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“You can go a little faster, you know,” Abbie mumbled as we approached the first corner. She’d ducked her head a little, and I had a dark tint on the windows, but the back seat earned a few curious looks from nosey pedestrians crossing Main Street. As much as I wanted to fly through the busiest part of town, I stuck to a speed just a little slower than the limit.
I finally flicked on the indicator and pulled onto the next street, and Abbie sighed. I couldfeelher eyes rolling. “At this rate, we’ll be able to drop Seb off at kindergarten before we reach your mother’s place.”
I pressed harder on the accelerator—but only a little.
My mum and her new husband lived in the house I’d grown up in, a small two-bedroom bungalow six blocks back from the ocean. I pulled into the drive and got out of the car without looking directly at the place. I didn’t avoid visiting exactly, but it had been months since I’d dropped by. Mum and Ray came down to The Stop once a week for dinner instead, and I preferred it that way. Even better would have been Mum selling this dump and starting fresh somewhere else, but for reasons that remained a mystery to me, she didn’t look back on our life with my father with the same bitterness I did. Lori Kidd—now Lori Allen—always saw the bright side of things. Always believed in the good in people, even the man she’d chased halfway around the world to marry, only to be left alone with a child at the end of it.
“William!” Mum burst onto the front porch, and my stomach clenched nervously as she skipped down the stairs and ran straight into my arms. I returned her hug even as I winced at my full name. She was the only one who got away with calling me that, and it hit certain buttons delivered in her American accent. The only other person she calledWilliamwas my father, and Icould have done without the reminder that I shared so much as a name with that man.
Mum held me at arm’s length. “What a nice surprise. What are you doing here, honey?”
“I, uh…” My mouth went dry, and the words stuck in my throat, but Abbie rescued me by popping out of the back seat and skirting the car to give Mum a hug.
“Good to see you, Mrs Kidd,” she said.
“Abigail, sweetheart!” The hug Mum gave Abbie looked tighter than the one she’d given me. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Lori?” Mum gave me a sly look. “Unless you want to start calling meMom?”
A couple years ago, Abbie and I made a promise that we’d grow old together—platonically. A kind of insurance policy against infirmary and loneliness so we could have fun now and not worry about who’d be there to put up with us in our old age. The deal also meant I was Abbie’s fake boyfriend at family events, so her parents didn’t give her such a hard time aboutfinding someone. I think I was half-drunk when I agreed to do it, but it hadn’t been so bad. Abbie’s mother thought I was adorable, and it gave me something to annoy Abbie about when I felt like being extra obnoxious. Plus, I kind of got off on being referred to asAbbie’s boyfriend. It had a nice ring to it.
Mum knew all the details of our pact, but no matter how many times I told her there was nothing more to it, she’d always behaved like there was—like she knew something we didn’t. Most people in the Bay did that—looked at me and Abbie like they saw a secret. We didn’t fight it. People would think what they wanted to think and say what they wanted to say—nobody had learned that lesson harder than Abbie—and I didn’t need the constant reminders that Abbie wasn’t interested. She was too smart to let me or sex screw up the good stuff we had. Message received loud and clear. And repeatedly.
So, Mum’s teasing was standard, and I didn’t usually snap at it, but knowing I was about to spring Seb on her made it impossible to think straight.
“I’ve got a kid,” I blurted.
Abbie widened her eyes, then dropped her face into one hand, head shaking.
“You’ve…” Mum glanced into the backseat of the car, squinting at the outline of the baby carrier through the tinted window. “What?”
With the hard part out of the way, I opened the door and unclipped the carrier from its restraints. Seb was sound asleep, thick dark lashes resting on his pink cheeks, and at the sight of him, I was suddenly kind of excited to tell Mum he was mine. As I extracted Seb from the car, Mum gasped, and I turned to see her with her hands covering her mouth. Abbie had her arms around Mum’s shoulders.
“An old… friend… came by this morning,” I began, concerned at the sight of tears welling in my mother’s eyes. I cleared my throat—no way was I about to fucking cry—and ignored the sharp catch when I tried to swallow. “I didn’t know about him before today. Otherwise, I would have told you earlier, but…” I looked to Abbie for reassurance, and she nodded reassuringly. Her honey-brown eyes were glassy with emotion, and I dropped my head back to make more room in my chest. Jesus. I blinked a few times, and when I had my shit together, I turned the carrier to give Mum a better view.
“Mum, this is your grandson, Sebastian.” Seb was sound asleep, but I completed the introductions anyway. “Seb, this is your grandma, Lori.”
Mum reached for him, and I set the heavy carrier on the ground between us. She bent down to get a better look at him, and as I watched my mother drink in the face of her only grandchild, joy brightening her face more and more with eachpassing moment, Abbie came over and looped an arm around my waist. The gesture was warm and familiar and comforting—all the things Abbie was to me—and I took my first full breath since we’d pulled into the driveway.
“You did good, Kidd,” Abbie whispered as we watched a bond bloom between my mother and her grandson.
I slung an arm around Abbie, pulling her against my side so I could press a kiss on her temple. “Thanks, Ellison.”
8
Abbie
Lori led the waydown the centre aisle of the baby supply store, little Sebastian propped happily on her hip. “We’ve got the crib and the stroller—”
“The cot and the pram,” Will mumbled.
“And you’ll need diapers.”
Will scanned the boxes and pulled out two marked with Seb’s age. “They’re called nappies.”
We’d driven out of Valentine Bay and into Scarborough Cove to do the shopping, hoping we could avoid the town snoops for a few more hours. Word of Will’s baby would be on everyone’s lips soon enough, and he still hadn’t had time to wrap his head around it. He also wanted to tell our closest friends before rumours reached them, and he had plans to break the news that afternoon. Afterwards, Will would go to work downstairs at the bar, and I’d stay in the loft with Seb. It made the most sense, and I hadn’t thought twice when I’d volunteered to do it, but as we loaded the shopping trolley with the mountains of stuff Loriinsisted Seb needed, I’d started to think my generosity was more like idiocy. What the hell did I know about taking care of a baby? Nothing. But what did Will know? Just as little, and I wasn’t about to let him struggle with it on his own.
“Does he take a pacifier?” Lori asked.
“A dummy,” Will corrected her absently as he unfolded Heather’s notes and scanned them for the answer. “There’s nothing in here to say either way, so I don’t think so.”
