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Gabe didn’t even try to disguise his delight at getting a rise out of him. “Later, big daddy,” he said, then clicked off.
He couldn’t help but grin, even as he muttered, “Asshole,” before tossing his phone in his bag.
Chapter Thirteen
Olivia
Her parents kissed her cheek, then promised to be by the next day to help her take Sawyer home and get him situated.
“That’s okay,” Olivia said with a weak smile. “I’m not sure when I’m going to be released. I don’t want you guys to have to wait around all day.”
“Yes, it will be such a hardship, taking turns holding our grandson while we wait,” her father deadpanned.
“I just don’t…” she trailed off when she noticed her brother with furrowed brows, scrutinizing her from the chair by the window. Hope had gotten called to the hospital prosthetic lab that she oversaw and left him there to silently judge her.
Olivia pulled her shoulders back and forced a bright smile as she looked at her parents in the doorway. “Don’t get here too early.”
“We won’t, pumpkin.” Her mom’s eyes shone. “Congratulations, he’s beautiful. See you tomorrow.”
The silence was deafening once their parents left. Finally Evan growled, “You wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Language,” she sighed.
Her brother was undeterred. “Spill it, Liv. You forbade me from talking about your baby daddy—said he didn’t want anything to do with the baby. Then you tell me over the Fourth that you got pregnant with a one-night stand whose last name you didn’t know. And now this guy shows up right after you’ve given birth, saying he’s the father and talking to mom and dad about marrying you?”
She bit her bottom lip. Evan wouldn’t believe her if she tried explaining it.
He shook his head. “Seems a little too convenient, if you ask me.”
“He really is Sawyer’s dad, E.”
“So he just gets to show up now that the baby’s here and act like everything’s great? Where the hell was he when you were puking your guts out, or having Popeyes cravings in the middle of the night?” She knew she should have never shared that story with her twin. “Or needed furniture assembled?”
“I know what it looks li—”
“Trust me,” came Maverick’s voice from the door. “I wish I would have been there for all that.” He walked to where Sawyer slept in the bassinet next to her bed and stared at the sleeping boy for a second before looking at Olivia. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The only thing we can do now is move forward and raise our son together.”
Together. His idea of what that looked like seemed to be vastly different than hers.
“We don’t know even know anything about you,” Evan grumbled.
“What do you want to know? I’m the oldest of four boys. Grew up in Boston, earned my degree in aeronautical engineering at MIT. As soon as I graduated, I joined the Navy and flew jets for twenty-three of my twenty-five years with them. My parents are still alive and living in Florida. I have two sons with my ex-wife, who I’m on good terms with. My youngest boy joined the Navy last year straight out of high school, and my oldest goes to Boston U and helped deliver Sawyer today.”
“Yeah, how didthathappen?”
He shrugged. “I’m going with kismet.”
Evan eyed him suspiciously. “Do you work now? Or are you going to rely on Olivia to pad your Navy pension?”
Maverick chuckled quietly, but didn’t seem rattled at the intrusive line of questioning. “I’m the silent partner in several businesses and my investment portfolio meets my needs and then some just fine.”
“Define fine,” her brother challenged.
Finally, it seemed like Maverick’s tolerance meter for Evan was pegged.
With a firm tone and raised brow, he replied, “Olivia and Sawyer will never want for anything, and if Olivia chooses to work, it will be because shewantsto, not because sheneedsto.”
The two men stared at each other in some type of testosterone-filled standoff.
