“Maybe—and hear me out on this one—we did something wrong.”
“I think you might be right.” Alex lifted up the edge of the box to reveal several additional pieces of wood and another bag of screws. “Especially since we didn’t manage to put any of these parts in.”
“Oh, no.” Grace face-palmed. “It’s a good thing we aren’t construction workers.”
“I think this is closer to carpentry—but agreed.”
“This is as similar to carpentry as putting a frozen pizza in the oven is to cooking,” Grace said. “And yet we still couldn’t pull it off. Do we disassemble it and start again?”
“You know, I have a more elegant solution.” Alex pulled out his phone. “Let’s have a furniture store deliver a ready-made crib. One built by professionals.”
“I love that idea,” Grace agreed. They managed to tear apart the monstrous crib and pack it back in the box to be returned.
“At least we got the painting done,” Alex said.
“True.” Grace held up her hand, and they high-fived. “I have ice cream in the fridge, if you’d like to celebrate our dubious accomplishments.”
Alex glanced at her, then sighed. “I think I’d better head home. Thanks for having me over, though.”
“Anytime you want to come and do chores for me, you’re more than welcome,” Grace replied with a smile.
“I’ll be over again soon, then.” With a wink, Alex pushed himself to his feet and gathered his things. Grace walked him to the door, and they said their goodbyes.
With Alex gone, the apartment felt surprisingly empty. Grace got a bowl of ice cream and halfheartedly watched a sitcom from the nineties that she’d already rewatched so many times, it was as familiar as an old blanket. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Alex, though.
They’d just spent a nice evening together. And Alex was keeping his word about showing up.
But Grace still couldn’t trust it. Not really. For all she knew, Alex was only doing this until he got bored or changed his mind, like he had before. And then he’d find a way to remove her and the babies from his life all over again.
Grace couldn’t take that kind of heartbreak, not again, so she kept her heart as closed as she could.
She was almost ready to head to bed when her phone rang. The call was from Patrick Hale. Surprised, Grace answered.
“Grace,” Patrick said. “I know it’s late, so I’ll get straight to the point. You promised some documentation about your time at MatchupNow, and I need that before we can move forward with the lawsuit. When can I expect it?”
“Um…” Grace glanced at the crib in its packaging and the takeout on her table. Even though she wasn’t ready to open her heart, she felt terrible about actively suing Alex while he was helping her out. “I’m working on it, but it might take a while.”
“Remember, this is your case,” Patrick said, sounding impatient. “The sooner you get me that information, the sooner we can move forward. There’s no use wasting time.”
“You’re right,” Grace agreed politely. “It is my case. And I’ll move forward when I’m ready.”
“Be careful,” Patrick warned. “You’re in a precarious situation, Grace. Don’t get soft now.”
“Good night, Patrick.”
Grace hung up and dropped the phone into her lap. She wasn’t sure whether she’d made the right decision by putting him off—but she knew she’d done the best she could. Suing her ex-boss was one thing, but suing the father of her children was something completely different.
Anyway, she could always send Patrick what he was looking for if (or when) Alex turned his back on her again.
When Patrick tried to call her again the following day, Grace ignored his call. Instead, she wrote to Alex and asked how he’d feel about doing some online shopping for nursery decorations the following evening. He replied right away that he was in.
CHAPTER 17
ALEX
Several weeks passed in a blur of baby furniture and takeout dinners. Grace cooked a few times, too, and was quite a good chef. Alex joked about how his cooking might poison them both, and Grace said she’d always enjoyed cooking and was doing more of it now that she had time.
It was all so… normal.
