Page 29 of The Single Father Upstairs

"When did you tell her that?"

"I didn't. She told me." There was more to that story, but as much as I wanted to know it, the need to talk to Indie was gnawing at me. It was like I couldn’t breathe until I knew she was fine with this.

"How do we tell her?"

“We go up together.” He grabbed my hand, and the two of us walked up to this apartment where she was sitting down, scolding her math book.

"You're home." She dropped her pencil and slammed the book closed. Who could blame her. Homework was the worst.

"So did you finally tell him?" she said to me.

"What?” Had I promised her something and forgotten? With my exhaustion so deep, that wouldn’t surprise me.

“Did you tell him I'm gonna be a big sister?"

"How did you know?" I’d barely known for ten minutes.

"I scented it yesterday," she said, looking at me like,How could I not know?

"But I didn't scent it," Stellan said.

"Yeah, because you didn't see him yesterday. I saw him on my way back from school.."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured you knew." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, you're mates. What's the big deal?"

This kid knew far more than I realized, and I kind of wanted to die a little inside. But also, I was glad because it saved me trying to figure out how to start what I had feared would be a very difficult conversation.

“So, does this mean that Marmalade is mine now.”

"Is that what you got out of this?” Stellan shook his head, very visibly amused.

“It’s need-to-know information, Dad. If she's mine, I'm giving her a middle name."

"She has one."

Indie looked up at me. "No way. What is it?"

"Marmalade Mae."

"My middle name idea was better. Peanut Butter."

“We can change it. I don’t think I’ve ever called her full name. It was the name she had been given at the shelter.”

“Marmalade Peanut Butter it is. We're officially a family now… no backsies."

“No backsies.” I held out my pinky, and the two of us pinky promised.

15

STELLAN

Miles stood in front of the mirror, eyeing himself.

He turned and checked out his profile. His bump wasn’t visible, and I doubted any of the tenants would guess unless they sniffed him. They’d done that constantly in the days and weeks after he arrived, but with us being seen together more, they’d stopped. Me glaring at them had helped.

But we planned to announce his pregnancy today, and for those who hadn’t discovered we’d mated, we’d inform them of that too, although I doubted it would be news to anyone.