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“That doesn’t look good.”
“It’s just… Katie wants to have a baby. We’re trying to get pregnant, but…”
“But no luck so far.” And there very well might not ever be. Twice already, Katie had gone through chemotherapy and radiation to treat different forms of cancer. “You both knew kids might not be possible.”
“We did.” He shrugged. “We do. She still wants them, though.”
“What about adoption?”
“That’s what I suggested, but she wants to keep trying for a while first. I doubt if she’ll give up until they tell us she can’t have kids, you know?”
“And you’re taking that all on yourself, aren’t you?”
He and I were a lot alike in some ways. Too much alike.
“Maybe.” He poured himself a cup of coffee and joined me, giving Oreo a tail tug for good measure. “So…Cadence? How’s that going?”
“Could be better,” I replied. “Could be worse. About to be complicated.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” But I wasn’t ready to tell him or anyone else about the son of a bitch who was trying to fuck with her life.
“Good complicated or bad complicated?”
“Just complicated.”
“Okay.” He took a sip and stared at his cup the same way I was staring at my glass of water. Times like this, it was unnerving how similar we were, even though there were countless differences. This must be another Babcock trait. Now that I thought about it, I recalled a lot of times I’d seen Dad in this same posture. Scary thought.
“For what it’s worth,” Jamie said, “I hope you two are able to uncomplicate things before too much time passes.”
“Why’s that?”
He waited until I looked at him, then he grinned. “I don’t know if it’s all the time you’ve been with her, or if something else has gotten into you, but you’re finally starting to play like I’ve always realized you’re capable of. You’re not beating yourself up constantly. You’re finding your footing. You’re regaining your confidence. So if Cadence Johnson has anything to do with that, I hope it continues for a hell of a long time.”
All at once, Katie came back in with clothes on, the timer on the toaster oven dinged, and Oreo nipped my finger because I had stopped petting him. I sucked in a sharp breath, even though it hadn’t hurt, and thanked the powers that be for saving me the need to respond right away. Because there was no fucking way I could come up with a reasonable response. Not yet.
“Morning,” Katie said, beaming at me. She planted a smack on my cheek and stole Jamie’s mug of coffee since he was busy dealing with taking breakfast out of the oven. “Didn’t expect you up so early.”
“Neither did I,” I admitted.
“Any idea what’s up with Harry?” Jamie asked me as he slid the omelet muffin things onto plates for himself and Katie.
I raised a brow. “Harry? He had big plans. Didn’t come to Koz’s party. Why?”
“What kind of big plans?”
“No clue. Better than strippers. That’s all he said.”
Katie snorted and took a sip.
“Hmm…” Jamie fixed himself another cup of coffee, since Katie didn’t seem inclined to return the one she’d stolen.
“What’s up?” I asked, curiosity stoking my appetite enough that I reached for one of the forks in Jamie’s hand and cut myself a bite.
“Not sure. I had my phone off all night. Woke up to some weird voice mails from him.”
“Weird how?”
