Page 23 of A Bossy Surprise

“But Dad—”

“Your father is just upset. When he calms down he’ll come around. Everything is going to be fine. You’ll continue going to school and when the baby comes, I’ll move down there to help you for a while.”

“What? Really?” I ask.

“Of course.”

“Can you afford that?”

“We will make it work.”

“Yeah,” Sammy says. “I will also come and help you as much as I can and I’m sure Lucas and Kathy will too.”

“I can’t believe you guys…” My tears start up again.

Mom rubs my back. “This is what family is for.”

I’ve always beensqueamish at the sight of blood. So it shocks me that I’m able to keep my breakfast down as I tilt Adam’s head back in an attempt to stem the bleeding that Lucas caused.

I steer him to one of the fold-out chairs in my office and get him to sit.

“Don’t lean forward,” I tell him as I rush to my desk and retrieve tissues.

I shove some into his bloody hand and use the rest to wipe his face and stop more blood from gushing out of his face.

I’m holding the tissues in place when his hand lands on top of mine.

“Thanks. I’ve got it,” he says.

I slip my hand out from under his and I feel a current pass between us as I do.

We sit there for the next 10 minutes. Neither of us saying anything, just breathing.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

He chuckles. “Why? You didn’t punch me?” His deep voice is muffled by the tissues pressed up against his face.

“No, but you got punched because of me.”

“I would argue I got punched because of myself. I was the one who promised to stay away from you.”

“That was a stupid promise to make. I can’t believe guys sometimes. So territorial.”

“Well, Lucas was right to make me make that promise. I mean, look how I treated you after that night.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure a lot of that had to do with that asinine promise.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Anyway, I was apologizing for not telling you about Brady.”

He turns to look at me, and I continue, “You’re right. Regardless of the relationship we had I should’ve told you.”

“Thank you,” he says.

He pulls the wad of tissue from his face andlooks at it. He cringes but the bleeding has stopped.

I reach up and turn his face to me. I inspect his nose and declare, “Luckily, I don’t think it’s broken. You should be fine.”