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Lola looks like she wants the earth to swallow her whole, and she is shooting Sofia daggers with her glare. It’s a little funny.
“Sorry,” Fritz says. “Won’t happen again.”
Then Lola jumps in, looking at Fritz. “It wouldn’t have worked out anyway,” she says. “I once saw an interview where you claimed theNew York Dollswere better thanIggy and the Stooges. I fell out of love with you right then and there.”
Fritz’s jaw slackens with the surprise of her statement, sending both Lola and Sofia into a fit of laughter. “When exactly do you turn eighteen?” he asks with interest.
“And on that note,” Sofia says, ushering Lola out and into the elevator, “Andreas will take you back home now.”
Fritz leaves shortly after, and for the first time since Sofia quasi-moved in, it feels awkward. Without the buffer of Lola and Fritz, she has a hard time so much as looking at me. Something happened while we were out—of that much, I am sure.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
She nods and busies herself with picking up toys off the floor and tidying up the place.
“Sofia, look at me,” I say as I follow her around the room until she stops to face me. “What happened?”
“You had a visitor,” she says.
My brows furrow. I wasn’t expecting anyone. “Who?”
“Emma.” Sofia’s gaze drops from me and lands on her hands, where she squeezes a small stuffed elephant.
“Emma?”
“Yeah. She was in New York when news about Addy broke, and she wanted to see if it was true.”
“Sofia...”
“Do you still love her?” she asks as she forces her eyes on mine.
“No. I haven’t loved her for a long time.”
“She seemed to think she could get you back.”
“She can’t,” I reassure her.
Sofia lets out a long breath and sits on the couch, so I take the spot next to her. “What’s going on through that pretty little head of yours, huh?” I ask with as soothing a tone as I’m capable of.
“Bren, what are we?”
I blink at her. Where is this coming from? Things have been great since we both agreed to the paternity test. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“I thought we were...before you knew about Addy, I thought you wanted to reconnect. I don’t feel that anymore. Granted, I know everything is about Addy now, but I need to know. Is a future together no longer part of what you want?”
“Sofia.” I scratch my jaw. She’s right. We are in limbo. Do I want her back? Fuck, yes. But am I afraid of saying that and then not be able to back out if Addy turns out to be Finn’s? Probably. It might make me an asshole, I know that, but I can’t change how I feel. “Listen,” I say, “we’ve been through the wringer. Let’s take things one step at a time. Once we get the test results and Roger can give a statement to the press, things will calm down. I’ll feel better when you two have your own security sorted. Then we can start to build on this. Okay?”
“That’s a rather vague and politically correct answer that covers all your bases, isn’t it?”
“Sofia, I—”
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Her smile is lopsided. “I understand that if you’re not her dad, you will want nothing to do with us.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“You didn’t have to, Bren.”
She gets up and walks down the hall to Addy’s room. I’ve realized whenever she needs an emotional boost, Sofia likes to be around her daughter, as if merely by looking at her, she has all the answers.
