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Noah sighed. “Yeah, but we paid separately, just so you know. You still owe him for the stuff he bought for your kid, too. Well, whoever this kid belongs to, anyway.”
He frowned at me.
“Wait a moment!” I said, jumping from the sofa.
I was too busy playing detective in the clinic. I didn't recognize the woman next to me. If I had, then I would have known back then.
I did know the mom. How the fuck had I not even recognized her? We might not have known each other that long, I thought that she had been a dream, not my reality. The last time I saw her was ten months ago and she looked completely worn out.
It couldn’t be…
But there was really no other explanation. I’d thought the baby was left with me by accident. But, maybe not.
“Dude, what is it?” Martin blurted out after a few minutes of silence where my friends all stared at me like they were waiting for me to share some epiphany. “Did you think of something? And is it relevant to the current issue?”
I turned a glare at one of my best friends. “Of course it’s fuc—” I cut myself, glancing at the baby— “of course it’s relevant. I just figured it out, who the mom is.”
“Wait, really?” Noah said, eyebrows shooting up. He looked down at the things he’d just brought in. “Dude. You better not tell me I bought all this stuff for nothing. I can't take it all home, my wife would kill me.”
I snorted. “Okay, first of all, you are way too afraid of your wife. And second…” I let my voice trail off as I grimaced, for a moment not sure how to explain this to them. These were the guys that knew me best, after all.
“And?” Chad prompted, after a while. “Well, go on, Dan. Don’t leave us in suspense.”
I sighed. “That whole thing…about the kid not being mine…may not be all that right.”
I didn’t look at any of them as I said it. I could practically feel their need to start shouting shit at me, all at the same time so it was just noise and I’d have no way to even hear let alone answer them. But noises from the baby made us all freeze. I realized Noah had the baby asleep in his arms for the first time. No wonder the kid was staying so quiet. I hadn't realized he’d fallen asleep.
“Okay,” Martin hiss-whispered, being the nearest to me. “You have some serious explaining to do.”
I heard him, but I wasn’t really listening to him. Already, I’d turned my mind to more important shit. I needed to find the baby’s mom first thing, right? I’d barely taken more than a glance at her, but while I was sleeping on the sofa, it came to me, like a fucking tidal wave.
“I know who the mom is,” I blurted out. “And, I know exactly where to find her.”
Again, there was a short silence in the room as everyone took that bit of information in, broken only by some slight cooing noises from the baby. Immediately, Noah was rocking him until he quieted down again.
Seeing Noah cradle a child that might possibly be mine, made me feel a little jealous. He had some practice, so he knew what to do. But if I tried to touch the kid, he’d probably just start crying again.
I pushed that out of my mind for the moment, though. Wherever my sudden paternal thoughts had come from, I didn’t have definitive proof the kid was mine. I was pretty sure, but I also knew that I wanted to see Scarlett.
I remembered when I’d left her, how it had felt so difficult, almost harder than the split with Laila before her. But, I’d thought to myself that it would be for the best. I never thought about her getting pregnant, and that was my mistake. I would own up to it, because I was too busy being caught up in the moment.
I had regretted letting her go almost since the moment I decided to, and I wanted to see her.
“I think I’m gonna go find her,” I said, looking up at my friends.
Martin was giving me a look of disbelief. “Dan, are you sure? What if you made a mistake and it’s not even the person you’re thinking?”
I shook my head. “There’s no way I’m wrong about this. I don't think that I’ve ever been more sure of anything in my life.”
I patted my pockets, until I found where I’d left my car keys. Only to freeze again when my eyes fell to the kid. I grimaced, wondering how I could take him all the way to his mom’s. I wasn’t even sure how she’d happened to be in a clinic in my town, when her town wasn’t all that close by.
Martin sighed with impatience, rolling his eyes. “Come one, Dan. Like we would actually leave you alone with a kid when you don’t know the first thing about how to take care of one.”
“We’re going with you,” Noah added, glancing at Chad, waiting for his nod in agreement before he turned back to me. “You’ll have to drive us there, though.”
I shrugged. “Fine.”
I remembered all the stuff Noah and Chad said they’d left in the car. I turned to them with a scowl as they came up behind me.
“Seriously, you two?” I growled. “Did you buy out a whole fuc—effing store?”
Noah just gave me the stink eye. “Just shove everything in the trunk. So, we got a little carried away. Let's go!”
I sighed, pushing some of the stuff in the front to the back. I really did need to be grateful to them, because I had a feeling I was actually going to use all the shit they bought for me. Martin sat up in front, and Chad and Noah sat in the back with the baby in his chair between them.
I started up the car and drove.
Chapter Twelve
Scarlett
I looked around what used to be the hotel lobby, and felt like I could have cried. Dad was long gone, and I was alone.
Finally, I was ready to close it up.
Well, saying I was ready might be a bit of an overstatement. I was closing up, but it was more because I didn’t have much of a choice, than because I wanted to.
After Dad left, I’d tried to hold on, before I realized I couldn’t. The next thing I tried was selling, but that wasn’t any easier. I’d been trying for months, and still nothing.
I couldn’t keep it, though. Not even for my brother’s sake, after Dad had given up on it. He knew all the business side of things, all I ever did was clean and cook and take care of the guests. That was not enough to run the hotel. Not to mention the fact that Dad didn’t leave any money for running the place, like he was silently encouraging me to close up.
Damn you Harry, I thought to myself, using my dad’s name for the first time in a while. This place is supposed to be your fucking responsibility. How could you just throw it away so easily?
I sighed. I’d come to find it was easy for men to let go of things; my brother just up and left, then Dan, and now dad. I needed to survive somehow, and I couldn’t think of anything. It was my fault for giving up on college before I even tried. I could do was go into town and find a job as a waitress or barista or something. Then again, I didn’t have a place to stay in town, and I couldn’t afford to make back and forth trips, especially since Dad had left with the car. And I sure as hell couldn’t take the bus back. I was at a crossroad and didn’t know how to cross it. I didn’t know how to get ahold of Dad, because he’d changed his number almost as soon as he’d left as if he didn’t want any reminder of here, or even worse anything to do with me. My brother wasn’t coming back, as soon as he walked out of the door he hadn’t called left alone left a contact number. He wanted out of this place, everyone wanted out, apart from me.
I was alone.
“Well, whatever,” I muttered to myself, hunching my shoulders. I gave a sarcastic laugh that bordered on sad. “It was fun while it lasted.”
I had all my things packed into a backpack. Just a few clothes, my papers, and some stuff my mom left behind when she passed away that my dad didn’t either take or sell, and the documents for the hotel. It really wasn’t much, considering all of my life was in that backpack.
“It’s not like I even know how to run a hotel,” I kept talking to myself. I’d picked up the habit over the months, and hadn't dropped it. “No money coming in, I don’t even have food. And all the damn bills…”
