Page 32 of Vegas Daddies (Forbidden Fantasies #17)

ALLIE

K ara and Brandon’s apartment was chaos in the best way—a swirl of vibrant throw pillows and thrifted blankets, a funky beaded curtain separating the kitchen from the living room, and fairy lights strung haphazardly across the ceiling.

It was a boho Etsy-addict’s dream, and though it wasn’t the style I would have picked for my own place—I tended more toward basic Target-coded interiors—I loved hanging out here.

Daphne did too, which was why she’d tagged along for this edition of our traditional girls’ night (plus Brandon).

I plopped down onto a fuzzy floor cushion next to a couple of our other friends, Jennifer and Regina, holding a sad-looking mason jar in one hand and a bottle of glitter glue in the other.

Kara bounced over with a tray of boozy seltzers, handing them out like a chipper hostess.

Brandon, ever the honorary girl in the squad, flopped dramatically onto the couch, wearing a pink tiara he’d snagged from Kara’s seemingly bottomless craft bin atop his blond head.

“Alright, ladies,” Kara announced, and at the interruption of Brandon’s deliberate, cartoonish Ahem , she tacked on, “ and gent.”

She rolled her eyes, then side-eyed her roommate as if to get permission to continue. Brandon gave a short, snooty nod that made me laugh.

“Tonight,” Kara said with a flourish, “we turn trash into treasure.”

I snorted, squeezing a blob of glitter glue onto my jar in a way that immediately looked less aesthetically pleasing than the Pinterest examples we were looking at.

“I’m just aiming for vaguely less trashy,” I amended. “I’m a singer, not an artist. Daphne’s already got me beat on the craft skills.”

As if on cue, my little girl made a loud squeal sound from her comfy spot in Brandon’s bedroom.

He had a Nintendo Switch and just about every game my kid was already begging me to buy for Christmas, and since Daphne was his “honorary niece,” Uncle Brandon had no problem setting her up with video games and a cozy blanket to occupy her while the grown-ups hung out in the living room.

“You alright, baby?” I called back to my girl, and at her enthusiastic half laugh of an answer—something that sounded like “I’m winning!” backed by familiar Mario music—I settled back into my cushion.

Brandon winked at me. “You’ve got a little gamer on your hands. Maybe she’ll grow up to be in those tournaments and beat all the neckbeard guys.”

“I have higher hopes for her than that, but I’m glad she’s having fun,” I told him. “Thanks again for letting her play with your stuff.”

Daphne was pretty good at zoning out during boring adult talk, even when she was in one of her clingy attached-at-the-hip moments, but it was nice to get a little space for myself too.

My mom senses were always on though; I was keeping an ear out for any sign of trouble while my kiddo was out of sight.

“I’m a DIY queen,” Jenn piped up, pulling me back to my circle of friends as she pulled off a fancy flourish of glitter glue on her own mason jar.

“This is beginner shit. When are we gonna rehab some old furniture or something? I could use an accent table for my living room, and Regina has a sander now.”

Regina laughed. “Only because that construction guy left it at my house.”

“Use what the universe gives you,” Kara said with a wink.

We all settled into a rhythm, snipping pieces of magazine pages, Mod Podging them onto random objects.

Jenn got Kara to break out the yarn, and in seconds, she’d started to crochet the beginnings of a scarf.

Meanwhile, I’d gone from a plain mason jar to a much stickier one that looked like a glitter monster had thrown up on it.

At least I was having fun.

Between the giggles and the clink of drinks, the conversation naturally shifted to the topic of our love lives.

“So, Kara,” Jennifer drawled, swirling her soda like it was a cocktail. “Any new developments with that barista you’ve been drooling over?”

Kara flushed pink and hid her face behind a sheaf of scrapbook paper. “Maybe,” she mumbled. “He asked for my number.”

“And did you give it to him?” Regina asked, eyes wide.

“Obviously,” Kara said, pretending to flip her hair. “I’m just…a little worried he’s too young for me.”

“What, is he eighteen or something? You’re only twenty-seven,” I rebuked her.

Kara shrugged. “Twenty-one, at least. But I think he’s still in college. Like, do I want to be dating an undergrad? I’m not sure I want to be the hot cougar just yet.”

Brandon cackled. “Speaking of animals on the prowl—I had an absolutely yummy date the other night. And you’ll be proud of me, Jenn, because I didn’t take him home.”

“Because I was in the apartment with food poisoning,” Kara pointed out. “And the guy lives with his ex. Not exactly sexy vibes.”

“Still counts,” I told Brandon, who smiled at me in appreciation.

“Do we like him? What’s this guy’s deal?” Regina piped up as she abandoned her craft altogether. Instead, she hugged a throw pillow against her USC T-shirt and leaned in for the deets.

“We might like him,” Brandon said coyly. “His name is Ian. I met him at the gym. And we’re getting drinks again tomorrow night.”

We cheered for him like it was the Super Bowl. Or some much girlier equivalent. A Taylor Swift concert, maybe.

“What about you, Allie?” Regina asked me, and somehow before that point I hadn’t considered that I might have to contribute to the conversation. Oh, not much going on with me! Just having mind-blowing sex with three different guys, one of whom is the father of my child and doesn’t know it yet.

Felt a little heavy for a girls’ night.

“What about me?” I answered, faking obliviousness.

