AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through.
“You have a girlfriend or anything, or are you just going that bachelor-for-life route?”
“Oh, yeah, I have a girlfriend. We just got serious. She hints at getting married, but we aren’t really there yet.” She needs to stop totaling her cars and demanding everything from daddy dearest. Her father, Mark, is another story altogether.
“Ah,” he nods and takes a swig of his beer. “Yeah, don’t put yourself in that until you’re absolutely ready. Once it happens, you get kids in the middle, things happen. If you’re not fully committed to another person’s issues and responsibilities, you’ll end up miserable.”
“I guess,” I shrug. Kat is the person I know, and she’s every guy’s dream. There are issues, but she’ll grow out of them, eventually. Not that I’m perfect by any means.
“My daughter has had this boyfriend for the past year. They grew up together and he’s great.” He takes another drink. “It took them twenty years to realize they liked one another and then to admit it. Now he wants something serious, and she doesn’t even see it.”
He takes another drink. “I’ve always known him, but never really got the feeling they were into one another the way they say they are. He asked me for my permission to marry her the other night when he was here.”
Great, some guy she will probably allow Jadon to call his dad when I’m right here trying to get to know him, and she’s running.
This may end up being some kind of court battle I’m not ready to handle. I really need to work my charms with Allie so we don’t have to go that far. Not that I mind a good chase, but it’s different since she’s in a serious relationship and all with this guy.
“I didn’t realize men still ask for permission to marry adult women in this day and age.” It’s not like it’s the 1900s. Women have, you know, brains. Okay, fine, it may be old-fashioned, but I guess it’s respectful. Whatever.
Still, he could have just asked her.
I notice the more Tom drinks, the more honest and open he becomes.
“Well, Ted knows how much I love my family, and he pays a lot of respect. Besides, his dad and I are close, so he just wants to do things the old-fashioned way, I guess. Also, I know how nervous he is about asking her, since it took him twenty years to even ask her out. He won’t propose for a while, anyway.”
“Dad! We’re home,” Allie calls from inside the house. Suddenly, Jadon comes running outside through the sliding glass door and jumps into Tom’s lap. Someday soon, he will be running towards me. We just need to get through the hard part.
“Hey kiddo, did you bring me anything?” Tom looks down at Jadon while holding him steady on his lap.
“No, but mommy took me to the bouncy place and jumped with me on all the tramp-leens and then she let me jump in the ball pit!” He beams up at Tom and Tom engages with him like he’s a kid too.
“Oh, so what you’re telling me is that you’re gonna sleep so great tonight, right?”
“Huh?”
Tom laughs at Jadon’s confusion. Yeah, hyper kid, alright. If he didn’t have my eyes, the energy is proof enough. And the fact he looks exactly like me.
How has Tom not noticed the same eyes?
Allie steps out and jumps at the sight of me and I bite down on my lip to keep from grinning at her surprise.
Can’t run anywhere now, can we?
“Allie, you remember Lucas.”
Her face drains of color and eyes snap from me to Tom and then to Jadon. “Mhm.” She avoids eye contact with him and just watches her son. No, our son.
“Come sit with us. We’re just talking.”
Chapter12
Allie
I hate him. He stayed late, knowing he would try to trap me in my home. What kind of guy in his early twenties wants to be around the girl he didn’t know he impregnated at a party? A girl he never even cared to know her own name before he dumped her out on the street?
It can’t possibly have something to do with Jadon. He is not to be a pawn in whatever this is.
Unless it is genuine, and I’m the one being self-absorbed here. Right, why would he want anything to do with me?
