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“Tanner and Miller,” I say, repeating the names I committed to memory.
“With who?”
“I have no idea,” I admit.
“How’d you find out?”
I guess I didn’t think this through because if I answer that question, I’ll have to admit the truth I wasn’t ready to admit to him.
I blow out a breath and skirt around it as best I can. “I told him I got someone pregnant, and he told me I should just pay her off to keep quiet the way he does with the twins.”
“Wait a minute,” he says. “Fuck, I’m half-asleep, and you’re laying all this shit on me.Yougot someone pregnant?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
“Fuck off.” I’m being childish, but I’m not ready to tell him, and it’s a simple turn of phrase that tells him that.
“Do you, uh…need anything? Can I help?”
“I’ve got it under control,” I admit, and for the first time…I feel like I do. My instinct wasn’t to run away. My instinct is to work it out with Des so we can work together to be good parents to the baby we created.
Am I scared? Yes. Will I fake like I’m not for her sake? Abso-fucking-lutely.
To be honest, hearing she’s having our baby is less of a shock than hearing my dad has a secret family.
“With the number of curveballs you throw at us, I swear to God, I’m surprised you didn’t pick up baseball instead of football,” he mutters. “You’ve got it under control?”
“Yes.”
“You,” he repeats, disbelief evident in his tone.
“I said yes,” I repeat, feeling a little tired of being treated like I’m incapable of life because I’m the youngest. “You do realize I turn twenty-nine in two days, don’t you? I’m not a kid anymore. I got this. Now back to the other thing.”
“Right, the twin brothers.” He clears his throat. “Let me see if Grayson or Spencer know anything. You said thirty years ago?”
“Yeah, that’s what he indicated.”
“Hm,” he murmurs. “That would make them about the same age as you.”
“Weird,” I say, not really sure how else to respond to that fact. So he was sleeping around while Mom was pregnant with me? Great. Everything I ever wanted to know about my parents.
“Yeah. I wonder if Mom knows.”
“Want me to ask?”
“That’s up to you,” he says. “If she doesn’t, do you really want to be the one to tell her?”
He makes a good point, but if she does know, maybe she can point us in the right direction to track them down or find out more.
When I head back inside to check on Desiree, I find her asleep in her bed. I stare down at her for a few beats. Her red hair isn’t in the messy bun anymore but makes a halo around her, and I commit the beautiful, peaceful sight in front of me to memory.
It won’t always be peaceful. She’s fiery, and I can see plenty of fireworks in our future. But right now, it is, and I’ll cherish that for as long as I can.
I leave her to rest, and I head back out to the kitchen to grab a drink before I make the call to my mother. I find Addy at the counter holding onto a stack of papers.
“Mind if I help myself to some water?” I ask.
