“I won’t. Can’t have you driving into the pool,” he said, and got the pleasure of hearing her laugh one more time. He hoped it wasn’t the last time. “Drive safe.”
Then he spun and walked away. He didn’t have a destination other than away, and he didn’t look back when he heard her car door close. Or when she started it, or when he heard the crunch of her tires on the gravel in the dirt road. He didn’t even turn back when she called a goodbye to the family waving as she left.
Once he could no longer hear the small engine of her car accelerating up the road, he threw himself into the work of getting everybody out of the campground so he and Stella could sit on the couch and mope. Well, he’d mope and Stella would sleep because she found moping too boring to watch.
His family gave him a wide berth, letting him work. There was comfort in physical movement, and going through the steps for hooking up campers to trucks and double-checking the RVs were ready for travel. It was so familiar to all of the men in the family that they didn’t really need to talk. They could just do the work.
Saying goodbye as each unit was ready to roll washard. Over and over, he reassured family members he’d let them know as soon as he knew anything. And his mom cried into his T-shirt for a solid three or four minutes before his dad was able to detach her and get her in the passenger seat.
Several hours later, when it was finally just him and Rob and Hannah, his phone buzzed and he pulled it from his pocket. As expected, it was from Siobhan and he caught himself smiling as he swiped to open the message.
We’re home. I got lucky with traffic and Oliver napped a good chunk of the way. Thank you for a wonderful week, and I’ll be in touch as soon as I make the appointment.
Questions started flying through his head. Was Oliver glad to be home, or did he miss being with the Kowalski family at the campground? Had Siobhan been sorry to leave at all? Would she think about him the way he was undoubtedly going to think about her?
Glad you made it home. I’m happy you both had a good time, and I’ll talk to you soon.
After a long moment passed with no response and no dots to indicate she was typing, he locked the phone and slid it back into his pocket.
All he could do now was wait.
Chapter Sixteen
One week later, Siobhan swung Oliver onto her hip before stepping through the glass door Brian held open for them. The humid heat hit hard after the almost two hours they’d spent waiting in the heavily air-conditioned clinic and she knew it was going take forever to get her car to cool off.
Though the actual process hadn’t taken long, several callouts had left them short-staffed, leading to all of the appointments getting backed up. The long wait had been fraught with tension, but they’d both turned down the offer to reschedule. Besides the travel logistics, they needed the results.
Siobhan had spent the last week in a state of emotional turmoil that she wasn’t accustomed to. Anxiety about the paternity test. Fear of the legal consequences if Brian was Oliver’s father, and pre-results empathy for him and the family if he wasn’t. And, the entire time, missing Brian on a level that existed separately from Oliver. She thought about him constantly, and it was wreaking havoc on her sleep.
Now, finally, the swabbing was done. In as little as three days,maybewould becomedefinitively, one way or the other.
Brian shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled at Oliver before looking at Siobhan. “Are you up for somei-c-ec-r-e-a-m?”
It was thoughtful of him to spell it out, giving her the option of saying no without disappointing Oliver, which she appreciated. Not getting ice cream once the idea was put in her son’s head would definitely kick off an impressive meltdown.
She’d had to leave work around lunchtime for this appointment, which hadn’t pleased her boss coming so soon after a short-notice week off, and she’d planned to spend any remaining time in the day to go through the clothes and toys Oliver had outgrown.
“It’s okay if you don’t have time or whatever,” Brian said when she didn’t answer right away. “I just thought it would be a nice treat for him after having to wait in there so long.”
“No, you’re right. I think we’ve all earned a treat.”
Was it a good idea? Probably not. While they were probably going to have to co-parent together, the three of them spending time together wasn’t necessary. And after the sparks and kisses between them at the campground, it wasn’t advisable.
Just know I want to.
The memory of those words, spoken in his low and husky voice, still played on a loop in her mind at the most inconvenient times.
But they had ice cream at a cute little shop Brian found on his phone. Oliver dominated the conversation, talking about daycare and Auntie Robin and a dog he saw that looked like Stella but was kind of mean.
It felt to Siobhan as if they were both deliberately focusing all of their attention on Oliver. There were a fewglances between them, but no lingering. No cheeky grins and no flirtation. They were in the real world now, and in this world, they were now in a waiting game to see if their lives were changed and bound together forever.
Brian walked them back to where she’d parked, which she expected, and he was the one who lifted Oliver into his car seat. She watched him do the buckle, which he did correctly. After bopping his fingertip on Oliver’s nose to make him giggle, he looked at Siobhan over the roof of her car.
“So we’ll talk soon, I guess.”
She nodded, not sure what else there was to say. “Thank you for the ice cream.”
When he walked away, his hands were in his pockets and his shoulders slightly hunched, and she wanted to run after him. He looked like a man who needed a hug, but it wasn’t her place to comfort him. And Oliver was getting impatient in his car seat. She drove home and tried not to think about Brian.
