“Or the quality. Best to leave most of it there. Other than clothing and special toys he might have attachments to. It didn’t seem Maverick talked all that much. You don’t know what he likes to eat or do or anything. This will not be easy.”
“I know. Monica told me. She’s got contacts at social services and I’ll most likely need home visits. Childcare. All those things.”
“Got it on my list,” she said, nodding. He was positive it wasn’t the same type of childcare he’d be looking for.
“I feel as if I’m floundering here. My mind is on that, you, work.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said.
“Hard not to. It’s a lot for me and going to be nuts for you. We barely see each other as it is.”
“And since you might need my help, we might see more of each other. Just in a different light, which isn’t a bad thing either. Chance, I’ll take the rest of the week off and we’ll get through this. I mean it. I can work from home.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“Listen, Chance. This thing we’ve got that I’m not putting a name on… Whatever happens, I wouldn’t leave you hanging with a kid. I mean that. If it helps to hear that and get one thing offyour mind, then believe that. You’re not alone. You might feel it, but you’re not.”
His arms tightened again. His eyes itched. He wasn’t a guy who cried in his life, but those words made the water fill briefly.
28
MIXED EMOTIONS
“What’s going on, Jocelyn?”
She debated a few seconds before she told her mother. She needed to talk to someone she could trust.
“Well, how much time do you have?”
“All the time you need. I saw Chance go into your office, then leave a few minutes later.”
It was hard to avoid those things when her mother’s office was across the hall and she’d gotten up to shut the door.
“We got a surprise visit last night at his place.”
She filled her mother in on what happened.
“Wow. First, how do you feel about him right now? What you two have?”
“I feel good,” she said. “What we have is fun and I enjoy his company. I believe he feels the same way. I’m developing deeper feelings and I can catch glimpses of it from him.”
She hoped but wouldn’t add that part.
“So now about the child. It’s important you’re in a good spot with him. How do you feel about that news?”
“It’s something that happened years before me. It’s not as if he knew and he was pissed he didn’t.”
“I’m glad you’re taking that stance. Did he tell you about that relationship?”
“There wasn’t much to say. He said they dated for about a month. To the best of his knowledge she wasn’t doing drugs, or if she was, he hadn’t seen it, but he works a lot too. Baylee liked to drink; they met at a bar. They just parted ways after a month. No special reason why.”
“That seems to be what he does, right?”
She sighed. “I think that, but he says no. He’s not like that. He’s always working and most women don’t care that he can’t give them undivided attention. He said Baylee wanted to be together all the time when he wasn’t at the firehouse. He couldn’t do that. Even back then he had other jobs.”
What she gathered was Baylee was needy and Chance wasn’t someone to tolerate it.
Or what they had was only sex.
