“Are you telling me something here?” I ask.
He said those words, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could call anyone dadda. Hell, I don’t know anything about kids, but Luke’s daughter babbles all kinds of crazy shit.
She doesn’t move, her eyes staying connected and focused on mine. She makes a noise in the back of her throat before she nods a couple of times.
“I’m telling you something,” she whispers, her green eyes still wide and her chest quickly rising and falling with her breaths.
I never understood that sayingthe Earth spins on its axisuntil this exact moment, and that’s because my world feels as if it is literally turning on its axis in slow motion and then in the next instant at warp speed.
What the fuck?
FOUR
ELI
My eyes flickbetween Wrenly and the baby in her arms, then back to Wrenly’s as I stand in front of them, completely and totally speechless. I don’t know what to say. A million things start spinning in my head, but words escape me.
I even open my mouth, then snap it closed again. I want to ask her where the fuck she’s been. I want to ask her why she ignored me, and I want to demand to know why she never told me about this child.
This child who is supposed to be mine.
She says he’s mine.
However, I don’t know why she would lie now when she could have been collecting child support for over a year from me. If this was a money grab, she would have done this a long time ago.
Then I start wondering if this is all a lie. Maybe whoever the dad is stopped paying his child support, so now she’s going to come after me. But something niggles in the back of my mind, and that’s the fact that I doubt my shy little wallflower would do that.
Sure, I don’t know her, but the glow that surrounds her is definitely warm, not cold. I don’t get any malicious, manipulative vibes from her at all. And not that I’m some kind of master people reader, but I’ve been around women who want things and try to get them through any means possible enough to know what that feels like.
I open my mouth again to say something, to ask something, when I feel a hand clamp down on my shoulder. Turning my head, I see Daniel standing beside me. I close my mouth, then open it again as I try to speak, but my throat is dry, my hands are clammy, and my whole body feels like a gigantic ice block.
I’m so fucking shocked that I don’t know what to say and do to respond in this situation. I can, without a doubt, say that this has never happened to me before. Nobody has claimed to have my baby.
Thankfully, Daniel is more aware than I am and able to string together some words. Shifting my attention back to Wrenly, who is now wide-eyed, staring at Daniel, I watch her reaction as Daniel speaks. I’d like to know what she is thinking.
“I’m Daniel, and you are?” he asks.
Her tongue slips out, sliding across her bottom lip, and instinctually, I want to suck that now wet lip into my mouth, but I definitely decide against that because I don’t know what the fuck is going on with her—with this situation.
I need some explanations and clarity.
“I’m Wrenly,” she breathes.
Fuck. I want her to say my name just like that, all breathy and shit, when I’m inside of her. Closing my eyes in a slow blink, I internally shake off the thought of fucking her before I open them again.
“And this is?” Daniel asks, reaching out and gently tickling the little boy’s belly.
He giggles, and my eyes snap to him, watching him do that. I’m not sure why, but I feel something hearing that sweet little giggle. It is like a punch to the gut. It’s an amazing fucking sound.
“This is,” Wrenly begins, her eyes connecting with my own before she finishes, “Ryan Nicholas Foster.”
Nicholas.
That’smyfucking middle name.
Click. Click. Click.
That’s how my brain would sound right now, with everything clicking into place. Dadda, Nicholas, and the timing of it all. I mean, she said she was telling me something, but the words didn’t actually compute the way they are right now.
