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I slid crispy bacon onto the plate piled high with pancakes, then swapped the plate for Charlie, and handed over the maple syrup. Jax didn’t eat much of it, spending more time pushing puddles of syrup around his plate than eating as I tried to feed Charlie some banana. Most of the squishy creamy mess ended up smeared around Charlie’s chubby face, but he stared up at me in adoration, and I could feel my heart strings being tugged by his tiny fingers.
“Eat your pancakes, Byrne,” I admonished Jax.
He caught my gaze, then dipped the piece of pancake back to the plate, making a concerted effort to pick up pancake, bacon, and syrup.
“Also, you should get a high chair,” I added.
“We need a lot of stuff,” Jax added. “High chair first though, and other stuff … we need a list of things we need for however long we have Charlie.”
I loved the sound ofwe butfocused on the timeframe instead.
“I wonder how long it will be.”
All Jax could do was shrug.
ChapterNine
Jax
The lock rattledin my hallway, and then, the front door was opened with attitude and the bang of wood on the wall. For a second, terror gripped me. Was this someone coming to take Charlie? Was it Zach? Was it the strange man who’d left him?
Relief flooded me when Leo stalked in, with Reid right behind him, both of them acting like cops and scanning the hallway. I should have known Leo would call Reid; all the Byrne siblings were way too much into each other’s business. I guess I was lucky Lorna was out of town. My only concern was that there was no sign of Leo’s friend, Sean.
“Where’s Sean?”
“Well hello to you too,” Leo snarked. “He’s five minutes behind us. I don’t see blood. Where’s the emergency.” Even as he asked, Charlie took that moment to let out a burbling hiccupping giggle kind of sound in Arlo’s arms.
Leo came to a dead stop, Reid tripping over him.
“The fuck, Turt,” Reid snapped at Leo, then went quiet. The two of them stared at Charlie, then me, at Arlo, and back to Charlie as if it was some crazy tennis match. I swear, if this wasn’t so serious, it would have been comical to watch.
“That’s a baby,” Reid said.
“Ding-ding, ten points to Reid,” I deadpanned and took Charlie from Arlo, cradling him close and pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“With red hair,” Reid added, as his gaze flicked to my hair and the bluster went out of him. “Oh, Jax, you have another baby?” Reid asked, his expression softening.
“He what now?” asked Leo, slow on the uptake about the red-headed similarity. “When?”
“Charlie isn’t Jax’s baby,” Arlo murmured into the silence.
I cleared my throat. “Guys, this is Charlie. And he’s not mine?—”
“He could be,” Leo blurted. “You’re bi, and if you haven’t done a DNA test?—”
I pressed a finger to Leo’s lips to stop him. “He’s not my son because a) I’ve been exclusively with guys for…” I glanced at Arlo. “Well yeah, just guys.” I couldn’t explain that I hadn’t been with anyone for a long time, not since all the feelings I had about Arlo had started to coalesce into this knot of frustration and lust inside me. “And b) there was a note with all kinds of information.”
“Information about what? Does someone want to explain?” Leo asked, and he had that accusing-but-I’m-your-friend tone that I was sure made all the criminals he arrested cry and spill their secrets.
“How about you both sit down,” Arlo answered for me, and I was grateful that he was taking over when I didn’t have usable headspace. “And read this.” He passed them the note.
Reid got there first, with Leo leaning in to read over his shoulder. They were quiet when they finished, Leo swallowing hard, Reid flying directly to anger without passing go.
“Your brother abandoned his baby,” Reid accused with heat.
Arlo eased the letter from Reid’s hand, smoothing it on the counter. “You read the letter. He clearly had his reasons,” he said in an even tone, and I was grateful for the backup.
Reid held up a hand to stop Arlo. “No, this is serious; shit, we need to call the cops.”
