Nate:Guess who got to meet his niece?
Adrian:Since it wasn’t me, and Roman’s banned, I’m going with…you.
Nate:You’re smarter than you look, Ade. Anyway, here’s a picture of Kateryna with her favorite uncle, Nate.
Roman:You went to the Lion’s event and failed to mention it to any of us?
Adrian:Wait. Did Ben invite you? Did he tell you Kat and Mazzy were going to be there?
Nate:As a good brother, I inquired. When he said they were, I cleared my schedule.
Adrian:Fuck off. If I’d known, I would have shown too.
Roman:Christ, that is a cute kid.
Adrian:Of course you’d think that. She looks exactly like you and Ben.
Nate:I assume you’re going to drop the paternity test issue.
Adrian:I have eyeballs. I can see that’s Ben’s daughter.
Nate:She called me Uncle Nate.
Adrian:Go to hell.
Roman:What did Ben think about that?
Nate:Ben was jealous. He’s still just Benny.
I met Ben’s gaze over the phone. “Are they always like this?”
He huffed. “Worse, usually.”
“They can meet her.” I paused, biting my bottom lip. “I don’t mind her calling them uncle. I was thinking we should tell her you’re her dad sooner rather than later.”
A heavy breath whooshed out of him. “Yeah? You’d be down with that?”
I nodded. “I would. As long as you’re going to stick around—”
“I am,” he said, adamant. “I hope I’ve made that clear.”
“You have, but I have to be sure, Ben. I hope you understand my guard might be up for a while.”
“Completely understand, Mazz. I’m not offended. Keep that guard up as long as you feel you need it. I’m not going anywhere.”
It shouldn’t have been so easy, but that was how things seemed to go with Ben. I trusted he meant it. That he was all in. He wanted to be an active, present dad. This was important to him. And if he ended up letting us down? I’d be surprised, but over the last few years, I’d come to believe I could handle hard things.
This was the right thing for Kateryna. In the end, she was the most important piece of this puzzle. Without her, Ben and I were two strangers who’d met on a plane once upon a time.
With her, we were tied for life.
“Okay, Ben. Let’s make a plan on how to tell her.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ben
AssoonasMazzyand Katty were safely locked in their car and driving home, I stumbled to Roman’s house and rapped on the door. It didn’t matter I was still pissed off at him. Or that he’d royally messed up something monumental—purposely or not.
