Vic:I’m going to go now before you make this worse.
Sean:Do you have a little problem?
I grinned.
Vic:Less of the little. Night, Sean.
Sean:Night.
I set my phone on the bedside table, still smiling as I close my eyes.
Tomorrow night can’t come soon enough.
“Joe’s all smiles today.”Hailey stood in the doorway to one of the pub guest rooms. “Maybe you can have a few more boy’s nights before you go back. I know you can do it at home, but I think staying at the lodge feels a bit like a holiday.”
I put my paintbrush down and wipe my hands on my jeans. “Yeah, it was a good night. And even though I’m supposed to be working from home till the end of next week, it feels like a holiday to me too. The lodge is lovely.”
“Good. I’m glad.” She gestures around the room. “I really appreciate you helping get this place ready. I hope you know that.”
“I do.” And it wasn’t a great deal of work that needed doing. More of a gentle facelift than a total reconstruction. “But I’m curious about one thing.”
She raised her eyebrows. “What’s that?”
“I’m starting to realise that Char comes from money, like more than I realised.”
“She does.”
“So, if money isn’t the issue, then why aren’t you having all this done professionally?”
She sighs, and I wonder if this is a sore spot. “Because I’m way too stubborn for my own good.”
I smirk. “You? Never.”
“Oh, fuck off.” She grins at me. “I didn’t want to rely solely on Char’s money to get this place ready. We got it cheap as it is. I thought it was something we could do together, but I’d forgotten how tired pregnancy makes me, and there was more work needed than we anticipated. And then Char’s nan took a turn for the worse...” She huffs. “We tried to hire someone to help, but we’d left it too late by then and no one could start until the new year.”
“So you thought why not hit up your ex-husband for some free labour?” I laugh as she walks into the room and lightly punches my shoulder.
“I asked mybest friendto help.” She shudders. “I don’t think of you as my ex anymore. And anyway...” She pats her belly with a smirk of her own. “It’s your fault I’m in this state.”
“Nope.” I shake my head and back away from her, smiling. “I was just a means to an end. You can’t blame me for yours and Char’s broodiness.”
I might have donated the sperm so that Joe and the new baby would be full siblings, but this baby is all theirs. Not that I won’t be a part of its life or help out if they need me—of course I fucking will—but we discussed everything at great length before entering into something that would affect all of us.
We’ve done everything we can to ensure this is their baby.
I get to be the fun uncle, and I’m more than happy with that.
I frown as a thought strikes me.
Hailey rubs my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you think I need to tell Sean about this?” I wave a hand between the two of us. It hasn’t occurred to me before now because I don’t think of Hailey and Char’s baby as anything other thantheirbaby. But will Sean? And does it matter if he does? “Or am I making an issue out of nothing?”
“I thought it was just casual between you and Sean?”
“It is.”
Isn’t it?
