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The inference that I’d ever think of my own son astroubleset muscles firing in my clenched jaw, and I swallowed the bile rising up at the thought that at less than a year old, this little boy was comfortable around strangers.
“His next bottle is due in half an hour, and he’ll probably need a change. I’ve packed enough supplies to last you two days, then you’ll need to buy more.” Heather backed away two steps, and for the first time, she set her eyes on the baby. “I know we only spent a few days together, but you were sweet to me, Will, and I’m certain this is the right thing. For Seb.”
“For you,” I snapped.
Heather blinked a few times as she rolled her lips again, and then she walked out, closing the door behind her.
I stood staring at the closed door for a few seconds, waiting for the dream to end and for Heather to return, but she didn’t, so I sank into the sofa again, hands tugging at my hair, staring at this child who was now my responsibility.
This was a fucking joke, right?
Sebastian sat snug in his cushy little seat, blowing raspberries and blissfully unaware that his world had just changed forever. That his very life was now in my hands. A man he didn’t know and who had no idea what he was doing. Tentatively, I reached out to Seb the way I might a strange animal, offering the backs of my fingers first, slowly so I wouldn’t scare him.
He squealed and stretched his pudgy little fingers towards me and latched onto my thumb. When his soft, warm skin hit mine, my heart exploded, and I was gone.
5
Abbie
I passed a womanin the hallway outside Will’s loft. She was pretty, if a little pale, and she moved with her eyes downcast, arms wrapped around her body. Not everyone was built for walks of shame, and that’s exactly what this was. I knew where she’d come from—there were no residents here aside from Will, living in the single apartment above his bar.
The fucking irony of me turning up on Will’s doorstep begging for a place to stay while his bed was still warm from the body of another woman.
I almost turned around, but where the hell was I supposed to go? My parents would ask too many questions if I refused to move in with Will. Plus, my closest friends in the world were shacked up with men they loved, and I didn’t fancy being a twenty-four-seven third wheel. Will was my only option, and I’d spent many nights in his bed—usually after I’d had one too many margaritas downstairs and always with him shunted to the couch—so I didn’t think this latest favour was that big a deal. Itdidn’t even occur to me to text first until I’d knocked on his door, and it was already too late.
It swung open almost instantly. Will slumped on the other side, a look of relief on his boyish, sun-tanned face. My stupid stomach flipped, and my neglected lady parts sent up a desperate SOS. I didn’t know many times I’d begged the Universe for the day those blue eyes, that unkempt light brown hair, the long, lithe surfing-is-my-workout muscles, and sexy freaking dimples would stop doing things to me, but today—like every other—was not that day.
“Oh, thank God, you— Ellison.” He straightened and glanced past me down the hallway as if looking for someone. “What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too, Kidd.” I elbowed him aside and pushed my way into the loft, dragging my bags behind me. I had intended to ease into it—I’d practiced a little speech on the way over and everything—but slow and steady really wasn’t my style. “I’m moving in.”
“You—” Will dragged a hand through his hair, scanning my gear as if seeing it for the first time. “You’re what?”
“A pipe burst at my yoga studio and flooded the entire building, including my apartment. I’m homeless.” I grimaced before I could stop myself. “And unemployed until I can find a temporary space to run classes.”
Will blinked at me as if my words didn’t compute. There was no roll of the eyes, no sarcastic quip, none of the sexually repressed flirting-like-we’re-fighting that was the backbone of our relationship.
I moved closer and waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Hello? You feeling okay?”
A wet, gurgling noise sounded on the floor behind me. I spun and my heart skipped at the sight of a tiny smiling baby squishedinto a carrier half-hidden behind the coffee table. “What the f—?”
I carefully lowered the last of my bags to the floor—nice and easy, like there was a poisonous snake coiled up behind me—and turned to Will with wide eyes. “Why do you have ababyin here?”
Will rubbed two open hands over his face, then dragged his feet to the sofa and fell onto it, close enough to the baby to put him right at Will’s feet. I chanced a glance up to the loft but couldn’t tell if there was a woman in the apartment, which was the only explanation I could come up with.
“His name’s Sebastian,” Will replied, “and… Jesus, Abbie. He’s mine.”
My spleen jumped into my throat, though there was no good reason for it. Nobody had just announced thatIhad a kid. I lowered myself to the sofa beside Will. “What do you mean, he’s yours?”
Will huffed out a humourless laugh as he placed his forefinger in the baby’s outstretched hand as if he’d done it a hundred times before, but the look he gave the baby was ironic. “Ten years of sleeping around… You think I’ve got a hundred of these out there?”
“Will, for fuck’s sake. What’s going on?” At his brief, disapproving frown, I rolled my eyes. “I’m sorry but help me out here. What the hell happened?”
“A woman I was with more than a year ago just knocked on my door, handed him over, and walked away.”
“Do you mean the one who was leaving as I arrived?” At Will’s slight nod, a weird kind of anger came over me. I was pissed off not only on his behalf but the baby’s as well. I didn’t care who she was or why she’d done it, but she couldn’t turn up out of nowhere, abandon her son, and leave Will all alone to clean up the mess.
I jumped to my feet and started for the door. “She can’t have gone too far, and someone must have seen where she went. I’ll find her and—”
