chapter Four

      Maggie’s heart raced, but she drew in a deep breath to steady herself. Just because Brady wanted to get to know Amber didn’t mean he wanted anything more to do with Maggie. Nothing had to change.

      “I’d like that.” She tried to smile, but it faltered on her face. “I mean, Amber would love that. It’s been hard telling her about you when I thought you didn’t want any part of our lives.”

      Brady’s blue eyes narrowed. “I’ll never forgive Sam for doing that to you.”

      “No,” Maggie rushed out. Her cheeks warmed. How much of it had been her fault for not trying harder? “I’m not saying what he did was right—”

      “It was damn conceited.” Brady leaned back in his chair. “He always thinks he knows what’s best.”

      Maggie didn’t argue. Brady had been twenty when Sam had made the decision for him. Eight years had added a roughness to Brady’s boyish face. If anything, he was more handsome now than when she’d mooned over him in high school. His dark suit and blue tie lying against the soft-gray pressed shirt made him feel less approachable than when he’d been on top of the high school food chain dressed in denim and a worn T-shirt.

      His face softened. “I’d do anything to take back those years and give Amber the father she deserved and you the support you needed.”

      His words irritated her. “We got by fine on our own.” He smiled. “Always the fierce one, Maggie.”

      The intimacy of the statement hit her below the belt and reminded her why she’d slept with him in the first place. If she hadn’t thought he was patronizing her, she might have even liked him saying that. She cleared her throat and lifted her fork to toy with her rapidly cooling food.

      He reached for his BlackBerry again and started pressing buttons. “I might be able to get away for a day or two…”

      His lips tightened as he glared at the small screen. Whatever was on the screen wasn’t making him happy.

      “The project I’m working on is a multimillion-dollar deal. But I should be able to get away in a month, maybe a Sunday.”

      “A month?” The food sank like a lump in her stomach.

      “If everything goes according to plan. I should be able to make it out and back in a day.”

      “It might take longer?” Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “Amber has waited seven years for a father I didn’t think wanted her. What am I supposed to tell her? Your father is a busy man and when he finds time, he fully intends to come meet you for the first time? Am I supposed to string her along with promises of her father indefinitely?”

      “Amber should come first. You’re right—” Brady met her gaze “—but my career is hanging on this project. Can I fly her and you out here?”

      “She has school. No one can cover for you for a few days? you don’t have vacation time?”

      “Of course I have vacation time. I have a few months’ worth of vacation time saved, but—”

      “But you aren’t willing to take them.” She stood and clasped her shaking hands together. “I don’t have vacation time, but I came here on my weekend off to tell you as soon as I found out you didn’t know.”

      Brady glanced around them. Some of the nearby diners had stopped talking and stared at them with unabashed interest.

      “Will you please sit?” Brady asked softly.

      She wanted to leave and forget she had ever come to New York, but she had a duty to Amber. For the past seven years, she’d been the one that Amber turned to, the one she relied on. But every now and then, Amber asked about her father. Maggie wasn’t willing to disappoint her daughter because her father was turning out to be an ass. She dropped in the seat and crossed her arms.

      “I can’t tell Amber that her father might be able to make it to Tawnee Valley to see her sometime this year. She’s seven. She’s never met her dad and doesn’t know her uncles. Her grandmother died a few months ago. I’m all she has left.”

      Brady laid his hand on the table. The surrounding diners went back to their food, but they seemed to lean a little closer in the direction of Maggie and Brady’s table.

      “I’m not trying to blow you off, Maggie.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked up to the ceiling before returning to face her. She had a feeling he said that to every woman in his life. “I want to see Amber. The project I’ve taken on is important—”

      “And we’re not.” Maggie didn’t like the hurt in her voice, but she’d worked hard to be everything to Amber. Now someone else had a chance to be part of Amber’s life. This man that Maggie had always found fascinating. He’d been her hero in high school, and it was hard not to be disappointed in the man he’d become. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly, trying to think rationally. “I know that this is a lot. I know I just told you that you have a child. I know your work is important, but is it the only thing that’s important?”

      “I’m not saying that.” Brady closed his eyes and sighed. “What do you want from me, Maggie?”

      Everything. The thought startled her into silence. She bit the inside of her cheek and tightened her lips. Romantic dreams were for other people. She had to be rational. “I’d rather not tell her about you at all if we can’t work out something definitively.”

      “I found out I have a daughter ten minutes ago. I’m dealing with the information as best I can.” He looked at the photo of Amber and his eyes softened. “I want to do what’s right, but I’m eight years too late. Tell me, what should I do?”

      Maggie uncrossed her arms and laid her hand on top of his. His heat gave her comfort. She knew what Amber needed, what Amber deserved. What Maggie wished she’d had from the father she barely remembered. She took a deep breath before meeting his eyes.

      “Two weeks. Give us two weeks of your time. Let