He wanted to throw up with relief. “So I don’t have to see him until…court? He doesn’t have to come to the hospital, right?”
“No,” Monty said. “He won’t be there. You have a protective order against him.”
“I violated it,” Fallon whispered. “That night. I let him inside my apartment.”
“It’ll hold,” Monty said. “And if he pushes the issue, we’ll file another one.”
Gage reached over and took his hand. “It’ll be okay. I swear. I won’t let him near you or Mango.”
Monty’s lips curved up into a smile. “Mango?”
“It’s our code word for the baby,” Gage said. “To make it easier on him.”
The lawyer’s face softened. “I understand.” He folded his hands under his chin, and his eyes drooped closed for a second. It was odd, but Gage didn’t seem bothered. He continued to stroke over the top of Fallon’s hand until Monty’s eyes opened again. “If you want to consent to the paternity test, you can go to the lab across the street from the fire station. They’ll file the results with the court.”
“But they’ll tell me first, right?” Fallon asked.
“They’ll tell you first.”
Fallon looked over at Gage. “Did it feel like this when you did it?”
“Yeah, my darling. It did. It was hell.”
“Until it wasn’t,” Fallon whispered. “But I’m not going to get that lucky.”
Gage shifted closer, taking Fallon by the chin, and he kissed his jawline softly. “Mango is ours. That’s all that matters, okay? Ours.”
Fallon nodded and let himself fall against Gage. This wasn’t how the day was meant to go. He wasn’t supposed to be the one falling apart. But he guessed that was how life went sometimes. As much as he wanted it to, things wouldn’t always go to plan.
And the fact that they had each other made every tiny bit of difference.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GAGE
They didn’t endup going to the zoo after seeing Monty. Fallon begged to go to the lab to get it over with, so Gage held his hand as the tech drew blood, then took care of all the paperwork. It was different from when he’d done it. He’d sat in a cold room by himself with his dads waiting for him in the parking lot.
They swabbed his cheek so hard it hurt, and he felt the echo of it for days after.
Then he went home to his cold apartment, curled up in his bed, and ignored everyone for days on end.
Fallon’s mood had shifted, and it carried on for the next week, especially after hearing that it could take a month or longer to get the results back. Not that either of them had any doubt about where Mango had come from.
The problem was that they didn’t know what was supposed to come after. When Charlie got the results, Gage had a feeling he’d do something absurd, like try to file for custody. A part of him wished Fallon wanted to marry him because at least they could present a solid, married, stable front to the judge.
But he wasn’t going to push the issue.
Fallon looked like he wanted to pass out when Monty had mentioned it, and Gage had never planned on getting marriedhimself. He’d seen what divorces did to people, and he didn’t need a piece of paper to make him loyal or feel secure.
Fallon was his, no matter what the law said.
But with a baby in the mix…it was different.
He was feeling stressed and needed someone to talk to, and he felt like he’d dumped enough on his dad, so he drove across town to his old neighborhood to see his uncle. It was the middle of the day, so there was almost no traffic, and he was relieved when he saw Bowen’s car in the driveway.
Pressing his ear to the door, he could hear the TV, but not the sounds of his little cousin running around.
It was weird when Lane and Bowen’s house was quiet, but now that Briar was older and in school and in activities, it was happening more and more often. He knocked quickly, then walked in to find his uncle sitting in front of the TV with his leg off and his foot up on the coffee table.
