Page 11 of York

Not by practice—yet—but by blood.

I couldn’t really wrap my head around it.

I’d been bracing myself for running into Velle in the morning. With his concerned eyes and “I’m here for you if you need to talk.” All well-intentioned, of course, but not what I needed right then. I was trying not to overthink things before the trip to the zoo.

But it wasn’t Velle waiting for me to come down.

It was Huck.

He leaned back against the counter, a mug in his hand, nodding to me as I came down into the kitchen.

“So, it got around, I guess.”

“You didn’t really expect news that big to be kept a secret, did you?”

“Guess not,” I said, beelining for the coffee pot.

Understandably, I hadn’t done much sleeping. My eyes were sandpaper, my mind soup. I was hoping some caffeine would help.

“You had no idea?”

“Nope. It was a one-night stand. I used a condom. I had no reason to assume I had a kid out there.”

Huck sure as fuck had a reputation before he found his woman and settled down into monogamy. If anyone understood a one-night stand, it was him.

“But you do,” he said. “I’m not gonna ask you to get all heartwarming and share your feelings with me.”

“Thank fuck.”

“But I am going to give you a dose of reality.”

“Alright.”

“Doesn’t matter if you meant to have a kid. Doesn’t matter if you didn’t even want a kid. You’ve got one. It’s your job to be there for it now. Financially, but also in a more meaningful way. There’s no excuse for a man to walk away from their kid.”

“Her. Be there for her.”

He nodded at that. “The boys are fun,” he said, being a father of both genders. “Get to be rough and do crazy shit with them. They look to you to teach them how to be good men. But the little girls wrap their tiny hands around your heart and squeeze.”

“Maybe. When you’ve been there from the jump.”

“Nah, trust me. It won’t matter how late you came to the party. Does she know about you?”

“Runa told her I’m a friend. Told me she didn’t want to promise a father if I was going to be a dick.”

“That’s fair. Heard you’re going to the zoo.”

“Yeah. Runa wants to talk. She figures Denali will be distracted by the animals, so we can get a little privacy.”

“She’s, what, five?”

“Around there, yeah.”

“That’s a good age. I get that it might be awkward. Especially because you haven’t even spent much time with the club kids. But try to interact with her, not just her mom.”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Did Runa say why she showed up now?”