I hate that even now, after the last forty-eight hours, she still makes me want to smile.
Am I that easy to fool?
“I’m not really hungry,” I say.
“That’s fine. Um . . .”
“But I do think we should talk.”
“So do I.”
“Is now a good time?”
She nods and turns the timer off before sitting at the kitchen island. Instead of taking the seat next to her like I normally do, I find a spot across from her and lean back against the countertop.
Distance is good for me right now.
For the first few moments, we just stare at each other.
“I think our baby needs to grow up here,” I start.
“But, Mark, you’d be—”
“I’m not staying,” I cut her off. “I’ll be here for the first few months, but after that, I’ll be going back and forth between here and Manhattan.”
“That’s . . . a lot of traveling.”
“I’m not going to sell this house. I’ll need a place to stay when I’m in Wyoming, and this place already has everything I’ll need with the baby.”
“And what? When you’re back, I’ll just drop the baby off and leave?”
He shakes his head.
“I’m not going to argue with you, Sydney. Despite what you were trying to do or what you thought you had to do, I will not let you or our child struggle. I think you should live here until you decide you want to leave.”
“All right,” she says so quickly that I cringe on the inside. She agreed so easily. “And when you are in town, do you want me to leave?”
I hold her gaze, trying to read her. She seems too calm.
“No, not unless you want to.”
She nods once. “Anything else?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, just one.”
Her left brow rises.
“You can submit the paperwork for child support if you feel it’s absolutely necessary, or we can meet with one of my family lawyers to negotiate a monthly allowance for you.”
“That’s all, huh?”
“Sydney, what do you want me to say? I’m in unfamiliar territory here.”
“I want you to say that you trust me when I say I never planned to do anything with that paperwork. You know I only entertained it because I was scared. I was scared, Mark.” She stands from her stool and steps in front of me. “I messed up. I messed up bad. I’m sorry.”
It takes all I have to look away from her.
“Please, don’t end it like this. We can work it out, I know we can.”
