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Abbie dropped her hand just as her phone pinged with a message. She picked it up and swiped to unlock the screen.
“So, what did you tell the crew?” I asked, playing with Seb’s little feet as I waited for Abbie to read the text.
“I sent out an SOS and asked anyone who was available to get here ASAP.” Abbie faced the screen out towards me so I could read the replies. “Looks like all the boys can make it. Jess is at work, but she’ll join us later.” Abbie gave me a sympathetic smile. “You ready?”
My stomach rolled uneasily. I knew my mates would be there for me—and Seb—no matter what, but I still wasn’t looking forward to their reactions. They wouldn’t judge me exactly, and I wouldn’t get pity, but there’d be jokes. A nudge and a wink because if single fatherhood were ever going to happen to one of us, of course, it’d happen to me.
That was probably the part that had me dreading the next half-hour. Pretending like it didn’t bother me that I’d lived up—or down—to everyone’s expectations and that nobody was going to be surprised.
10
Will
I was pacing thefloorboards inside The Stop when a knock sounded on the bar’s closed front door. Abbie hurried over but looked back at me before she unlocked and opened it.
“You ready?”
“No?” She hesitated, and I shook my head. “Yeah, I’m ready. Go ahead.”
Abbie heaved open the heavy door, and I stood front and centre with Seb hanging off my chest. My mates filed in, talking among themselves at first, then quickly piled up just inside the doorway as Isaac and Birdie drew up short. Josh and Emily were next, then Logan on his own—Jess would join us later that afternoon—and Luca with Tash last in line.
“What the—” Isaac dragged a hand over his beard, visibly collecting his thoughts. “Is that what I think it is?”
“A baby?” I rubbed my palms nervously over Seb’s cotton-covered thighs. He kicked his legs in reply. “Kind of. Yeah.”
Josh whistled under his breath at the same time Logan frowned and asked, “But where’d he come from?”
“Uh, well, about that…” I ran one hand through my hair and ducked my chin, giving them my best shamefaced grin—the one that said I knew I’d done something naughty but was too cute to pay for it. I’d used the same face a lot over the years—on my mother, teachers, women I didn’t want to see again—but not once had my heart raced as hard or fast as it did now. “Me?”
When nobody moved and she couldn’t get in the door, Abbie elbowed her way through our friends with the brash, no-nonsense confidence she used in situations like this.
“Okay, so now you know. Will’s a daddy. Now get your butts inside and close the door before the whole town finds out.”
Abbie flicked a quick look my way, brushing me with her gaze like she was watching for a reaction todaddy. I tried to give her a standard-issue Will Kidd smoulder in return, but I couldn’t find it. Abbie and I flirted all the time. Innuendo was our love language. But the sexual tension underpinningthatcomment was new… and right now, fucking confusing.
Abbie herded everyone to our usual booth at the back of the pub, and I followed, standing at the open end when I figured out that sitting with a baby attached to my front was too difficult. I tried to catch Abbie’s eye again, but she was talking quietly with Emily, so I gave up and waited for everyone to settle in, then scanned the faces looking up at me instead.
“Everyone, this is Sebastian.” I tugged on Seb’s toes. “Seb, this is… well, everyone.”
Emily reached up and brushed Seb’s cheek. “Hey, little man. Nice to meet you.”
Logan raised his hands to get everyone’s attention, then gave me a pointed look. “What the fuck is going on, Kidd?”
Abbie smacked Logan over the back of the head. “Language, Reeve.”
He glared at her and rubbed his head. “Can you blame us for being confused? What’s going on? How did this happen?”
Josh cleared his throat. “Well, the way it works is when a man and a woman love each other very much, they take off all their clothes and—”
I slapped Josh on the back of the head. “Smart arse.”
He laughed as Emily smacked him disapprovingly on the chest, but she was biting back a smile.
“Do you guys remember a woman named Heather? She travelled through the Bay a little over a year ago.”
At their blank looks, I rolled my eyes and explained how we’d spent a weekend together fifteen months earlier, and I’d never spoken to her again until she appeared at my door only hours ago with Seb and a bag of baby supplies.
Tash looked troubled, and her chin quivered when she asked, “So, she’s gone? She gave you this beautiful little boy and disappeared?”