Brandon rolled his eyes, and Kara pinned me with a serious look.

Seeing right through me. Ever the genius at securing gossip, Kara got Jenn to leave the room to hunt down some specific craft supplies, and then she convinced Regina to get all of us drink refills.

That meant I was alone with Brandon and Kara for the first time since all of the stuff with the guys really got started.

“You’ve got tea about the three Vegas daddies, don’t you?

” Kara asked with a conspiratorial tone.

I let out a deep sigh, and both of my friends were on the verge of screaming at me in their eagerness to know all the nitty gritty.

I didn’t even have time to come up with some kind of excuse, some attempt to put them off until we were actually alone, before Brandon leaned in.

“I’ve been dying for updates on your trio of delicious men,” he said, tenting his fingers together like a movie villain. “I need more excitement. The holding out thing isn’t as fun or sexy for storytelling purposes.”

“I knew you’d tell him,” I shot at Kara.

“There’s nothing sacred between roommates,” Kara said, unashamed.

“You should’ve told me yourself!” Brandon insisted. “The scandal .”

I exhaled heavily. “Okay, fine. I…may have slept with all three of them again.”

Brandon dropped a foam heart he’d been holding in shock. “Allie! You minx!”

I laughed but quickly sobered as I remembered the next part of the story. “And…I found out it’s Cade. Um, Daphne’s biological father, I mean.”

His mouth opened in a perfect O of surprise. “The broody woodworker?”

“The very same.”

“Whoa. Okay. Wow.”

Kara was giving me such a soft, pitiful look that I had to avoid her eyes.

I nodded, feeling my heart thud against my ribs. “I haven’t told any of them yet. Or Daphne. And honestly, I’m scared.”

Brandon reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. “It doesn’t have to be scary. He knows it’s a possibility, right?”

“Yeah, but I’m scared anyway. Like, what if it confuses Daphne? Or what if she meets him and…I don’t know. Likes him more than me? God, that sounds so stupid.”

“Yeah, because you’re fucking awesome and way better than some random straight man,” Brandon said.

Kara gave an enthusiastic, “Hear, hear.”

“I know. It’s so stupid, but it’s in my head. And I’m scared of what it means with Cade too—if he’ll want custody, if I’ll have to give her up even a little bit. She’s mine.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the sting of tears.

Kara’s voice was gentle. “Oh, Allie. Maybe it won’t be like that. Maybe it’ll be better for all of you somehow.”

I shrugged, picking at a stray sequin. “It’s not just that. I…I care about Cade. I really do. I care about all of them. It’s like—” I paused, trying to find words that didn’t sound completely insane. “I don’t know. There’s something about all three of them. About us together.”

I didn’t say it out loud, but in my heart, the idea of a “family” didn’t just look like Daphne, me, and Cade. It included all three of the guys in the mix. My friends were open-minded and cool, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to openly want that in front of them.

Still, when Brandon raised an eyebrow and said, “So…could you see yourself being with Cade? Giving Daphne that nuclear family?”

All I said was, “Maybe.”

Maybe was safer than the real answer. Maybe left room for the million complicated feelings I hadn’t figured out yet. And as ever, I was hesitant to commit. Even if the idea of commitment felt less daunting, less like being trapped, when it included Gavin, Cade, and Luca.

“I’m even less sure about how to break the news,” I told my friends, steering us toward territory that was more pressing. Just the thought of having to tell Cade news that would change the entire trajectory of his life made me want to break out in hives.

For a girl who liked to keep things light, I had a lot of big, pressing drama to contend with lately.

“Maybe you don’t just drop it on him solo,” Kara suggested. “Like, since they’re all involved, you could…introduce them all to Daphne first. Get her used to them.”

“And see how Cade handles being around her without knowing he’s the dad yet,” Brandon added. “Could be a good warm-up. Daddy training wheels.”

The idea made my stomach twist, but it also made a weird kind of sense. “Would that be too confusing? What do I tell her?”

“That they’re your friends,” Brandon said.

Kara chimed in with, “Or just that they’re important to you. She’s too little to need to know more than that.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. Talking through it for myself more than for them.

“So…I’ll invite them all to meet her. Keep it casual.

Then later, after I see how Cade reacts, I’ll tell him.

” It felt a little like a test, and I wasn’t exactly stoked to be putting him through that after the tenuous camaraderie we’d established—if having a hot threesome was considered camaraderie—but if I’d been tested by single parenthood over the past few years, surely this couldn’t do him any harm.

I wiped my palms on my jeans, suddenly feeling the nerves kick in again. Pulling out my phone, I drafted a quick text in my group message with all three of the so-called Vegas Daddies. The guys would probably like the nickname, I thought.

Allie: Any chance you three could come by the diner tomorrow during my break? I have something I want to talk to you about.

I hit send before I could overthink it.

The phone buzzed almost immediately with their three affirmative replies. That was that, then.

“Well,” I said, setting my phone face down and repeating my own thoughts out loud, “that’s that.”

“Proud of you,” Brandon said.

“Terrified for you,” Kara added with a wink.

I forced a laugh and picked up my sad mason jar again. Around me, the buzz of craft night picked back up as our other friends came back into the fray. They all crafted and chatted and guffawed with laughter while I pretended that the world hadn’t just shifted under my feet.

Well, it hadn’t done the shifting quite yet. But maybe it was just beginning to.