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Brady leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Colleen couldn't make it out, but whatever it was earned him another swat and made Molly's cheeks flush red.
The backs of her eyes burned, and she leaned down to kiss Tristan's head in case anyone noticed. How many times had she dreamed of this moment, holding her baby in her arms, her adoring husband at her side? She thought her experience with Gregory had killed that dream, but it had only taken a couple of months with JT to bring it fully back to life.
She gave the baby's head a little sniff, breathing in his sweet baby smell and composed herself. She lifted her head, and, as though her thoughts had conjured him, locked eyes with JT. She felt like she was suffocating.
Pasting a smile on her face, she handed the baby over to Molly. "I'm guessing he'll need those parts of yours pretty soon."
Careful not to make eye contact with anyone, she skirted around the crowd and slipped inside the house, relieved to find the downstairs bathroom unoccupied.
"You're seriously thinking about moving here?" Liam was talking to Colleen's friend, Sarah, like she had grown an extra head. "You do realize we don't even have a Starbucks here, much less a Pilates-studio-slash-juice-bar."
"Sounds like you've been bingeing on the Kardashians again," JT said, trying to keep his tone light even though every sense was on high alert. From the moment Sarah had walked up to say hello to him and Liam, he'd forced himself not to look around for Colleen.
"What can I say? I like big butts and I cannot lie."
"That's exactly the reason I'm interested in moving out here. We could use a change of scenery, right?" She squeezed her son's shoulder, and he nodded in agreement.
"Dad?" Liam's son Colin came up with Ellie Tanner's seven-year-old son in tow and tugged at his arm. "Can you come play catch with me and Anthony?"
"Is this your son?" Sarah asked, and JT noticed Aidan was looking at the other boy with interest. She introduced herself and Aidan to Colin and Anthony. "You guys look like you might be around the same age."
The boys nodded.
"Aidan, you like baseball?" Liam asked.
He nodded enthusiastically. "I've played little league the past two seasons."
"Why don't you come play with us, show us what you've got?" The three boys eagerly followed Liam to the far corner of the yard.
As soon as Liam moved, JT wished he hadn't. Because as soon as he did, JT had an unobstructed view of the woman who had his guts twisted up in knots, and left him barely able to eat or sleep. Every night for the past month he lay awake in his too-empty bed, staring at the ceiling while trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing.
Seeing her now was like a punch to the gut. And seeing her holding the baby in her arms made his heart squeeze in his chest.
"How have you been doing?" Sarah asked.
No doubt she'd received an earful from Colleen. "I've been better," he said tightly and lifted his beer to his lips. "How's Colleen?"
"She's been better."
He took no pleasure in that. "I imagine this must be hard on her, after everything that happened."
"Yeah, I think she's taking your breakup pretty hard," Sarah replied bluntly.
He gave a startled shake of his head. "I meant specifically hard for her to be here today, with the baby."
At her look of shock, he said, "She told me about how she and Gregory were trying to have kids, and that she had a miscarriage shortly after she found out he'd been screwing around on her."
Sarah’s eyes widened even further. "She told you about that? She barely talks to anyone about that."
"To be fair, at the time she was trying to convince me that she could never have a relationship. I should have listened to her."
Sarah shook her head. "Even so, for her to share something so painful, she must have felt like she could trust you."
"Apparently not enough," he said ruefully.
Sarah tracked his gaze to where Colleen held the baby.
"But I hate knowing how much she must be hurting."
