AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I couldn’t abandon her. “No,” I said, “if the DNA test comes back as conclusively mine, I won’t leave my responsibility to someone else to shoulder.”
Halford shook his head, impressed. “You’re a good guy, Vic. I’m not sure I could make that same decision if I were in your shoes. I mean, kudos to you for being the bigger man, but damn, that’s a big change in your life.”
“You’re telling me,” I murmured, leaning back in my chair. “How do I raise a daughter? A son I could probably figure out but a girl? Hell, I don’t understandgrownwomen on most days, much less try to figure out a little one.”
“What’s the best friend like?” Halford asked.
I thought of Briar and shrugged. “Short.”
“Short? That’s the only thing you noticed?”
“Well, no, she’s blonde, greenish eyes, I guess? Kinda got a hippie thing going on for her. She lives in Berkeley so that tracks. I don’t know, I was too shellshocked to really pay much attention to anything else, besides, I’m not a dog. I’m not going to start eyeing the grieving best friend. That’s just tacky.”
“Might make things easier if you and the best friend could make it work. I’ve seen it happen. She could watch the kid while you’re at work, you could provide for them financially. Maybe it doesn’t have to be romantic but functional for the sake of the kid.”
“That sounds like a recipe for dysfunction,” I returned dryly. “Should I start saving up now for the kid’s future therapy?”
Halford spread his hands in apology. “I’m just saying, modern day problems require modern day solutions, you know? Especially if you’re not ready to settle down.”
“Briar didn’t say anything about wanting to move to San Diego and I’m not moving to Berkeley. I don’t see that as an option.”
“I guess you could sue for sole physical custody or if you don’t want to go that route, you could offer Briar money to sign away rights to the kid.”
“Halford, you’re an idiot. That’s illegal. Also, we’re talking about a child, not a houseplant. The baby lost her mother. I’m not going to take away the only sense of stability she knows by kicking Briar to the curb just because it’s more convenient for me.”
Halford didn’t deny my assessment. “Well, be that as it may, your whole life is about to be turned upside down and nothing is ever going to be the same. You ready for that?”
How could anyone be ready for that kind of change?
I was honest as I answered, “Hell, I don’t have a clue but I guess I’ll have to figure it out.”
2
“Well, kiddo, that went about as well as we could expect,” I said to Victoria as she munched on a cookie. “I mean, there really is no easy way to tell a complete stranger that they impregnated someone two years ago and now they’re a daddy. To be fair, he handled it better than I thought he would.” I smiled at the baby, rubbing noses, adding, “But how could he not? You’re practically the most perfect baby on the planet.”
Victoria gurgled and stuffed more cookie in her mouth.
I wiped at the tears welling in my eyes. The thing was, I was still processing my own grief over losing Jessica that I didn’t exactly know how to deal with the realization that Jessica had put meandVictor as legal guardians.
Why would she do that? She’d barely known the guy and hadn’t seen fit to even tell him that he’d gotten her pregnant. Now I was supposed to find a way to parent Victoria with Victor when Jessica herself hadn’t wanted to?
To be honest, it seemed wrong to be pissed off at a dead person but I wanted to reach into the afterlife and shake some sense into her ghost head.
Becoming a mother hadn’t been part of my overall plan but I’d fully planned to be a kick-ass auntie, which I’d totally been covering until the day Jessica died.
As I told Victor, a drunk driver took her out when she was coming home from work. The doctor said she’d died instantly, so she didn’t suffer but Victoria would never know how awesome her mom had been because some dickwad had decided to slam tequila shots and drive home tanked.
I sniffed back a wash of tears and gently smoothed Victoria’s wild hair. “What was your mama thinking? We don’t know anything about this guy and yet, we’re supposed to just let him be a part of your life? How will he know that you barf when you eat bananas? Or that you’re allergic to strawberries? I’m not down to just hand you over to a complete stranger. Sometimes, I swear, that mama of yours wasn’t thinking straight when she made this decision.”
To be fair, Jessica probably never figured this was a bridge we’d ever cross but life was a bitch sometimes and did things just to spite your best intentions.
I sighed, smoothing the wild riot sticking up on her head. “Well, at least your daddy is good-looking. Your mama always had good taste in men, I will give her that.”
Victor had that military man look —tall, broad-shouldered, trim waist and just enough salt and pepper in his beard to give him a seasoned maturity that was likely to turn most heads. Not that I was looking. I mean, yeah, he wasn’t hard on the eyes but I couldn’t afford to get mixed up with the man I was supposed to co-parent with. What if things ended badly (as most of my relationships did) and then I was forced to be nice for the sake of Victoria? I’m not sure I had that level of emotional maturity to pull something like that off.
Yeah, best to keep my thoughts clean and friendly, only.
I wiped my nose, placed Victoria carefully on the floor and began to finish packing. We didn’t bring much but I was dragging my feet. Was it weird to stay at Victor’s house instead of the motel? He was right in that it wasn’t in the best neighborhood but I hadn’t known jack squat about San Diego when I booked and the pictures on Yelp had seemed far nicer than it actually was.
