When she turns around, my eyes immediately move to the baby carrier she’s holding that was blocked from my view when she was facing Milton.
“You have a kid?” I grunt.
“It’s yours,” she says. She presses her lips into a thin line.
Jesus Christ.
I need to sit.
When I broke things off with her, I told her it was because I wasn’t interested in commitment.
This is sort of what I meant by that.
“So, what do you want? A check?” It’s possible I’m not the most diplomatic when it comes to these things, but I can’t imagine why she’d wait this long to show up and tell me about the kid. The kid must be a few months old. A year, maybe. Idon’t exactly do baby age math.
“I want you to step up and take responsibility.” She purses her lips at me.
“No can do,” I say.
Milton eyes me sharply. He’s sort of like a father to me. At least in the respect that he takes care of me to some degree. He knows who to keep out and who to let in.
Usually.
I guess he let Tawny in.
He makes sure I get up to my place safely when I come roaring in drunk. He’s a pretty good dude, really, but he’snotmy father, and he can shove his sharp look. I’m not here for him to judge me.
“What do you mean,no can do?” she asks.
“I mean, you chose to carry the kid and have it, and you didn’t contact me. So you suddenly want money? Or what? I don’t even have proof it’s mine.”
She sighs as if she predicted that’s what I’d say. “Look, I don’t have anywhere to turn. I don’t have family who can take him in. I can’t give a child the kind of life it deserves. You have resources that I don’t. I’ve done my very best for the last six months, but I can’t do it anymore.”
“You think I can? You had plenty of time to take care of the problem.” My voice is hard and firm, and I regret the words as soon as they’re out of my mouth.
“I wasn’t going to have an abortion, Dex.” She rolls her eyes and stares me down. “Fine. I’ll go the adoption route, then. I wasn’t even going to tell you, but my friends made me. They said it’s your blood and your right to know, so here I am. This was clearly a mistake. A deadbeat like you would never take responsibility.” She spins to leave, but her words seem to hit their mark.
It’s my blood. It’s my right to know.
My blood. My legacy. The very thing my own father talks so goddamnmuch about.
My eyes edge down to the carrier. It marks the first time I’ve looked at it, and I see a sleeping baby with a blue blanket tucked around him and a blue hat covering his head.
“Wait,” I say.
She turns back around.
“Adeadbeatlike me?” I say instead of the other shit she just mentioned. “You don’t know the first goddamn thing about me.”
A couple walks through the lobby, and they’re sort of staring at Tawny and me as I throw some loud words at her.
“Would you like to take this conversation somewhere more private?” Milton suggests, and we both ignore him as we face off.
“I know you’re too selfish to care for someone else,” she hisses.
“Aren’t you the one here looking to pawn a kid off on me?”
“Not because of selfishness. Because I don’t have any money, Dex. And there are things you don’t know. I can’t provide for this baby, so I’m trying to do the right thing.” She sounds genuine as she says the words.
