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Murphy looked down at the little boy that was fast asleep in his arms and said, “Your fucking mother is crazy.”
With that he transferred him over, got on his bike, and rode away.
While he was gone, I dealt with the afterbirth, wrapped it up in a trash bag, and then cleaned up my mess as best as I could while my son slept on the seat cocooned in Murphy’s large shirt.
When I was cleaned up, I took the rest of the time to study my son.
He looked nothing like the asshole who’d helped make him.
He looked like me, and nobody else.
Which made me irrationally fucking happy.
When Bayne Green came back to Paris, Texas—which I knew he would—he would never know what he’d signed away.
But I would.
And I would forever be happy in the knowledge that my son was mine, and nobody else’s.
“You’re the most beautiful thing in the world, Vladimir Alessio Pope.” I paused. “And don’t tell that man that you’re named after him, or he’ll find a reason to be mad at me about it.”
Speaking of the grumpy guy.
He rolled up in his truck ten minutes to the dot from when he left, glared daggers at me as he helped me into his truck, and then didn’t say a single word as he drove me home.
He also didn’t leave until my sister arrived twenty minutes after she was done with work.
The next morning I woke up with my car in its spot, a new tire on not one, but four rims, and a note saying, “Don’t do anything stupid like this ever again. Also, you got a cute kid to rely on you now. Don’t be dumb.”
CHAPTER 7
I don’t like running, wallballs, box jumps, thrusters, burpees and definitely not the assault bike. But I love CrossFit.
-Mavis to Murphy
MAVIS
Two weeks later
I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
My sister was currently at home, throwing up her guts, and there was no way in hell that she could watch Vlad. Then again, with her being sick, I most assuredly didn’t want her near my newborn.
But today, not having a babysitter wasn’t an option.
Not with school so close to being done.
I literally had one clinical left to do and one day left to do it in because I’d used up all the rest of my days having my baby.
I stared at the shop that was housing the man that made my heart go pitter patter and wondered if he’d agree.
I hoped he would, because I was literally out of options.
Options that I trusted, anyway.
Getting out of the van, I rushed toward the front doors, hoping beyond hope that I wouldn’t get soaked.
There was no hope, though.
This year it’d been exceptionally wet.
There was literally rain coming down every single day.
And every single time I got out in it, it was pouring.
Like today.
Like I needed more shit to worry about.
But whatever.
When I arrived under the cover of his shop, he was already waiting for me.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his eyes taking my soaked attire in.
I licked my lips and bit my lip.
“I…” I hesitated. “I need you to watch my son tonight.”
“I’m sorry, but I think that the wind is making me hear things.” He paused. “You need me to do what?”
“You heard me, dammit!” I cried out, waving my hands in the air as if by doing it it would help me not lose my shit. “I’m sorry, okay? I don’t have anyone else. Not anyone that I trust, anyway. I have one more clinical. One! Then I’m done. I need help. I need you.”
He looked like he was about to say no, but then I kept talking.
“You can even take him to the gym with you,” I pleaded. “I won’t complain at all. Just don’t let anyone touch him but you, okay?”
Murphy sighed. “What about my mom?”
“She’s okay,” I promised instantly.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But leave your phone on. I’ve never watched a baby before.”
I jumped up and down in excitement. “It’ll be okay. I promise. The shift is from six tonight to six tomorrow morning. I might even be back before he wakes up for good.”
“Just how many times does he wake up in the night?” he wondered.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him.
• • •
MURPHY
“Just you and me tonight, I guess,” I said to the little baby that hadn’t stopped sleeping since his mother had handed him off to me.
That’d been an hour ago, and now I was driving a goddamn minivan back to Mavis’s place, wondering what in the hell I’d just gotten myself in to.
The kid woke up within an hour of me getting him home, so I fed him and got him changed into a new diaper.
Something in which I’d never done before in my life.
“Okay,” I said as I looked at the kid, the diaper, and then the old one that was still around his body.
