“Good plan.” She smirks, then takes a bite of her burger. “Yours is getting cold.” She holds out her hands. “Let me take her while you eat.”
“No. I’m fine. You eat first.” I look down at the beautiful baby in my arms and smile. “We’re perfectly happy right here. Aren’t we, Brynn?”
28
Maggy
I swear,she makes a sweet gurgling noise like she’s answering him.
“I’ll hurry,” I say, taking another bite.
“Take your time. I ate a big lunch.”
Nodding, I chew and stare at the pair. I shouldn’t say it but I’m going to. “She’s got your eyes.”
“Yeah?” he looks over at me and smiles wide.
“They’re still blue, but I’ll bet they turn gray.”
“Aiden had my eyes.”
Oh. My. God. Holy. Shit. Wow.
He actually brought up Aiden.
I swallow too soon and choke a little. Rebounding fast, I have to say, “Really?” I shouldn’t ask this, but I’m going to do it. Call it a test. Let’s see if he runs at the first sign of trouble. “I’d love to see a picture of him.” I go one step further. “I’d love it if Brynn had a picture of him.”
“Brynn? Why?”
Oh, shit. I’m doing it. I’m going there. “Because he was her brother.”
And something happens that I never thought I’d see in a million years. The crankiest jerkface on the planet reacts in a way… in a shocking way. His eyes get misty, and a tear slides down his cheek. I gasp.
Remarkably, he doesn’t jump out of the rocker and run away. Instead, he looks down at Brynn. “You’re right. He was Brynn’s brother. She’d want to know about him.”
“She will. Someday.”
Nate looks up at me, several more tears sliding down his face. “I put all of his pictures away.”
I’d noticed the one time I was at his apartment that there was nothing personal around.
“I couldn’t bear to look at them.” His face is unreadable. “Not only that, I shut out the people in my life.”
“Like?”
“My parents. They always wanted to talk about him. They’d bring him up every time we got together, and I couldn’t take it.”
He’s never mentioned parents. “Do they know about Brynn?” He shakes his head, and that admission causes a pain to shoot right through my heart. “Why not?”
“What if…?” He looks down at our sleeping child.
I gasp. “Don’t you dare.” I quickly stand, dropping what’s left of my burger, and reach for my baby. He places her in my arms.
“You knew that’s why… I was scared.”
Holding my baby girl close, I admit, “I know why you were scared. I get it. I really do. But Brynn isn’t Aiden.” I walk her to her crib. “Honestly, I don’t know which part bothers me more, that Brynn has grandparents that don’t even know she exists or…” I suck in air. “Were you ever going to tell them?”
“Of course.” He’s running his hands through his hair. “I just didn’t want to hear…”
