He shakes his head, still moving. “Her mom and sister are with her.”
“Why aren’t you?” I ask.
“She told me to take a walk,” he mutters. “Apparently my energy was distracting.”
I look at his anxious face and say dryly, “I wonder why.”
He ignores that.
“It just suddenly hit me,” he says, stopping in front of me. “I’m about to be a dad. A dad, Logan. Me.”
I nod slowly. “Yeah. I get it. I went through the same thing when Jess was pregnant. You just have to remember all you have to do is show up. Be there. The rest comes naturally.”
“Oh, fuck off,” he snaps. “You were having a boy. Army veteran. Played sports. Raising a son? That was easy.”
I blink at him. “Easy?”
“Yes,” he insists. “You were built for that. I’m having a girl. A girl, okay? In a world filled with assholes like me.”
I lean back in my chair and fold my arms. I decide not to say that, though I’ll never admit it out loud, finding out we were having boys both times helped me sleep at night. It definitely wasn’t easy. It just felt…easier.
“That kid’s gonna be half Simone,” I say instead. “She’ll know exactly how to deal with assholes like you.”
Darren shoots me a glare like I was supposed to argue with him about his personality.
He may not be one now, but before the accident, Darren was not a nice guy. Not in general. But if you were an attractive woman who liked him? Yeah, you were screwed. He broke so many hearts that Mom eventually banned dates from family events unless you’d made it to an anniversary.
The accident and Simone dumping him for his behavior after, changed him, though. He still gets hit on. But now he knows what he has to lose.
“Why weren’t you picking up your phone anyway?” he asks.
“Jess and I were… busy,” I say.
His brows lift.
“We were talking,” I clarify quickly.
“Oh,” he says.
“She… uh… offered to move out.”
“Shit.” He stops rolling. “I didn’t realize you guys were there yet.”
I shrug. “I didn’t either. But… we can’t really go backwards. So, I guess this is the next logical step.”
“You don’t sound sure,” he says.
I clear my throat. “Let’s focus back on your impending fatherhood.”
He doesn’t smile. “Logan,” he says, his tone turning serious, “you’re the one who told me that if I loved Simone and she loved me, then this-” he gestures to his legs “-this wouldn’t break us. And you were right. Man, you and Jess are the reason we’re here right now.”
I look away. “That’s nice and all,” I mutter, “but I can’t forget what happened.”
“Why not?” he asks.
I turn back to him. “Could you forget if Simone screwed someone else?”
He doesn’t hesitate. “If she did it as revenge for my affair? Then yeah,” he says, a sharp edge of sarcasm in his voice. “I’d call it even.”
