I closed my eyes.
“Come have a brownie,” Claire said.
I obeyed.
The kitchen was a mess—flour and chocolate chips all over the counter, piles of coloring pages and crayons on the table. I sat down and started tidying them purely on dad instincts, stacking the coloring pages and putting the crayons away. Claire was looking in the oven, the scent of brownies rolling out.
“What else did she say?” I asked.
“Mm…that you two were collecting buttons afterward,” she said. “Which—okay. Wow. Hot, good for the two of you, not necessarily somethingIneeded to know.”
“Hey, maybe I just spilled some buttons.”
She gave me a withering glance. “I know you, Garrison Nash. I’ve watched you break enough hearts that it doesn’t surprise me when you’re tearing shirts open like it’s your job.”
“It was an accident.”
Claire closed the oven and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. “So you’re together?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yup.”
She had to a double-take. “Like…actually. Not a fling.”
“Not a fling,” I said, then reached up to rub my jaw. “She’s pregnant.”
Claire’s eyebrows went up.
“She’s keeping it,” I said. “I want her to.”
“That’s fast.”
“It is.”
She turned back to the counter—then back to me. “Wait,” she said. “The school year only started like two months ago. She’s only been here for three.”
“We slept together the night Nell had a nightmare, when I came to pick her up from your place,” I said. “We’ve been dancing around each other ever since.”
Claire checked the brownies again. I think she was just looking for something to do.
Then: “Are you happy?”
“Happier than I’ve ever been,” I said, and it was true.
When Claire turned back around, she had a giant grin on her face. “Then I’m happy for you,” she said. “Brownie?”
“The kids are gonna be mad they didn’t get one first.”
“They’ll get over it.”
She pulled the brownies out and we cut into them earlier than we should have; they were still gooey and steaming hot, melted chocolate chips sticking to our fingers. We sat at the table and ate them like little kids, laughing together.
“Glad you’re happy for me,” I said. “Now I just have to figure out how to tell Nell.”
Claire laughed. “Seriously?”
“Is that funny?”
She shrugged, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Nash…it does seem like a real conundrum. You have to tell your daughter that the woman she loves more than anyone else on this planet is going to be her mom and that she’s getting a baby sibling? Nell is gonnahatethat.”
