Page 14 of Trusting You
“I guess that’s what it takes, huh? A few days of deciding whether or not you want your daughter.”
“Don’t judge him. He didn’t wake up this morning—”
“I’m trying so hard not to, Soph. But you need to see this guy.”
“You think I haven’t looked him up? Of course, I have. He’s up on my laptop right now.”
“Okay, good.” I straighten in my seat, prop my elbows on the table. “So, you understand exactly what I mean.”
“I understand where Lily got those gorgeous eyes. And gorgeous smile. And general gorgeousness.”
I resist the urge to literally go grrr into the phone. “Being good-looking does not equal father material.”
“Of course it doesn’t! I’m only going off what I see, and oh boy, he’s a hot piece of ass.”
“A slob. He’s a slob,” I correct. My free hand is waving around, and I’m really getting into it now. “His entire apartment smelled like sex. It was eight in the morning, and he didn’t have a shirt on, no wait, didn’t even have a towel on—”
“Hold on, you saw him naked?”
“Not the point, Soph.” And it certainly wouldn’t help my case if I told her that yes, he’s gorgeous all over. “And a girl—this girl—stumbles out after him, dressed from last night. He’s not the type to offer breakfast. Just Ubers. And you know what? I don’t think he knew her name.”
“Carter, we’ve established he’s got pretty boy problems.”
It isn’t the time to remind Sophie that I’ve known about his pretty boy luck long before this moment. He was the guy I’d had the biggest crush on during senior year at UF. A crush so big and unrequited that when Paige confessed to sleeping with him on her death bed, I’d felt a yank of jealousy. Such a messed up, fucked up, thing to feel when your friend’s breathing is slowing down in front of you.
I wonder now if Paige deliberately didn’t tell me Locke was the father back then because she knew. That she worried if she told me, I’d become a jealous cone of silence, and she’d be forced to face her pregnancy alone. At the thought, the yank of jealousy turns into a boulder of loss.
All questions I can never, ever ask her.
“Her name, Soph,” I say now. “He had no clue. And I’m looking at him like, this is the guy Lily gets for keeps. Maybe she’s better in foster care.”
“You don’t mean that,” Sophie says gently.
“No. I don’t. I’m just so new at this and have no clue how to operate, and…and it’s not me. Despite my raising her, getting up in the night with her when she was sick and her mom couldn’t, giving her baths, taking her temperature, feeding her, loving her. I’m not enough. They’d rather give her to this…this cockpecker instead.”
She snorts. “I’m sorry the law isn’t on your side, Carter. I truly am. But you are doing everything you can to give this baby the best life.”
“By coming to a foreign, crowded, rude city, and begging a guy who can’t even remember sleeping with Paige to take on his kid.”
“College is an…interesting time,” Sophie says. Cryptically.
I frown into my phone. “What does that mean?”
“It means some of us sleep with a bunch of people because we enjoy experimenting. You wouldn’t judge me for sleeping around. So, let’s not pull the trigger with Lachlan now.”
“You’d at least remember names,” I mumble, then slurp at my cooling coffee.
“Subject change,” Sophie says breezily. “So, you need to stay on a few more days. Got it. No problem.”
“I’ll email work, tell them I’ll be back Monday.” I put a hand to my forehead and lean in. “Thanks for taking care of things.”
“Always. Call me, text me, whenever you want, okay? I’m here holding down the fort.”
“You’re the best,” I say, and we click off.
My phone had blipped with a text when I’d been on the phone, so as I take another sip, I check my notifications.
It’s an unknown number, one I’d…hang on…