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“Man, after what I told you about last night, the last thing I need is shit from you.”
“Oh, come on. You know I’m just messing around. Seriously, Tripp. What happened to your neck? You look like you’ve been strangled.”
“Hazards of liking it rough.” Tripp shrugged.
“It really was from sex? Goddamn!”
He hated that Tripp was lying for him, but he really couldn’t say anything without giving away his issues; and he really didn’t need to add that shit on top of everything else.
“How are you able to walk today, man?” Brendan asked Tripp.
Tripp grinned slowly. “Who said I was the one who got fucked?”
Brendan turned to Jayme. “How are you able to walk today, man?”
“Oh, fuck you.” He snorted.
Brendan laughed evilly and smacked his partner’s shoulder. Will just smiled and shook his head. Will was a quiet guy who usually didn’t join in on the ribbing.
“Jayme, I hear you’re gonna be a daddy. Congrats,” Matt said from where he sat at the table across the aisle.
A round of applause and congrats went through the room much to his chagrin. He gave Matt a death glare. Couldn’t the guy had said something in private, instead of blurting it out to the entire room?
“How’d you find out?” he asked, glancing at Brendan who shook his head to say it wasn’t him.
“Our wives talk shit about you together, remember?” Matt said with a grin.
He rolled his eyes. He forgot about that.
“Do you think you’ll get back with her now that you’re having a kid together?” Phil, Matt’s partner, asked.
He gave him an incredulous look. “No. She still lied to me.”
Did Brendan just blow out a breath like he was relieved? He stared at his friend for a moment, but Brendan seemed oblivious to Jayme watching him.
“Aren’t you like, against having kids?” Matt asked.
He made an annoyed noise in his throat. “I don’t want kids.”
“But now you’re stuck with one.” Matt mused.
“Basically.”
“That sucks, man. I’m sorry.” Matt frowned.
He shrugged. There was nothing he could do about it. He was going to go talk to Mallory after work. His only hope was that the kid wasn’t his. If it was, he’d take responsibility; no matter how much the idea of it actually being his scared the shit out of him.
After work, he went home, got a shower, and got changed before going to Mallory’s. His stomach rolled nervously as he walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Even though it was his old house, he couldn’t just walk in like he used to. Mallory appeared a couple minutes later.
Her eyes widened slightly when she saw him standing there. He hadn’t called before stopping by because he hadn’t gone and gotten a new phone yet, and he didn’t feel like borrowing Tripp’s again.
“Jayme.”
“Hey Mal, can we talk?”
She stepped aside and opened the door wide. “Sure, come in.”
Her dark hair was down and loosely curled as it flowed over her shoulders. She had a little bit of makeup on, and dark pink scrubs. She worked in a doctor’s office as a nurse. Jayme stepped into the house and let her shut the door. She led the way into the kitchen.
“Do you want something to drink?” Mallory asked.
“No. I’m fine, thanks.”
They sat down across from each other at the kitchen table. Mallory waited patiently, knowing he had things to say.
“You know this isn’t something I want, Mallory.”
“I know,” she replied quietly, looking down at her hands where they rested on the table.
“You’re one hundred percent positive that it’s mine?”
Mallory looked up at him sharply. “What are you suggesting?”
“Do I need to ask for a paternity test?”
“You think I cheated on you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think that...”
“I didn’t,” she said firmly. “This is your baby.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
“You’ve never cheated on me?”
“No.”
He nodded slowly. He wanted to believe her. She wasn’t giving him a reason not to. She sounded truthful and sincere. Usually he could tell when someone was lying, it was part of his job, but she wasn’t giving him any indication that she was.
“If you don’t want any part of this, I’ve got no problem raising the baby on my own.”
“You said that’s my kid, right?” he snapped. Mallory nodded. “Then they’re not growing up without their father. This may not have been something I wanted, but I’m not the asshole who walks away.”
A small smile curled Mallory’s lips. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He nodded sharply.
“Do you want to come with me to the doctor’s appointments and stuff?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
Mallory shook her head, her face softening. “I don’t mind.”
“I held Tripp’s six-month old nephew a couple weeks ago.”
Her lips twitched. “How’d that go?”
“About as well as you’d expect from me. I’ve never held a baby in my life. Tripp just plopped this kid down in my lap, and the only thing I could do was hold on, so he didn’t fall. He was squirmy, and I begged Tripp to take him back.”
