Rather,Iwas drinking. I knocked back four shots before Raleigh downed his first, and my head started to spin as I collapsed onto the couch.
“I have a daughter,” I muttered.
Raleigh finally slammed back his shot, then set the glass on the coffee table. “You sure she’s yours?”
I shrugged. “I’ll do a paternity test, but the timeline adds up. She’s got my eyes. Hannah was born eight months after Erin left for New York. She didn’t deny it on the phone either. It’s like she knew she got caught. She didn’t have anything to say for herself.”
“What are you going to do?”
“No fucking clue,” I groaned. I sank into the couch, scrubbing a hand over my face. “Hannah flies home in two days.”
I reached forward to pour another shot, waiting for another famous Raleighism that would make everything fall into place. Instead, what he said next only made me spill whiskey all over my coffee table. “You going with her?”
Liquid sloshed over the table, spilling to the floor. I jumped up to grab a towel. “What? What the hell makes you think I would do that?”
“She’s your kid. You don’t want to be a part of her life?” He gently removed the towel from my numb fingers and mopped up the spill.
“I don’t know if Erin wants that.”
“Sounds to me like she already did whatshewanted. There’ssomeone else involved now who has wants and needs of her own—two more people, actually.”
I looked up, confused. “Who’s the other one? Kian?”
Raleigh pinched the bridge of his nose right below the piercing there. “Christ, Ryder, how drunk are you? You aren’t this fucking clueless.” He looked up at me when I didn’t answer. “You!”
“Me?”
Raleigh finished pouring the shots I’d abandoned and slid my glass toward me. “It’s not like you’re a deadbeat. Erin made her choice, and in doing so, she took yours away from you. What doesHannahwant?”
“Answers.” I necked my shot and sat down again. “I guess that’s what I want too.”
“Then get them. If you need to go back home to do that, so be it.”
I flipped my shot glass around in my hands, watching as a drop fell and sank its way into the carpet.
I never thought I’d want kids. Sure, I had loved Erin, but the only thing on our minds at seventeen was college. I thought I’d do anything to stay with her.
“Where’s your head at, Ryder?” Raleigh asked, reaching forward to grab the whiskey bottle again.
“Don’t you have a husband to get home to?” I grumbled.
“I have a husband who loves you as much as I do, and he knows I need to be here right now. We both care about you.”
My vision blurred. Resting on my knees, I tried to use the heels of my hands to stop the burning. Raleigh squeezed my shoulder in support.
“I want to run,” I confessed.
“I know.” At my surprised look, he chuckled. “You’re not as hard to figure out as you think. Everyone wants to run away from their problems. Some of us are just better at it.”
I sighed. “What do I do?”
“I can’t tell you that. But I think it’ll take more than a day to figure it out, and that’s okay.”
I picked my head up when I felt the couch shift. Raleigh had grabbed our shot glasses and the bottle of whiskey, then headed to the kitchen.
“I guess I’m done drinking,” I called after him, getting a laugh in return.
“You sure are,” he confirmed. “You had a late night, and you’ve had a long day. You’re going to call Hannah and make sure she’s okay, then you’re going to bed.”
