Jack grimaced and delicately climbed out of the bed. “Bathroom,” he whispered.
“I’ll stay a few,” I said.
He nodded and left.
I must have dozed off because the next thing I heard was the sound of a video call coming through from the kitchen, where our tablet was. Then Jack’s stern voice answering. “Nice of you to show up now, fuckwad.”
I rolled out of Aspen’s bed and got downstairs in time to see Jack with his arms bracketing the tablet, leaning in Bryce’s face as much as he could through a screen. “You let my son down.”
A chill zipped up my spine hearing Jack called Aspen his own. I mean, I knew he loved him, but to say to his shitty biological dad that he washisson . . . well, it was hot.
“Yourson?” Bryce whined.
“I’m being a hell of a better father to him than you ever have,” Jack shot back.
“Hi,” I cut in from the background, trying to keep this interaction from going off the rails. Yes, Jack was right and Bryce was wrong, but you catch more flies with honey and all that.
“Mara, why is Jack Leroy calling Aspen his son?”
“Jack and I got married,” I said. “Which you would know if you’d made it to any of the other phone dates we’d scheduled for our kids to see you.”
“Husband? What the hell, Mara? Were you married at Christmas?”
“I don’t think you have a lot of room to talk since you’re calling an hour and a half after our son’s bedtime.”
A strange sound came from the background and Jack stiffened, looking around suspiciously.
“Why is it dark in Nepal? Isn’t it like lunchtime?” Jack asked in a very flat voice.
Bryce laughed. “Big storm coming in. Speaking of, I probably don’t have long. Can I talk to Aspen?”
“He only just went to sleep because he was crying over you. If you can call sometime when he’s actually up, I’m happy to make that happen.” My emotions were starting to boil over. “You ruined his birthday, Bryce. We worked so hard to give him a good day, and he still kept asking about you. He cried himself to sleep because you forgot about him.”
“You know I don’t have good signal over here—” Bryce tried but Jack cut in.
“You’re about to have no signal if you don’t straighten the fuck up and learn how a clock works, asshole.”
“Mara, get this guy out of here and wake Aspen up,” Bryce said on an eye roll.
“I absolutely will not wake our son up, Bryce. You have no idea how deeply you disappointed him. And me. You acted like you were still going to try when you left and this sure as hell doesn’t look like trying. Hazel doesn’t even know you, and you only ever upset Aspen.”
The strange sound came through again and Jack’s knuckles went white on the counter. I patted his hand.
“Mara,” Bryce whined, “you and I both know it would be worse if I was there.”
I ground my teeth and swallowed hard. Now it was Jack’s turn to comfort me, placing a hand on my back. “Maybe for you and me, yes. But not for our kids. I really can’t talk to you anymore because I’m so mad I’m about to break this fucking tablet.”
Bryce had the gall to look horrified. “When did you start using such foul language?”
“Fuck off, Bryce,” I bit out, ended the call, clicked off the screen, and fell into Jack’s waiting arms.
FORTY-FOUR
JACK
FEBRUARY
That fucking bird call.
